The free Microsoft Outlook add-in Important Mail Alert changes this by allowing you to specify exactly when you want to be notified. The program installs itself automatically, and Outlook users find its entry in the Outlook interface after installation. The Ablebits tab displays a single button that displays or hides the add-in configuration screen in Outlook.

The program supports keyword based rules and will look in the mail subject and body for selected phrases. This is the core difference to Outlook’s own rule based system which can only be configured to look for keywords in the subject of the email.

Keyword only rules are somewhat limited on the other hand, as it is not possible to link keywords to senders for instance or integrate the system into Outlook’s own rule based system.

Alerts are then displayed as notifications on the screen and in the program’s alert tab.

A click on the configuration icon opens the list of mail accounts that you want the rules to be valid for.

Lets take a closer look at the benefits the add-in provides. We have already mentioned that it will not only search the messages subject but also the body text and the to field. That’s however not the only improvement over Outlook’s rule based system. Important Email Alert in fact runs completely independent, which means that you will receive alerts even if the message is moved by Outlook’s own rules system.

Important Email Alert besides that is compatible with Microsoft’s Exchange Server, and offers to open mails with a single click in its interface. The add-in is easy to setup and use, even though it would be great to have additional filtering options available.

Outlook users who want to be notified when email subjects, bodies or recipients are mentioned can download and install the Outlook add-on from the developer website.

The add-on is compatible with Outlook 2003, 2007 and Outlook 2010, provided they run on a 32-bit or 64-bit edition of Microsoft Windows. The add-in furthermore requires the Microsoft .Net Framework 2.0 to be installed on the system. (via Nirmal TV)

Whenever I would start Outlook on my computer, it would launch minimized in the Windows taskbar. A left-click on the Outlook icon, which normally should display the window on the desktop, had no effect at all. A right-click and the selection of the task had not effect either. Last but not least, a left-click on the Outlook icon in the system tray area, or a right-click and the selection of Open Outlook did nothing either.

No matter what I did, I could not get the window to show up on my desktop.

After some playing around I discovered a solution to bring back the Microsoft Outlook window. Here is what I did:

Click on the start menu and locate Microsoft Outlook there. Right-click on the program and select Properties from the options. Locate the Run menu and select Maximized from the options. Please note that you need elevated rights to save the change. Windows will automatically display an authorization prompt when you click ok or apply in the menu.

Relaunch Outlook once you have completed the process and clicked on the ok button.

You should now see the Outlook window open in fullscreen on the desktop. This has fixed the issue only partially though. Once you minimize the window you will notice that you cannot open it up again. While you could now close Outlook to start it maximized whenever you need to access the program, you’d probably prefer a permanent fix.

With Outlook displayed in full screen on the Windows, right-click the Windows taskbar and select the Cascade Windows options from the right-click context menu.

Once you have done that, you have fixed your Outlook issue. To check that you can now open Outlook normally again do the following:

• Close all running instances of the messaging client on your system.
• Go to Start > Microsoft Outlook, right-click the entry and select Normal Window under run.
• Start Outlook normally. If the window appears, you have fixed your issue.

Here is a video that walks you through all the necessary steps.

Hope this helps Outlook users who are experiencing the same issue.

Creating a basic signature is actually pretty easy even though the process has changed with every new version of Outlook. You can create a new signature in Outlook 2010 by switching to the Message tab and selecting Signature > Signatures from the Include group there in the ribbon at the top of the program window.

Click on the E-Mail Signature tab there and select New, type a name and click OK. Start entering your signature text under Edit signature and use formatting and styles from the available selection. You can add an electronic business card, hyperlink or picture to the signature optionally. A click on OK saves it in the program.

You can then associate the signature with an e-mail account by selecting Choose default signature in the E-mail account list in the Signatures menu, or insert signatures manually into messages.

Microsoft Outlook Email Signature Creator is a handy tool that allows you to create professionally looking email signatures in a heartbeat.

The program displays a set of forms for you to fill out on start. Here you can add your name and job title, telephone, mobile and Fax, e-mail and web address, street address, footer or terms and a logo or picture.

A click on preview loads the created signature in the default web browser. The Outlook signature generator offers four different color schemes, blue, red, green and black, with the blue scheme selected by default.

You can furthermore change the text size from small to medium or large.

Once you are satisfied with the creation you can create the signature with a click on Create It. Microsoft Outlook Email Signature Creator can either create and install the signature automatically into Outlook, or only create the signature so that it is up to you to integrate it into Microsoft’s messaging software. Users who use a different email software may use the second option to create a signature for their email program.

Windows users can download the program from the official website. The software requires the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0, and is compatible with Outlook 2003, 2007 and 2010 running on all versions of Windows from Windows XP on.

Open Outlook and see what you always see: an interface. Brilliant, now where are the PST files? There are two ways to find them and it is very simple. In Outlook 2010, open the File menu and click Account Settings. In Outlook 2007, click the Tools tab and select Account Settings.

This will open a window with various tabs that help you organize your Outlook content. Click the Data Files tab and you will see your Outlook data files, including PST and OST files. They will be clearly indicated by name. Highlight the PST file listing and then click Open Folder just above the list.

Your PST files are saved in your User Data folder by default and this is the folder location that will open. Simply double click the listing for your PST files and there they are.

Alternatively, you can open your PST files directly from the User Data folder without opening Outlook. Open Windows Explorer and in the address bar, type:

%localappdata%\Microsoft\Outlook\

Press Enter and the folder will open. Once again, simply double click your PST files and they should open. If this leads you to a read-only file that you cannot open, right-click the file and select Properties. Under the security tab, you can make sure that you have allowed all permissions for the user account. The default account is often the SYSTEM user and permissions are restricted.
Click the edit button to define permissions for certain users, select which account you are using and all permissions. Click Apply and restart your system.
At that point, you can try the above steps again and it should work out. If this all seems like too much to bother with, there a applications that will find the PST files for you, but it is just as easy to try this first.

Other troubleshooting issues may be inactive services with Outlook and Windows Live. This can also cause problems accessing PST files. Check to make sure that all services associated with these programs are enabled and active.
Normally, you should not have any trouble retrieving the PST files from Outlook. If you continue to have problems retrieving PST files from outlook, also check for firewall issues.

Still, it does nothing more than that which may not be enough for some users. That’s where MailTriage for Outlook 2010 steps in. The add-is is currently freely available for home and business users. It is not clear if it will remain free or if the developers will start to charge for it.

The add-in is compatible with Microsoft Outlook 2010 and requires the Microsoft .NET Framework 4 to be installed on the system. You can download the Outlook add-in from the developer website. It is supplied as a setup file that you need to execute on your local system. The setup will install the add-in automatically. It requires an Internet connection during installation.

It adds a new conversation view pane to Outlook. This pane, which you see above in action, displays all conversations of the active folder in list view. You see the number of emails, the sender, subject, last received email and size of all emails in the interface. It is possible to sort the columns, for instance by size which can be handy for deleting or archiving large email conversations that are no longer needed.

A status report with a preview of each message is displayed on the right of the conversation view which can provide a quick overview of the conversation.

The add-in comes with a rule manager that offers to create basic or complex custom rules for grouping conversations. A basic example would be to group incoming emails based on a selected keyword. This rule manager is available under the right-click context menu. You can use the context menu to delete email conversations right from the MailTriage view which is usually a lot faster than deleting the emails in the selected Outlook folder.

Outlook 2010 users who are interested in MailTriage can download the add-in free of charge from the developer website. I was not able to get the program running on a 64-bit system. It worked fine on a 32-bit system though.

Update: The MailTriage website is no longer available. The add-in can still be downloaded from third party websites such as Softpedia. It is however very likely that it will eventually stop working as it is no longer being updated.

This article offers a short but handy list of Microsoft Outlook downloads that put the messaging software to the next level. The following seven programs are partially third party tools and partially add-ins. I have added a short description to each listing, a screenshot, a link to a previous review here on Ghacks and a link to the developer website.

Microsoft Outlook Mail Statistics

One area where Outlook could need some improvement is statistics and information. That’s changed by the portable third party tool Outlook Stats View by one of my favorite Windows developers Nirsoft. It basically scans all emails and displays information about all users that emails have been send to or received from. Very handy for a top ten listing of your most important email partners. [homepage]

Outlook Password Recovery

Outlook data is stored in pst files which use a weak encryption. The free Outlook Password Recovery software can retrieve the passwords so that it is possible to access the data if the original password has been forgotten or lost. [homepage]

Microsoft Outlook Temp Cleaner

Email attachments are automatically stored in a temp file by Microsoft Outlook. This can be problematic for a number of reasons, including security, privacy and the notorious can’t create file errors. The temporary files cleaner can be used to delete the files with the click of a button. That’s handy if you do not want to hunt down the folder that is used by Outlook on the system. [homepage]

Microsoft Outlook Email Compression

This is an Outlook add-in that can reduce the size of the Outlook inbox by compressing threads. It basically removes redundant information from the threads. Only really useful if the inbox quota has been set to a very low level in your office. [homepage]

Outlook Blocked Attachment Unlocker

Outlook blocks certain email attachments by default for email security. This includes for instance executable files. Users who do not need those extra security protection in Outlook, for instance if they are running a security software that includes an email scanner. This program can be used to remove the filter from specific file types that are otherwise blocked by the email client. [homepage]

Microsoft Outlook Attachment Extractor

Attachments take up valuable space. One trick to cope with that is to extract attachments from Outlook to free up space. This is again helpful mostly in corporate offices with email quotas, but can be handy on home PCs as well if the hard drive is not to big. You can use this program to extract attachments from Outlook emails. This moves the attachments to one of the computer’s hard drives. It is possible to link to those files in the emails so that no information are lost. [homepage]

Microsoft Outlook Mail Attachment Recovery

It can happen that you delete an email or attachment that you did not want to delete. This program tries to recover previously deleted email attachments. It uses the temporary folder that Outlook uses to store email attachments in. It the attachment is still in the folder it is recoverable. [homepage]

Did I miss a tool? Let me know in the comments.

One of the biggest changes in this new version of Hotmail are additional mouse and keyboard shortcuts. A new menu has been created that appears when a user right-clicks on a message in the inbox. The menu offers a direct link to reply, reply all or forward the selected message. This is in addition to previously supported right-click actions such as delete, move or mark as junk.

Users who like to use keyboard shortcuts whenever possible have now access to a whole new set of shortcuts, taken directly from Microsoft’s desktop messaging client Outlook, as well as the online email services Gmail and Yahoo Mail.

Users of Outlook, and those who switched from Gmail or Yahoo Mail to Hotmail can now use keyboard shortcuts that they are already familiar with. Popular ones include:

Outlook

Gmail, Yahoo Mail

• Delete a message – # – Delete
• Create a new message – C – N
• Send a message – None – Alt+S
• Open a message – O – None
• Print a message – None – P
• Reply to a message – R – R
• Reply all to a message – A – A
• Forward a message – F – F
• Save a draft message – Ctrl+S – Ctrl+S
• Mark a message as junk – ! – None
• Mark a message as read – Shift+I – K
• Mark a message as unread – Shift+U – Shift+K
• Move to a folder – None – D
• Open the next message – J – Ctrl+.
• Open the previous message – K – Ctrl+,
• Close a message – U – Esc
• Search your email messages – / – S
• Select all – * then A
• Deselect all – * then N
• Go to the inbox – G then I – M
• Go to your Drafts folder – G then D
• Go to your Sent folder – G then T

All keyboard shortcuts work at the same time, which means that you can either press the delete key or # to delete a message, or Ctrl-n, c or n to create a new message.

You find all supported keyboard shortcuts here.

Hotmail users can now customize their email messages by setting a default font and personal signature for all email messages. Here is a video that demonstrates the new features.

What’s your take on the new Hotmail features? I really like the new keyboard shortcuts as they tend to speed things up considerably.

Can’t Create file: [filename]. Right-Click the folder you want to create the file in, and then click properties on the shortcut menu to check your permissions for the folder

The only option? To clear the temporary storage space to make room for new attachments. Clearing the cache does not negatively affect the attachments in Outlook, it simply means that Outlook won’t be able to access them from hard drive cache but instead from MIME format directly which might take longer to process.

Outlook Cleanup Tool is a free program for Outlook that can clear the cache automatically or semi-automatically so that the can’t create file error does not pop up anymore in the email client.

Run the program after download to resolve the error. It displays a list of cached files. The information are taken from the Registry. A click on Clean Up clears the temporary cache which in turn resolves the error message.

It needs to be noted that the cache will be filled again by Outlook, and that it may be necessary to run the tool regularly to avoid the can’t create file error message.

The program can be run from the command line. It has a /silent switch which will clean up the cache automatically without user interaction. Handy to use the command in a batch file at log on for instance or log off.

Besides solving the can’t create file errors, it resolves a privacy issue as well, if other users have access to the computer system. Caching attachments as temporary files might give other users access to them in the temp folder, even if the original attachment has been deleted or detached from the email message. Cleaning the temporary data folder removes that possibility.

You can naturally locate and delete the temp folder manually. For that, you need to open the Windows Registry and search for the key OutlookSecureTempFolder.

It should be under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\x.x\Outlook\Security where x.x is the internal version of Outlook.

You can download the portable Outlook Cleanup Tool from the developer website over at Intelliadmin. The program is compatible with all versions of Windows from Windows 2000 on, and all versions of Microsoft Outlook from Outlook XP to the very latest Outlook 2010.

Installation of the Microsoft Outlook add-on should not pose a problem. Users need to make sure that Outlook is closed during installation. The wizard that is displayed after installation can be skipped by clicking next all the time, no personal data needs to be entered.

A new Text Lightning entry is added to Outlook’s toolbar which offers access to the add-in’s features. The add-in furthermore adds a sidebar to the right of the new email message window for quick access to pre-configured texts, images and files.

The main feature of Text Lightning is the ability to create and use text modules. The available text modules can then be added to email messages with a double-click, via individual keyboard shortcuts or drag and drop.

New text modules are added with the shortcut Ctrl-N or a right-click on the sidebar and the selection of Add Quick Text from the context menu. Text can be imported as well either from a file or a folder with multiple files. Supported file formats for single file import are Microsoft Excel xls and Comma-Separated text csv files, for folder import HTML, text and TextLightning files.

The add-in supports both plain text and rich text. One interesting option is the ability to add files to text modules which are then automatically added as attachments.

Another interesting option is product guessing. This basically can be used to configure products that Text Lightning tries to identify in email messages to only display relevant text modules.

Text Lightning can be downloaded from the developer website over at Xequte. The developers are unfortunately not listing compatibility information on the website. The add-in worked flawlessly under Outlook 2010. (via)

The application scans the system for the installed Microsoft Outlook version and display information about it in the interface. This includes the product ID, Outlook version or serial number. All startup parameters are listed in a pulldown menu at the top.

Here it is possible to select one item for the Outlook start. Each item is explained briefly after it has been selected by the user.

The explanations are usually sufficient to understand the meaning of the selected parameter. It is for instance possible to run Outlook without extensions, in Safe Mode which disables additional options, or to run a profile cleanup which removes invalid entries and recreates the default Registry keys where applicable.

Outlook Parameter GUI can also be handy to learn the different Microsoft Outlook startup parameters as it can be used as a reference. Interested users can download the Windows application from the developer’s website.

That’s why several email programs have added features to automatically discover most of the settings, so that the user only needs to enter the email address and password to add an account to the client.

CodeTwo Outlook AutoConfig adds automatic configuration options to Microsoft Office Outlook, Outlook Express, Windows Mail and Windows Live Mail.

To add an email account to one of the supported email programs launch CodeTwo Outlook AutoConfig and enter the email address of the new account and the mail client you want it to be added to (those are auto detected and only selectable if installed). It is furthermore possible to add a display name, which will be shown to contacts when sending emails.

The configuration is only compatible with a set of providers they have added to their database. That’s different to how Thunderbird handles the look up of email servers. The program will inform the user if the email provider is not known, which means that the account has to be configured manually in the email client.

If the email provider is identified correctly, the email account is created. and CodeTwo Outlook AutoConfig can be closed afterwards. The new email account is shown in the selected email program. A prompt is displayed at first account usage to enter the account password. Entering that completes the account setup, which can from that moment on be used just like any other account in Outlook or Windows Mail.

There is one exception to this process. The email program has to have been opened at least once before the account creation. Users who never have opened the email program before need to open it once, ignore all the notifications and close it again, before they can make use of CodeTwo Outlook AutoConfig to add email accounts.

The portable software works well with popular email providers such as Gmail, but not at all with custom hosted solutions. CodeTwo Outlook AutoConfig is compatible with all versions of Microsoft Windows from Windows 98 to the latest and greatest Windows 7.

It is possible to change the file extensions, for instance by zipping the files, to bypass the Outlook attachment filter. Then again, there are other options including the possibility to add blocked file extensions to the whitelist so that they are not blocked by Outlook anymore.

We have discussed those manual options that require editing the Windows Registry in the articles Add File types to the Microsoft Outlook Attachment Manager and Enable blocked file types in Outlook.

Registry editing is on the other hand not the most comfortable option when it comes to unblocking specific file types in Microsoft Outlook.

CodeTwo Attach Unblocker is a Microsoft Outlook add-in that adds a new tab under Options to unblock specific attachment file types.

outlook blocked attachment

The add-in consists of a simple form that can be used to add or remove file extensions in Outlook. File extensions can be added in the form .ext, and appear in the list of unlocked attachments in the program.

All unblocked attachments can from that moment on be saved and opened like all other standard file extensions.

outlook blocked attachments

Blocked attachments cannot be viewed, opened, saved or forwarded. Whitelisting them in the add-in ensures that they become fully accessible in the email client.

blocked attachments

CodeTwo Attach Unblocker is compatible with all the latest Outlook editions released by Microsoft. The program is available for download at the developer website.

Another program that can be used for this purposes is Outlook Tools, which offers far more options than CodeTwo Attach Unblocker.

Users of Microsoft Outlook 2010 may have noticed that the email client is not nearly as flexible when it comes to sending large file attachments. A limit of 20 Megabytes seems to have been hard coded into the email client. The settings do not offer any option to increase or decrease the attachment size limit.

Outlook 2010 users who try to add an attachment exceeding the 20 Megabyte limit receive a notification that “the attachment size exceeds the allowable limit”. That could be a problem if the email provider supports larger attachment sizes. It is obviously possible to split the attachment but this would mean more work both for the sender and recipient as the attachments need to be split, and joined.

outlook 2010 attachment exceeds limit

Most Outlook users do not know that it is possible to change the attachment size limit in the email program. The process requires manual editing of the Windows Registry, and it is recommended to create a system restore point or other form of backup before proceeding (see backup registry for pointers).

Open The Windows Registry editor by pressing Windows-R, typing regedit and the enter key in the end.

Navigate in the left Registry structure to the key

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Outlook\Preferences

Move the mouse to the right window over blank space and right-click there. This opens a context menu, select New > DWORD (32-bit) value from the list.

Name the new value MaximumAttachmentSize. Double-click the new parameter after it has been created and change the default value to another one. The new value has to be entered in Kilobytes. The easiest way to calculate the Kilobyte value is to multiple the Megabyte attachment size that you want, say 30, with 1024. You would in this case change to decimal in the window, and enter 30720 as the new value of the parameter to increase the attachment size limit to 30 Megabytes.

Setting the value to 0 removes the attachment size limit completely, which means that Outlook will try to send emails regardless of their size. Please note that this does not mean that they are accepted by the Internet Provider. (via NirmalTv)

The free software program will automatically scan the PC on startup for an installed version of Microsoft Outlook. The relevant file paths and information are displayed in the first window that is displayed to the user. It is here possible to change the paths (outlook path, roaming Outlook data, local Outlook data and temporary folder to open attachments) if necessary.

The very same menu links to tools like the Outlook inbox repair tool, account settings and the Windows Event Viewer. A Microsoft Update can also be initiated right from that window.

Lastly it is possible to minimize Outlook to the notification area and to configure Outlook to display all emails in plain text.

But that window was just the startup page. Outlook Tools comes with four additional tabs that can be used to configure startup switches, clear the MRU, configure new mail alerts and blocked attachments.

All known Microsoft Outlook startup switches are displayed on the second page. Here it is possible to select one of more than 40 different startup switches. They are all explained on the developer’s homepage and it is probably a good idea to take a look at the descriptions before tinkering with those settings.

Clear MRU will creal the most recently used lists of Outlook. This is an automatic process that can be initiated manually as well. Outlook Tools offer options to clear individual lists from selected profiles easily.

The new mail alerts page can be used to configure the desktop notifications that appear when new emails have been received. The Outlook user can change the interval from seven seconds to another value to better suite the needs of the user. The transparency of the notifications can also be changed on this page.

The last page lists the blocked attachment types in Outlook with the option to enable them individually again.

Outlook Tools is a free software program for Windows that requires the Microsoft .net Framework. It is compatible with the following systems:

Outlook 2000, Outlook 2002/XP, Outlook 2003, Outlook 2007 or Outlook 2010
Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003 Server (+R2), Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 (+R2) or Windows 7

The software program can be downloaded from the developer’s website over at How-To Outlook.

The development team has added several benefits for Outlook 2010 users including:

• Junk filter settings. Your safe sender, blocked sender, and safe recipient lists are synchronized between Outlook and Hotmail.
• Integrated Send/Receive. Send/receive works just as it does for your other Outlook accounts.
• Integrated connection status. The Hotmail account status appears in the Outlook status bar.
• Rule support for secondary accounts. Rules can be applied to your Hotmail account in Outlook, even if it is not your primary Outlook account.
• Sync your drafts. The Outlook Drafts folder synchronizes with the Hotmail Drafts folder.

Windows Live Hotmail email accounts are integrated nicely into the Mail Folders sidebar of Outlook from where they can be accessed like any other email.

Contacts are also accessible right from withing Microsoft Outlook.

Microsoft Office Outlook Hotmail Connector 14 Download

• For Outlook 2003, 2007, 2010 (32-bit): Outlook Hotmail Connector 14.0 for Outlook 2003, 2007 and 2010 32-bit [link]
• For Outlook 2010 (64-bit): Outlook Hotmail Connector 14.0 for Outlook 2010 64-bit [link]

Download the 32-bit or 64-bit edition of the Outlook Hotmail Connector to your computer system. This should save the file OutlookConnector.exe. Double-click the file once it has finished downloading and follow the installation instructions. Make sure Microsoft Office is closed during installation. Users of Outlook Connector 12.1 and later can directly install the new version, everyone else needs to uninstall previous versions of Outlook Connector first before they can make the installation.

Verify Outlook Connector is properly installed

Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007 users:

1. Open Outlook.

2. Click Outlook Hotmail Connector, and then click About Outlook Hotmail Connector.

3. The version appears in the About Outlook Hotmail Connector dialog box. If the version number is equal to or greater than 14.0.4760.1000, you have successfully installed Outlook Hotmail Connector 14.0.

Outlook 2010 users:

1. Open Outlook.

2. Click the File tab.

3. Under Account Information, click the down arrow, and then select your Hotmail account:

4. Click Additional Information, and then click About Outlook Hotmail Connector.

The version number appears in the About Outlook Hotmail Connector dialog box. If the version number is equal to or greater than 14.0.4760.1000, you have successfully installed Outlook Hotmail Connector 14.0.

Update: Downloads do not seem to be available anymore. You can still find the page with instructions here.

The autocomplete list in Outlook is populated automatically whenever new information are added to the Microsoft software. This for instance means that every new email address that is used in Outlook will be added to the autocomplete list.

Outlook on the other hand offers no option to edit the contents of the autocomplete list which can become a nuisance if entries appear in the list that are not needed anymore, should not be shown as suggestions at all or are misspelled or wrong.

NK2Edit has been recently created by one of our favorite developers Nir Sofer. It is the successor of NK2View which provided a similar but limited functionality.

The main changes between those two versions are mentioned in a blog post.

NK2Edit can be used to edit all fields of an NK2 file. The program loads the NK2 file completely opposed to NK2View which manipulated the bytes of the existing file. This decreases the risk of ending up with a corrupted NK2 file.

NK2Edit also provides some unique features for advanced users, including the “Raw Text Edit Mode” which allows you to view and edit the records of NK2 file as a text file that looks like the .ini files of Windows. NK2Edit also allows you to write simple scripts that add, remove or modify records in the NK2 file.

The second change is a new license for NK2Edit. The program is still free for use for personal usage but not for companies. Companies need a license before they can use the program.

NK2Edit can be downloaded from the Nirsoft website. It is a portable software program compatible with most Microsoft Windows operating systems.

But that process is rather complicated and time consuming. BCC This is a plugin for Microsoft Outlook that offers an ingenious way of personalizing email messages that are send out to multiple recipients.

The Outlook plugin basically allows a user to add custom text to selected recipients. The plugin is in no way as sophisticated as the Thunderbird add-ons mentioned above but it can be used to add textual information that only some recipients will receive.

It would have been nice if BCC This allowed to add messages to different recipients but this is as of now not possible. The add-on is therefor unsuitable for mass mailings but ideal for conversations in a work environment with only a few recipients.

BCC This adds a toolbar at the bottom of the message writing window in Outlook. This toolbar can be minimized whenever it is not needed to save screen estate. Recipients can read the email messages normally while BCC This offers the means to view the messages how they have been send out on the sender’s system.

BCC This is currently offered as a free beta version not only for Outlook but also for Twitter and Blackberries. No compatibility information are given on the developer’s website.

Error messages such as “Object was not found”, “The operation failed. An object could not be found” or ” Can’t open this item. The object could not be found” are often displayed when the user tries to remove them from Outlook. That leaves the Outlook user with no other option than to create a new Outlook profile which will mean that all settings, accounts and other information and personal preferences will not be carried over.

CodeTwo PST Ghostbuster is a portable program to resolve issues with duplicate pst files in Microsoft Outlook. The program can be used to automatically remove duplicate pst files from a Microsoft Outlook profile. The program displays a pulldown menu and a text form in its interface. The first menu can be used to select the affected Outlook profile while the text form can be used to enter the name of the folder that is appearing several times in the email client.

A click on the check button will scan the Outlook profile for duplicate pst files. A duplicate entry was found and can be cleaned if the message “Invalid sections that should be removed were found” is displayed to the user. Clicking on the repair button will then resolve the issue so that the duplicate pst file is removed from Microsoft Outlook.

PST Ghostbuster can be downloaded from the developer’s website. It is compatible with Microsoft Outlook 98 to Outlook 2007 and Windows 2000 to Windows 7.

OutSync is an add-on for Microsoft Outlook that can semi-automate that process, at least for the contacts that are also Facebook friends of the user running the add-on. The idea is simple. Check Facebook to see if Outlook contacts are friends of the user in the social network website. If they are check if they have added a profile photo to their Facebook account. Copy that profile photo over to Outlook to add it as the account photo in the email software.

The process to sync Facebook photos with Outlook Contacts is a four step process. It begins by downloading OutSync from the developer’s website. The first startup may take between one and two minutes. The computer user then needs to perform a Facebook login from within OutSync and wait until the program has matched all the contact information. It is here possible to uncheck contacts from being synced which might make sense if a photo is already assigned to them. Pressing the sync button will update the selected Outlook contacts with the information found at Facebook.

The main benefit of OutSync is for Windows Mobile users. Updated contacts are automatically synced with Windows Mobile devices by Exchange server or ActiveSync. Thus new and fun photos appear during calls and other places where contacts are used.

Outsync is compatible with Outlook 2003 or Outlook 2007 running on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 or Windows Server.

The add-in is compatible with Microsoft Outlook 2007 and will install a new toolbar into the application after installation. It will also install various runtimes that are needed to run the Outlook add-in.

The options to export the data from Microsoft Outlook is then available from the new toolbar. It is here possible to export Outlook emails, notes, appointments, contacts or tasks into the following formats: MSG, unicode MSG, RTF, TXT, CSV, ICS, vCard, HTML, XML

The user can either select an Outlook folder or single items for the export of the data. Outlook Data Export can be downloaded from the program’s page over at the Codeplex website. It is only compatible with Microsoft Office 2007.