Tech Support Scheme For Windows 7 And Windows Vista Revived

Windows XP will breathe its last breath on April 08 2014, when all sorts of official technical support for the operating system will be ended. It was around a year ago, when Microsoft announced that it would cut off all supplies for XP by 2014 summer, and no more patches or security updates would be issued for the platform anymore. However, millions of users across the globe are still heavily dependent on Windows XP, and have not migrated to another platform until now.

Where Microsoft urged Windows XP users to upgrade their computers to Windows 8, most users found the latest operating system released by the tech giant confusing and lagging in applications support. Though Microsoft launched a Windows 8.1 update to meet with all the shortcomings of the modern platform, XP users preferred moving on to Windows 7 and Windows Vista, rather than upgrading to Windows 8.

With the end of technical support for Windows XP, the operating system would become vulnerable to virus attacks and malwares. Many recent threats have made it clear that hackers and malware producers are keen to penetrate the XP ecosystem as soon as the official tech support ends. Consequently, Microsoft has announced that it would offer an added antivirus support for Windows XP until 2015.

Interestingly, Microsoft also revealed that it is planning to add an extra five years of extended technical support to either of its operating systems as enjoyed by Windows XP. This means that Microsoft support for Vista will end by 2017, where Windows 7 users will get the official tech support until 2020.

The tech giant offers both Mainstream and Extended technical support for its operating systems and other products. Where the Mainstream support is offered for a period of five years, the Extended support adds an extra five years of official tech support for the platform. Both the tech support schemes include providing essential software updates, security patches, and hotfixes for the operating system, which ensures that the computer performance is at the optimal level.

Both Windows 7 and Windows Vista were earlier entitled to the Mainstream support only. However, with the recent addition of Extended support for the platforms, Microsoft has made it clear that it actually cares for its user community. It is reported that users feel that the added Microsoft support for Vista and Windows 7 is favorable on their part, and frees them from the fear of a shorter life span.

Steps To Sync Your Msn Email Account With Outlook

The best aspect of using Microsoft Outlook as your primary email application is that you can synchronize it with an MSN email account. MSN or Windows Live Hotmail is indeed one of the most widely used email applications by the users. According to the Outlook tech support technicians, both free and paid MSN users can merge their accounts with Outlook. With such a feature, the users would be able to read all their mails in Outlook and keep from having to juggle between these applications.

If you wish to merge your Hotmail email account with Outlook, you would require downloading an Outlook extension known as Outlook Connector. You can consider the following steps outlined by the Outlook tech support to merge your MSN account with Outlook.

Installing Outlook Extender

• After turning on your system, you need to launch an Internet browser and go to the Microsoft’s Outlook Connector download page. Here, you need to click on the Download option and wait for the message to appear. Once you get the prompt, select the option to open the file instead of saving it and then click Run.
• In most of the cases, you may get a warning message during the download process depending on your browser and operating system. However, you can ignore the message and continue running the application in the system.
• You can complete the installation of the Outlook Connector by following the on-screen instructions.

Syncing Hotmail with Outlook

• Once you have installed the program, you can exit the setup wizard and start Microsoft Outlook. Here, you would get a pop up message that would ask you to configure the Outlook Connector.
• For configuring the setup, you can type in your email address, the password as well as your name. The name field would denote what people would see under the From category. Once you have entered the information, click on OK to complete the setup.
• Now, you need to wait for Outlook to configure and load. Once it loads in the Navigation pane on the left of the window, you would be able to see your Hotmail account. Thus you would be easily able to send and receive your Hotmail messages in the Microsoft Outlook application.

By following theses simple steps, you would be able to sync your MSN mail account with Outlook. For further assistance regarding Outlook, feel free to contact our technical support team.

How To Move Your Contacts From The MS Outlook Client

Microsoft Outlook is a very user-friendly application with many features for storing, updating and transferring your email contacts. Outlook contacts are stored in the Outlook Address Book with specific fields for the address details like email address, phone number, etc. You can update this file from time to time and transfer it to another system or webmail service when needed.

Transferring Outlook Contacts

The Outlook Address Book is stored in the Outlook folders you have in your system. From there, using the Import and Export feature in MS Outlook, you can transfer the files to another system or email client. If you are transferring the files to a new Outlook mail client, then you can use the Outlook Backup program to make this process easier.

The Outlook Backup program is designed to help you transfer all your settings, Outlook files, messages, contacts, etc to the new Outlook mail client. Using this program, you would not have to worry about losing any of your data when you are changing your system or upgrading your email client.

It is also possible to transfer the Outlook contacts and other data to a different webmail service or mail client – if it supports the same data format used in MS Outlook. You would find the Import and Export option in the File menu. Clicking on this option would launch the Import and Export wizard.

Select the Export option there and Comma separated values as the type of files that you want to transfer. From the list of folders shown, you need to select the Outlook Contacts folder. The wizard would now ask you to select the location where you want to store the new file.

Click on the Browse button to provide the storage location for the file and give a file name for newly created file. The wizard would now start copying all the Outlook Contacts in to this file and store in the location mentioned. This would be your Outlook Contacts backup or export file.

You need to copy this file to a disc or USB stick and connect it to your new system. Launch the new mail client or the webmail account that you are using and import this file to it. If the email client or the webmail service indeed supports this data format, it would recognise the Outlook Contacts and would ask you where to save it.

Thus, you would now have all your Outlook contacts in your new email client.

How To Take Control Of Outlook 2013 Add-Ins

Outlook 2013 is the latest version of Microsoft Outlook. Microsoft Outlook is embedded with many features, making it the most preferred application that Microsoft has ever produced. To customize Outlook for a particular situation, Outlook provides some add-ins capable of performing many functions. There is no need to purchase any third party add-ins because an add-in called Outlook Social Connector will be installed when you install Microsoft Outlook in your system. Generally, add-ins work perfectly with Outlook and there are cases where it can cause plenty of problems to the users.

After hearing many complaints from the customers, a new feature has been added in the Outlook 2013 version where it will be possible to manage the add-ins that cause problems. The Outlook will disable the add-in automatically if a particular add-in takes plenty of time to boot. In addition, the Outlook will also inform the users about this with a warning in the notification area.

Disabled Add-ins dialog

Disabled Add-ins dialog in the Outlook helps you to manage the add-ins that causes problems. Outlook will tell the amount of time required by the add-in when the Outlook shows this dialog. For e.g. if the add-in called SaveMessageAsPDF is slow to start and needs 16 added seconds to start, you can click the button called Always enable this add-in. Clicking this button will help the add-in to run in whatever time is required for it to start.

You are still in control of the add-ins, if you do not have 16 seconds to wait for the add-in to start up. To once again view the disabled add-ins dialog, from the backstage view, you need to click the option called File or Manage Add-ins. To make this add-in disabled again, you need to click the button called Disable this add-in. You will always have the freedom to go back to this dialog box and enable this add-in, if you need to enable this special add-in once again.

Add-ins are very useful and will help to get easy access to the various functions offered by the add-ins. Sometimes, these add-ins will be very disturbing and will start eating considerable amount of system resources, which may decrease the functionality of the system. Thus, by taking control of your add-ins, you can easily disable the ones that are causing the problem.

The above said tips for help with Outlook will help you to take control of Outlook 2013 add-ins very easily. For more help with Outlook, contact Outlook the support number.

Sending An Outlook Calendar Entry On Behalf Of Someone Else

Outlook is the most preferred email program used by millions of people for personal as well as for business purposes. In Outlook, it is possible for a user to send a calendar entry on behalf of another one. If this feature is not included, the managers and the company owners need to spend much time on this. With this feature available, you can easily hand over this job to assistants. Well, given below are some easy instructions provided by the Outlook help desk team to send a calendar entry on behalf of another one.

Instructions

First of all, you need to create a delegate and then only you will be able to send a calendar entry on behalf of someone.

How to create a delegate

• Microsoft Outlook should be opened in the computer of the user whom the calendar entry should delegate. 
• Next, from the main window of Outlook, you need to select the option called Tools.
• Then, you need to click the option named Options followed by selecting the tab called Delegates.
• Next, you need to click the button called Add and select the name of the person from the address book whom you wish to delegate the calendar entry. 
• Again, you need to select the button called Add followed by clicking the button called OK.
• Select Editor role and select the button called Ok.

How to send a calendar entry on behalf of another

• Open the Microsoft Outlook application on the person’s computer whom you wish to delegate the calendar entry.
• From the left side of the screen, you need to select the option called Open a Shared Calendar and click the previously delegated calendar entry to open it.
•  Select the date and time of the calendar entry that you are going to create and in the tab called Appointment; you need to enter the Subject and Location. If you desire to add a message, then type it in the text box.
• Next, you need to click the tab called Scheduling and by using the button called Add Others, select the invitees.
• Once the request of the meeting is completed, you need to click the button called Send. Note that it is possible to send only a calendar entry on behalf of someone.

The above said instructions given by the Outlook help desk team will help you to send a calendar entry on behalf of someone else. For further information on this, contact the Outlook support center. 

Setting Up Gmail In Microsoft Outlook 2003

Microsoft Outlook is an email manager program that is widely used by people all over the world for managing their email accounts. One of the best features of Outlook is that you can configure any email account of any email service provider with the program. Here we discuss simple Outlook email setup instructions for setting up a Gmail account with Outlook 2003.

Instructions

• Open the Outlook 2003 program by double clicking on the desktop shortcut icon and then click on the Tools menu found in the menu bar located at the top of the application window. 
• From the drop down menu that appears, click on the Email Accounts tab for viewing further options. 
• From the options that appear in the context menu, click on the one labeled as Add a new email account and then click on the Next button for continuing the with the configuration process. 
• In the window that appears on the screen, look for the option named as IMAP and then put a check mark in the check box found next to it for enabling the IMAP technology for accessing the email and then click on the Next button for moving to the next options. 
• In the page that appears, you will be asked to type in the information about your personal details like your name and also about the login credentials for logging in to the Gmail account. Under the Server Information tab, type in the incoming and outgoing mail server addresses as shown here- imap.gmail.com and smtp.gmail.com respectively.
• Now click on the button labeled as More Settings and then click on the tab named as Outgoing Server. In this section, look for the option labeled as My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication and then put a check mark in the check box found next to it when found. Also remember to click on the radio button labeled as Use same settings as my incoming mail server for using the same settings for incoming mail server. 
• Click on the Advanced tab and look for the option named as This server requires an encrypted connection (SSL) and put a check mark in the check box found next to it. 
• Set the incoming server port number as 993 and the Outgoing server port number as 465. Click on the OK button for saving the changes and then click on the Next button followed by the Finish button for completing the Outlook email setup. 

If you follow the simple instructions given above, you will be able to configure an email account in Microsoft Outlook 2003 with ease.

Procedure To Setup Outlook 2013

Microsoft Outlook, one of the most famous products of the Redmond-based behemoth, is arguably the most popular email application ever. Microsoft Outlook 2013 is the latest version of the email program, with far more advanced features and functionalities. You may want to replace your old Outlook version with this brand new edition. If so, this Outlook setting guide will help you set up Outlook 2013 in your system.

Here are some systematic instructions for setting up email on Outlook 2013 for Windows. While it can also be used for other versions of Outlook, some steps might vary.

Outlook setting instructions for adding a new account

• You need to select the File menu and choose Info
• Then, you can click on the Add Account button.
• Then, you need to choose Manual setup or additional server types
• Then, you can click on the Next button.
• After that, you can choose POP or IMAP.
• Then click on the Next button.

Account Settings

• You can enter your Name as you want it to appear on your outbound email messages.
• Then you need to enter your email address.
• After that, you can enter mail.example.com (for instance) as your Incoming Mail Server. Now the Outgoing Mail Server is the same as your Incoming Mail Server.
• Later on, enter your email address for the User Name.
• You need to type in your email password.

More settings

• After that, click on the More Settings button.
• Then, click on the Outgoing Server tab.
• Next, click the My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication checkbox
• Ensure that it is using the same settings as your incoming mail server.
• Subsequently, click on the Advanced tab.
• If you are using POP3 with SSL, then please enter 995 for your port. If not then leave the port as 110.
• In case you are using POP3, you may choose when messages are to be removed from the server.
• If you are using IMAP with SSL, type in 993 for your port, or else leave it as 143.
• If you are using SMTP with SSL, you can enter 465 for your port. Or else, change it to 26.
• Lastly, click on the OK button.

Completing the Setup

• You need to click on the Next button on the E-mail Accounts window.
• After that, click on the Finish button.
• Finally, Outlook 2013 is now correctly configured to send and receive emails.

So, the Outlook setting instructions mentioned above should have helped you set up Outlook. But if you face some issues regarding the matter, then you can explore Outlook articles on this topic in the official Microsoft website for more details.

Emptying The Recycle Bin In Windows XP OS

Windows XP has been one of the brilliant OS platforms of all time and no operating system has stayed this long as XP. It is very efficient when it comes to performance and millions of users still use XP on their desktops and laptops and they all love its simple interface. It is a fact that many new platforms have been introduced after Windows XP like Vista, Windows 7, 8 and 8.1. Still you would find many users unwilling to upgrade from their Windows XP platform. Microsoft has already decided to end the support offered for XP to focus on its more recent OS platforms.

If you have been using XP for quite a long time, you would definitely know about its basic features and you would know how to find the Recycle bin on your desktop of Windows XP platform. The major function of the Recycle bin is to act just like a trash can and you could leave all unwanted files, folders or documents in it. The items that you normally delete from your XP platform reach the Recycle bin. But you ought to remember that your hard drive space is still used by the deleted files and folders in the Recycle Bin and hence when the files and folders stored reach a particular limit, Windows XP might delete the files and folders automatically from it.

The Windows XP help instructions for emptying your Recycle Bin a very easy process and you could do it in a minute or so.

• You need to first right click on the icon of Recycle Bin.
• You will find the same on the desktop of your XP desktop. Now select the Empty Recycle Bin option.
• Now a confirmation box will appear on your screen and you need to confirm whether it should be deleted or not. Think before confirming the same because you would not be able to retrieve it later.

These are the different steps that you ought to follow for emptying the Recycle bin in Windows XP OS platform. If you want to retrieve any item, right click on the Recycle Bin icon, select Open, and choose the file that you wish to retrieve and select Restore this Item and the file would be back on your computer in the folder from which it was deleted.

If you have any doubts regarding the retrieving of files, you need to contact the Windows XP help and support team for assistance.

Make The Graphical User Interface Cool

The Windows Vista operating system is loaded in terms of visual appeal when compared to its predecessor, Windows XP. The Aero effect allows windows and other screen elements to appear transparent, as if you were staring right through a glass screen. Not everyone would enjoy this effect, but I personally do. Customizing the user interface in Vista is not so hard, but either way I have listed simple steps to change the Aero effect.

How to enable or disable Aero in Windows Vista?

For starters just let your Windows Vista machine start normally. Then log into your personal user account. Luckily one does not need administrative privileges to make this change. Enabling or disabling Aero effect is a matter of personal choice, and this setting can be applied differently by different users on the system. Now right click on a vacant space in your desktop and get the desktop’s context menu out. Do not right lick on folders or program shortcuts. Once the desktop’s context menu appears, select Properties, which is the last option on the list. A new window will open on the screen, which has various settings for Windows Vista’s desktop. Now select the drop-down menu and select the Windows Color and Appearance option. Now you can chose between numerous color schemes that you can apply for your Window’s appearance. The clear glass option is the default color scheme that is used in Windows Vista. Proceed to choose the color scheme that you wish to use. I chose a deep crimson red, but you can change it to any color scheme according to your preference. Now place a check mark in the box labeled Enable Transparency. This option is basically what controls whether you want to enable or disable the Aero effect in the system. A check in the box is an indication that transparency was enabled.

You’ll see a slider marked Transparency. This slider can be used to adjust the level of transparency that you wish to employ for the Aero effect. The more the slider is slid towards the right, the more transparent the window will become. Enable these changes by selecting OK. If you feed dissatisfied with your settings then you can select the Cancel button and leave the settings just as they were.

If you face ay issues while enabling or disabling the Aero effect, refer to the Windows Vista help section for solutions and tips. The Windows Vista help menu is a utility that helps users troubleshoot problems or improve certain aspects of the system without having to rely on professional experts for advice.

Microsoft Adds IMAP Support On Outlook.Com

After a long time, Microsoft has finally brought IMAP support to Outlook.com. IMAP outranks POP, as it provides users instant email sync when using third party clients. However, you can add the Mac Mail account in your Outlook email setup. This new IMAP support is why you get to enjoy the best of both worlds (Microsoft & Apple) in your Outlook email setup. Here are some guidelines for novice users to add Mac Mail.

Setting Mac Mail to use IMAP in Outlook

• If you are employing two-step verification with the Microsoft account, you must access the right URL for this and then create an app password for it. Proceed to the next step in you are not employing the two step verification.
• Start the Add Account wizard after starting the mail app in OS X. To activate this go to File option in the Mail app and then select Add Account in the drop down menu. If this is the first time you are using the Mail app, then this wizard will appear automatically.
• Enter a bogus e-mail address in the address field while leaving the Password field bank, then click on the Continue option.
• Make sure that you type in the account type as IMAP in the incoming mail server settings. Now enter imap-mail.outlook.com as the incoming mail server. Now type in your outlook e-mail address, as well as your password in their respective fields. Remember that you must enter your app password in the Password field in case you are using the two-step verification process. Click on Continue to move to the Outgoing mail server settings window.
• Enter smtp-mail.outlook.com as your outgoing mail server. Check the box to use authentication, then select Continue.
• At the account summary page make sure that you double check every detail that you entered in the mail server settings. The e-mail address of course will appear as a bogus address that you had entered earlier. Make sure that you uncheck the Take account online box before you click on Create.
• Select the account you had just created when the Accounts window appears, which you can find on the left pane. Here replace the fake email address you had given with your actual outlook email address. Once everything is finished save all changes and exit from the Accounts window.
• Once you return to the main Mail menu, click on Mailbox and click on Take All Accounts Online.

In case there are some difficulties contact the Outlook help desk support team for advice on your issues.

About The New Update For Windows OS 8

Microsoft’s decision to launch an update to their new OS has more to do with saving the OS from becoming a complete failure like Windows Vista. Within the first few days of its launch, it became clear that the Windows 8 users are not at all happy with the absence of the Start button from the new OS. Microsoft’s plan to make the user interface in all the versions of the new OS exactly the same – the Metro UI – across multiple platforms like tablets, smart phones, laptops, etc, seems to have backfired.

The new UI makes Windows OS 8 less user-friendly

The Start Menu was there for a reason – to make the process of accessing multiple options in Windows OS simple, involving just two steps. You click on the Start menu and then select the program or option that you were looking for. The absence of the Start menu in the new OS meant that users would have to go through three or four steps to execute simple tasks.

This also meant that there was no Shutdown, Restart or Stand-by buttons – which also were present in the Start Menu in the old Windows versions. Microsoft assumed that users would get used to pressing the power key on their systems whenever they needed to access these functions.

And, of course, for functions like Sleep, Restart, Stand-by, etc, they provided these options. But, with the absence of the Start menu, users had to start going through multiple steps to reach these options. To avoid this, Microsoft advised them to create shortcut icons for accessing such options. Of course, we’d rather have the Start Menu, which had all the shortcuts to the different options present in the systems.

Microsoft brings back the Start button in Windows 8.1

In the beginning, it appeared as if Microsoft had completely forgotten about the Windows Vista failure. Like Windows OS 8, Windows Vista was also a cool OS with a very aesthetically appealing graphical user interface. But, it failed because the cool new UI was not user-friendly.

However, the Vista experience meant that Microsoft was quick to correct its mistakes. The update to the new OS – Windows OS 8.1 – brings back the Start button and makes the new OS a little more user-friendly. Plus, Microsoft is offering the update to the Windows OS 8 users for free. So, update your OS and see the difference for yourself.