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Outlook 2011 Screenshots released (Update)

March 30, 2010 in Apple, Microsoft, News, Product Information by JamesH | View Comments

I have just seen screenshots (courtesy of Boy Genius Report) for the new Outlook 2011 for Office on the Mac. Is everyone ready for proper Exchange Support from a Microsoft product on the Mac?  We’ll see I guess, there always seems to be something that doesn’t quite seem to work the same as Outlook.  Then again as I say to people, if you want Microsoft Office to work the way you’re used to “Get a PC”. 

The current implementation of Exchange Web Services in Snow Leopard is actually pretty good though I am not a fan of the folder layouts in Mac Mail I wonder if Outlook 2011 with use EWS or some to other Microsoft proprietary connector

Office-2011-for-Mac-01

You can see a full gallery of photos here http://www.boygeniusreport.com/nggallery/page-320/album-1/gallery-23/

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OS X 10.6.3 Released (Update)

March 30, 2010 in Apple, Product Information, Software Updates by JamesH | View Comments

OS X 10.6.3 has been put on the Apple Software Update Site. Here is a list of the fixes and updates that Solsis customers running Mac environments may benefit from

  • An issue in which the Finder reports a -36 error when copying directories to a drive formatted as FAT32.
  • An issue in which shadows in PDF of Aperture book are black instead of gray.
  • The reliability of certain third-party USB devices.
  • The Accounts preference pane can now limit login to members of groups hosted by a non-Apple directory service, such as Active Directory.
  • DNS server ordering as specified in Network Preferences and DNS reliability.
  • General reliability for wireless connections.
  • Improvements to 802.1X reliability, including closed network connections , and WPA2.
  • An issue that could cause the system to become unstable or unresponsive when bound to an LDAP server using SSL.
  • An issue in which the 802.1X Login window Profile is in place, but the wireless network is not available, directory authentication over Ethernet will now succeed.
  • An issue that could prevent saving files from Microsoft Office 2008 to an SMB server volume.
  • Issues copying, renaming or deleting files on an SMB server volume.
    clear-text authentication enabling to an SMB file server.
  • Changing the invitation list for a single instance of a recurring event will no longer “un-book” the location of the meeting.
  • An issue in which new invitations on a Microsoft Exchange server might not appear in the Notification pane.
  • Properly showing recurring Microsoft Exchange events which have a set end date.
  • home directory synchronization when the home directory is stored on an SMB file server.
  • properly warning mobile users in an Active Directory domain about upcoming password expiration.

There are many other updates 10.6.3 has a lot of updates in.  I would head on over to here to see the full list of updates.

For Solsis customers reading this please contact the helpdesk on 0845 600 2552 if your concerned or would like assistance.

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Windows Users to Get Browser Choice [Update]

March 1, 2010 in Featured, News, Product Information by JamesH | View Comments

Microsoft have today released their Browser Choice Update forcing users to choose the browser they want installed on their computer. So how does this work and how does it affect you?

Key points

  1. A choice of 12 browsers (7 of which this techie has never heard of)
  2. The browser choice software will be delivered as part of the Windows Update system Microsoft usually uses to distribute security patches.
  3. The choice screen will keep appearing until a user has made a choice. Anyone wanting to stick with IE will be prompted to upgrade to the latest version.
  4. Microsoft said that Windows 7 users who have fixed or “pinned” IE to their taskbar will have it unpinned by the update. Right clicking the icon for any browser will let users pin that program to the taskbar.
  5. It will not pop up in front of those who already run a different default browser, such as Firefox, Safari or Chrome.
  6. Users guaranteed to see it are those that have Internet Explorer (IE) set as their default browser and have taken the option to let Windows automatically download and install updates.

How to handle the Update

Picture of the Browser Choice desktop iconAfter the update is downloaded and you have restarted your computer, you’ll automatically be shown the Browser Choice screen, and you can then select and install the browsers you want to use. (If the Browser Choice screen doesn’t automatically appear when your computer restarts, you can double-click the Browser Choice shortcut on the desktop to select and install web browsers.)

The Browser Choice update doesn’t add or remove any programs from your computer. If you’re using Windows 7 and Internet Explorer is your default browser, the update will unpin the Internet Explorer icon from your taskbar. Internet Explorer will still be available from your Start menu, and you can choose to pin it back on your taskbar. For information on how to pin programs to your taskbar, see Pin a program to the taskbar.

To select and install web browsers using Browser Choice

Follow these steps to use Browser Choice to install one or more browsers to your computer:

  1. Double-click the Browser Choice shortcut on the desktop.
  2. In the Welcome screen, click OK.
  3. In the Select your web browser(s) screen, for each browser you want to install, click Install. Click Tell me more for information about any of the browsers.
  4. Follow any on-screen instructions to install the browser you chose.

Picture of the Browser Choice screen

At Solsis we recommend using Internet Explorer 8, it’s fantastic security features and compatibility with programs such as Outlook Web Access, and Microsoft Office Web Apps is the natural partner for your current network applications

This guide has been replicated in parts from the one on Microsoft’s own website which can be found here. However the part relating to browser recommendation is purely the view of the author

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