bruceb news

I’m going to show you an app for Android phones and tablets that is not for everybody – but a few of you will like it quite a lot, and it might give the rest of you something to think about.

The prerequisites:

EXCHANGE It’s increasingly common for small business employees to have an Exchange mailbox, either hosted online by Microsoft Online Services or running at the business on Small Business Server. This tip doesn’t apply if you have a Gmail account or a POP3 account from your ISP.

ANDROID Most people get Android smartphones in Sonoma County, since Verizon’s coverage is better than AT&T or Sprint up here. […] continued

Previously:
The Future Of Small Office Technology
History Lesson, Part 1: Small Business Server
History Lesson, Part 2: Windows Home Server
Looking Forward: Small Business Server 2011 Standard

I have a long article for you about an exciting new platform for small businesses scheduled for release in six months. Take your time and read this over the holiday weekend, but don’t get lazy and decide you can skip this one – there will be a test when class meets again. Happy Thanksgiving!

Small Business Server 2011 Essentials will be marketed as a “first server” for small businesses with fewer than 25 users. […] continued

Previously:
The Future Of Small Office Technology
History Lesson, Part 1: Small Business Server
History Lesson, Part 2: Windows Home Server

Let’s see if we can keep the big picture in mind while we look at the specific features of Microsoft’s servers for small businesses, starting with Small Business Server 2011 Standard, scheduled to be released in December as the replacement for Small Business Server 2003 and 2008.

At first glance, the various products for small businesses look quite different from each other. It’s worth noting that all these products start from the same rock-solid code base. Microsoft’s operating systems have more in common than you think. […] continued

One of the most powerful tools you can add to Outlook is a search folder that allows you to search through all of your messages with a single click. I wrote about Michael Linenberger’s suggestion to create an All Mail Search Folder a few months ago. If you haven’t set it up yet, try it now! If you have the search folder set up, it may need to be updated if you rearranged your mail folders as I suggested last week.

The idea is to create a Search Folder that displays all your mail, from all folders and all dates, in one folder, sorted by date. […] continued

Previously: Understanding Outlook Slowdowns

If you were following along, you know that Outlook mailboxes run by Exchange Server can slow down if there are too many items in “core folders” – Inbox, Sent Items, Deleted Items, Contacts, and Calendar.

Separately, Outlook performance will suffer if the overall size of the mailbox grows above certain limits.

We’ll address those here, but it’s worth noting that these are certainly not the only reasons that Outlook might stutter or slow down. There are any number of other things that might interfere: slow network connections, overloaded Exchange Servers, misbehaving third-party Outlook plug-ins, famine, pestilence, phases of the moon – all things considered it’s amazing that Outlook works at all. […] continued

These are important guidelines for Outlook users with mailboxes run by Exchange Server. I will be discussing this with my clients that have busy mailboxes!

Outlook has five folders that are considered “core folders” or “critical path folders.” You will experience poor performance if there are too many items in those core folders. Outlook will slow down and you will start to see these messages:

• Requesting data from Microsoft Exchange Server
• Outlook is retrieving data from the Microsoft Exchange Server ExchangeServerName

If your mailbox is run by Exchange Server 2007, it is important that the number of items in the core folders be kept below these thresholds:

• Inbox: 20,000 items
• Sent items: 20,000 items
• Deleted items: 20,000 items
• Calendar: 5,000 items
• Contacts: 5,000 items

If your mailbox is run by Exchange Server 2003, you will start to see poor performance if there are more than 3,500-5,000 items in any of the core folders. […] continued

The good news is that Microsoft has released Windows Live Essentials 2011, an updated collection of free programs that are well designed and useful additions to Vista and Windows 7.

The bad news is that you almost certainly don’t want all of them, and Microsoft has released them in a way that makes it more likely that you’ll install them all by accident, with some side effects that you won’t like.

The programs included in Windows Live Essentials 2011 have been shifting for the last couple of years – programs have been added and dropped, features have appeared and disappeared, and names have changed around endlessly. […] continued

Previously:
Fear of Exchange
Moving Mail Online With Microsoft Online Services

Small businesses should strongly consider having their Outlook mailboxes hosted on Exchange Servers run by Microsoft for a small monthly fee. I’m going to recommend this to a number of my clients and I encourage anyone interested to contact me to talk it through. I’d like anyone in a business with 2-20 employees to read this carefully!

For businesses currently running Exchange in an onsite server (usually as part of Small Business Server), the move to hosted services does not significantly change the experience of using Outlook. If, however, the onsite server is getting old, moving the mail to a hosted service avoids the risk of an expensive collapse if the Exchange database is corrupted or the server goes down, and reduces the cost of upkeep – no more Exchange security updates and upgrades. […] continued

I’m strongly urging my clients running Small Business Server to move their mailboxes to online hosted Exchange servers. I’ll give you a bit of background and tell you an anecdote to explain why Exchange frightens me, then tell you more about Microsoft Online Services next week.

Microsoft released the first version of Small Business Server in 2000. It was updated in 2003 and 2008, and a new version is planned for next year. It is a customized collection of several Microsoft server products, bundled up to be installed on a single server. The products are the same as the enterprise versions – with some simplified management consoles and controls (and a limit on the number of users), but otherwise identical to the full products. […] continued

Previously:
Displaying Contacts In The Outlook Address Book
Sorting The Outlook Address Book By Last Name

For some reason the ribbon bar in Word 2007 and Word 2010 does not have a button to push that brings up the Outlook Address Book for inserting addresses into Word documents, envelopes, and the like. It’s an easy fix but I don’t understand why it has to be fixed. I thought people did this all the time – store addresses in Outlook, then drop them into Word with a single click, right? Humph.

Word 2007 and 2010 have a “Quick Access toolbar” – little tiny icons in the upper left. […] continued