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Archive Updates
March 98 — August 98
Brought to you absolutely free by the award-winning authors Lee Hudspeth and T. J. Lee...
- August 27, 1998 -- Microsoft acknowledged today that the Access bug reported yesterday by c|net does effect Access 2, Access 95, and Access 97.
- August 26, 1998 -- A bug has been discovered in Microsoft Access that can scramble records (edits to one record may appear in another record). There are conflicting reports as to the versions of Access that are effected with reports that 2.0, 95 and 97 versions of Access have the bug while Microsoft has only confirmed the bug in Access 97. For the details check out the c|net article Microsoft database loses records. The good news is that there seems to be a relatively simple workaround until Microsoft fixes the problem. The workaround is detailed in the c|net article.
Get the latest marketing hype on Office 2000 at http://www.microsoft.com/office/2000/default.asp.
If you use Microsoft's Hotmail you should be aware of a security glitch that can compromise your password. Read the InfoWorld article for details.
For those of you keeping score, Nielsen Media has reported that one-third of all Americans over the age of 16 use the Internet. That's up 8 million in 9 months. Sheesh!
- August 21, 1998 -- Microsoft has released updates to Dial Up Networking (DUN) for both Win95 and Win98:
Windows 98 Dial-up Networking Security Upgrade Available
Download DUN40.EXE from:
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q191/5/40.asp
Dial-Up Networking 1.3 Upgrade Available
Download MSDUN13.EXE
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q191/4/94.asp
Users of the popular Norton Utilities from Symantec should be aware that a bug in the System Doctor utility in version 3.0.7 can cause Microsoft's Windows 95 and 98 systems to lock up and prevent access to the floppy drive. The workaround is to close the System Doctor or Norton AntiVirus before accessing the floppy drive. Symantec is reportedly working on a permanent fix. Click here for more details.
- August 20, 1998 -- Productivity tip: this tip from Matt S., to prevent Win98 from displaying unnecessary and totally annoying tooltips when you mouse over things like the minimize, maximize, and close buttons found on all application title bars, run the Win98 version of TweakUI (on the Win98 CD-ROM, \Tools\Reskit\Powertoy) and on the General tab uncheck the Mouse Hot-Tracking Effects checkbox. A set of Official "Are You Annoyed?" bumperstickers is going out to Matt.
- August 18, 1998 -- Yesterday Microsoft posted a Knowledge Base article on a JScript security bug that affects MSIE 4.0, 4.01, and 4.01 SP1 running on Windows 95, 98, and Windows NT 4.0. To be affected you have to visit a Web site that is running a script designed to cause you a problem (meaning someone has to set a trap for you). Click here to get the patch for this problem.
As threatened, er, as promised, Microsoft posted today its first Windows 98 Upgrade (Redmond would take it as a personal favor if you did not call this a "service pack" which implies bug fixes). The upgrade includes the latest DirectX drivers, the controversial MS Media Player, nifty new Web fonts, a new version of MS Chat (version 2.5) and something called a WebTV Guide (is the Internet the next vast wasteland?) You can test out this new update method at http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/. Be sure to let Update Central know how the upgrade went.
Only 499 shopping days until the year 2000. Non-event or the end of computing as we know it? Send us your thoughts.
Bizarre Win98 bug can affect the nightowls out there. Reboot your computer just before the date changes at midnight and the system date can reset itself either two days forward or one day back! Strange but true. Microsoft is working on a fix.
The Annoyances Series goes Continental! While overseas sales of Word, Excel, and Office 97 Annoyances have been strong since their release, the first foreign language versions are beginning to appear. Update Central just received Polish language versions of these Annoyance titles. (Anyone want to buy a copy at a discount? Our Polish is a little rusty.)
The Outlook 98 and Outlook Express bug fixes posted by Microsoft in late July have been updated to handle glitches that the first patch missed. If you downloaded these patches before August 11th you need to go through the drill again. See the PRIME FAQ, A Roadmap to Patching Outlook 98 and Outlook Express for the Long Filename Security Issue to find out where to download the updated patch for each program.
- August 11, 1998 -- Read all about it! Microsoft sends Beta 1 of Office 2000 to 20,000 testers! So what's that mean to you? It means you're going to be bludgeoned with the "inside" scoop on all the new and can't-live-without features in O2K. This beta is shaping up to be one long sales campaign. The scary part is how MS is using Web integration to try to drive some nails in the coffin of what little competition they have left. First is FrontPage's inclusion in O2K. And "native support" for the HTML file format. Well, native HTML along with a bunch of proprietary tags. The theory is great, save that Word document as HTML and instantly view it in your browser. But in Word you see all your formatting, while in a browser (read Netscape) you only see the formatting that the browser supports, unless of course you use IE 5 which, surprise!, supports all the new tags. Oh, and your Web server better have the proprietary Microsoft Office Server Extensions installed on it (i.e., FrontPage extensions) as well. It's good to know that Microsoft is only interested in innovation and not in using its market share to crush its competition.
- August 7, 1998 -- If you've been smirking at the email bugs that have recently plagued Outlook, Outlook Express, and Netscape Messenger, because you used Eudora as your email client, smirk no more! In an article on PCWeek Online, Security flaw reported in Eudora, you'll find out that Eudora has not escaped the current round of bug finds.
Microsoft will release the first Win98 update on August 18th, amid much hoop-la as to whether this is a service pack, and therefore will include bug fixes, or simply a collection of multimedia enhancements. Stay tuned.
Office 2000, the successor to Office 97, won't ship until 1st quarter 1999, it was announced yesterday. Microsoft is of the position that this is not a matter of a ship date slipping since they never announced an official ship date in the first place. But many industry analysts figured a 4th quarter 1998 ship date for O2K.
Web Tracker Database for Access is now available from Microsoft. Click here to download this pre-built Access database with information on over 12,000 Web sites ah, all chosen by Microsoft.
- August 6, 1998 -- Tons of mail here at Update Central this week, most of it asking what's the straight scoop on the Outlook 98 and Outlook Express long filename worm/bug/security glitch. To explain it all just check out the PRIME FAQ, A Roadmap to Patching Outlook 98 and Outlook Express for the Long Filename Security Issue. Complete with links to the latest patches for the Microsoft email readers as well as information on what Netscape is doing about Messenger.
- August 3, 1998 -- Microsoft has posted additional news regarding the long attachment name bug discovered in Outlook 98 and Outlook Express. Click here to read Microsoft Security Bulletin (MS98-008).
And while we're speaking about security problems (yet again, sigh!) if you really want to lay awake nights worrying about your network (or personal PC security) check out this article on PCWeek Online, 'Back Orifice,' a hacker app, wows crowd at DEF CON. If everything works as advertised, this is the stuff nightmares are made of...
- August 1, 1998 -- Microsoft's Top 25 Office 97 Answers, by Lee Hudspeth and T. J. Lee is now available on the ZDNet Help Channel. This article covers the 25 most frequently asked questions received by Microsoft product support staff since Office 97 was released. The article includes our analysis of these 25 FAQs (with some surprising conclusions!) Click here to read this article.
- August 1, 1998 -- The third issue of The Naked PC, the electronic newsletter from Lee Hudspeth, T. J. Lee, and Dan Butler is available for viewing on the back issue page at http://www.TheNakedPC.com where you can get What You Need to Know about All Things PC.
- July 30, 1998 -- Seems a new security leak in Netscape has been discovered. A problem with the Java Virtual Machine in Navigator 4.0 that would let the malfeasant Java applet bypass all the security controls and have its way with your hard disk. The Navigator 4.5 beta (available for download from Netscape) is supposed to fix this problem. Read all about it on InfoWorld Electric.
- July 28, 1998 -- BugNet has posted a compendium of odd bugs and computer glitches. Check out their list if you are experiencing bizarre or unexplained problems and see if you're experiencing a known bug.
Speaking of bugs, PCWeek Online has a story on the latest email bugs affecting Outlook, Outlook Express, and Netscape email clients (along with the latest WinNT security problems). Microsoft has posted fixes for Outlook 98 (you want OUTPATCH.EXE) and for Outlook Express. Netscape Mail users will have to wait a week or two for Communicator version 4.06 for their fix.
- July 27, 1998 -- In Brian Livingston's column this week you can hear Microsoft say that Win98 only disables 3rd party DLLs because it wants users to have a good Win98 experience and that somehow disabling other companies' applications does not harm them. Huh? Read Brian's column and if you can figure out what "down-leveling" means and how this helps competition drop us a note at the Update Desk 'cause we don't get it.
NT is definitely in your future, at least according to Microsoft. The Redmond rangers have big plans for this ultimate OS according to an article in the Washington Post. On the other hand, the Navy has standardized on NT and has had more than a few problems with it. Click here to read about what happens to a Naval missile cruiser when NT crashes.
Coming soon... The Return of MSN! Watch for Microsoft's $100 million media blitz to bring all its Web efforts under the MSN moniker. Everything from its portal effort (What's a portal? Can you say "home page"?) to their Expedia travel site will get MSN tacked onto the front of it. Click here for more details.
- July 24, 1998 -- Did not! Did too! The buzz is all about Rob Glaser of RealNetworks claiming that Microsoft deliberately "broke" RealNetworks media player (Click here for details). Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee Glaser claimed Microsoft's Media Player "breaks" competing software his company makes. Microsoft has strongly denied this and claims to have proof that Glaser's product suffers from a bug in the RealPlayer code.
- July 21, 1998 -- Off topic, but too good to overlook, remember back when Netscape took a merciless ribbing when they announced they were giving away the source code to their (still) market-leading Web browser? Well, it looks like Netscape gets the last laugh. The firm recently announced that more than 250 million copies of the source code have been downloaded since March 31st of this year. Not surprisingly, the Windows version is the most requested, then Mac, followed by Unix. In related news, the beta of Navigator 4.5 is out now and Communicator 5.0 -- which will incorporate the additions from the programmer community -- is expected to ship before the end of the year.
- July 20, 1998 -- Earlier this month Symantec reported that Rescue disks created with Norton Utilities 3.0 for machines running Windows 95, would not work after the machines were upgraded to Windows 98. According to Symantec, if you upgrade to Win98 you must create a new set of Rescue disks.
Meanwhile, it's not only older PCs that are choking on Win98 and requiring a BIOS upgrade. Many newer model laptops are experiencing problems that manufacturers are saying will require a new BIOS to fix. Laptop owners should check with the manufacturer before going down the Win98 upgrade road.
More warnings on Win98 this time about a feature in Win98 that hasn't been used yet! Win98 has a feature called Windows Update that runs a Wizard that downloads updated drivers, patches, service releases, etc., from the Microsoft Web site. The problem is if a key OEM driver gets overwritten and your system stops working. Microsoft says they won't be responsible and most OEM's say they won't be responsible, so guess who gets left holding the bag? Click here to get the straight scoop before you even think of using this feature.
- July 18, 1998 -- The ever vigilant Eileen Wharmby brought this to our attention here at Update Central. A new security breach has been found in Navigator versions 4.x. Seems that a malicious Java applet can disable Navigator's security controls leaving you wide open to attacks. The current beta 4.5 release has the fix to cure this problem. Click here for more details.
The second issue of The Naked PC, the electronic newsletter from Lee Hudspeth, T. J. Lee, and Dan Butler is available for viewing on the back issue page at http://www.TheNakedPC.com where you can get What You Need to Know about All Things PC.
- July 17, 1998 -- Outlook Annoyances, our latest book is now available online from Amazon and in bookstores everywhere. You can now download all the source code from this book in a single zip file. Click here to download OUTANNOY.ZIP (68 Kb).
- July 15, 1998 -- The August issue of PC/Computing magazine is on newsstands now! In this months cover story, Amazing FREE Stuff you can find the best of the best for the lowest prices possible on the Web. Click here for more information.
Click here to get the FTC's "Dirty Dozen" list of email scams! Some are new, some are old hustles simply updated for the electronic age--don't be fooled!
In this week's WOW is a timely warning about the very real .SHS virus threat. Click here for the details.
- July 8, 1998 -- If you read our Update from last May 6th you'll remember we told you that Office SR-2 was planned for release this summer. A TNPC reader has reported that Microsoft Select Customers (in the U. S.) have been told to expect this update/patch sometime within the "next few weeks". Important: Microsoft is cautioning that you must have SR-1 installed before you can install SR-2. If you've been putting off that SR-1 upgrade, better think about it soon.
This was reported to Update Central... Okna Corporation, the publisher of DeskTop Set has closed its doors! It seems that Microsoft's innovative decision to give Outlook 98 away for free through June 1998 was the final nail in the coffin of this popular PIM software. The DeskTop Set version 6.02 is being released as freeware according to their News page. While they acknowledge that purchasers of their product may be upset, management points out that their investors and shareholders have lost millions. How annoying is that?
More reports of problems with Windows 98 upgrades. It seems that beta testers who have had no problems with all the RC versions are now reporting problems trying to install the final "released" version of Win98. According to an article on PCWeek Online, the newer your system (6mos to 1 yr) the less problems you'll have. Click here to get the details.
- July 7, 1998 -- Just when you think you've got Y2K figured out you find another gotcha! There's a real eye-opening article on Year 2000 issues as it relates to Microsoft products. Check it out on InfoWorld Electric. Only 500 or so more shopping days until Y2K.
Microsoft has made their school tutorials available on the Web! Surf over to Microsoft in Education K-12 and you can download tutorials on Microsoft products and how-to's for language arts, geography, math, etc. This is a huge amount of information (as you'll see from some of the huge download file sizes). Check it out.
- July 6, 1998 -- Service Pack 1 for Windows 98, you heard right folks, Microsoft is readying SP1 for Win98 for a summer 98 release. Microsoft is downplaying the idea that this is a bug fix release and says it's about features that it couldn't get into Win98. Click here to read all about it on PCWeek Online.
Here at Update Central we've had reports that getting telephone support for Win98 upgrade issues is next to impossible, laptop modem issues abound, lack of drivers, etc., hey, is this annoying or what? Our own VBA guru Mike "Magical" Craven reports a slew of people upgrading to Win98 only to find VBA gets hosed and macros generate "compile error in hidden module" errors. His recommended fix is to reinstall Word via Control Panel's Add/Remove Programs utility, and select the option to reinstall to replace bad or missing files. (Be sure to read the Annoyance Update for July 1 so you don't run afoul of the Office SR-1 issues that affect Win98 before you reinstall Word.)
- July 4, 1998 -- Danger Will Robinson! Windows 98 Warnings! It seems that nearly all the major PC manufactures are issuing warnings about upgrade glitches that are plaguing upgraders. Required BIOS updates, software upgrades, incompatibilities with certain models, makes the upgrade to Windows 98 not the cakewalk Microsoft would have everyone believe. Click here to read all about it on c|net in an article by Brooke Crothers. This one floored us, seems that there's no support for CD-ROM drives when using DOS... Oy! Check it out.
- July 2, 1998 -- Microsoft Corporation popped for $5 million to settle a trademark suit over the "Internet Explorer" name. Seems a now defunct ISP in Chicago was using the name a year before Microsoft. The best part is that Microsoft (the company that tried to claim the word "Windows" as its own private property) was arguing that "Internet Explorer" was a generic phrase. Click here to read all about it on InfoWorld Electric.
- July 1, 1998 -- Those upgrading to Windows 98 that are running Office 97 need to be aware of the trials and tribulations that can be caused by the Office SR-1 patch! For the complete grisly tale, check out this week's Woody's Office Watch.
- June 30, 1998 -- Last chance to download Outlook 98 for free from Microsoft. The free for all offer expires today. Starting July 1st you can only upgrade to Outlook 98 if you own Outlook 97 or Office 97.
Download new Excel 97 converters for Quattro Pro 6.0 and 7.0. Click here if you need to pull some Quattro files directly into Excel 97.
Synchronize Outlook items on your Windows CE handheld personal computer with those on your desktop computer. Click here for the both the Windows CE 1.x, and 2.x versions of this utility.
Wired News reports a bug that affects Excel, PowerPoint, and Word 97, as well as Word 95. Confirmed by Microsoft, the bug can cause extraneous information to be added to a saved document that can be viewed with an ASCII editor, like NotePad. This could include sensitive information such as Telnet sessions, portions of deleted files, passwords, etc. Click here to read this article. Click here to read Microsoft's Knowledge Base article on this and to download the patch to correct this problem.
- June 26, 1998 -- Windows 98 officially rolled out yesterday and problems with upgrading existing Windows installations are already being reported. PCWeek Online reports users upgrading existing Windows systems are encountering a number of problems. Click here for the details. If you have experienced any problems with upgrading to Windows 98, we want to hear from you! Click here to drop us a note.
Announcing The Naked PC newsletter! "What You Need to Know about All Things PC" -- A companion to the Woody's Office Watch newsletter, TNPC picks up where WOW leaves off, with articles, tips, recommendations, and commentary on hardware, the Internet, software, and more. Click here for more details.
- June 23, 1998 -- IDG Net reports the first Win98 specific virus that we've seen discussed in the trades. The HPS (Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome) activates when an infected system is booted on a Saturday and plays havoc with any bitmap images displayed by the operating system. Oh, and it's backwards compatible with Win95. Some anti-virus companies are already including fixes for this virus. Makes you wonder if the virus writers own stock in anti-virus companies. Click here for more details.
Speaking of Microsoft, the news wires are all abuzz that an appeals court overturned an injunction against Microsoft. Yawn. Folks, this is another non-event. Windows 98 will ship, Microsoft will rake in the bucks, if the Justice Department does anything it will come much too late to effect Windows. This circus may be fun to watch but it's only a minor distraction from the everyday annoyances of trying to get useful work done with Office.
- June 22, 1998 -- Even as we approach this Thursday's rollout of Windows 98 Microsoft is worried that not everyone on the planet will upgrade. A lot of corporate shops are rumored to be waiting for Windows NT 5.0 as their next Windows upgrade. This creates a cash flow anomaly for Microsoft (i.e., no upgrade now, no bucks for Bill). To counter this Microsoft is aggressively promoting NT 4 touting it as the must have upgrade for those planning on going to NT 5 (when it comes out). Upgrade now and upgrade later, the best of all worlds for Microsoft. Click here to read all about it on InfoWorld Electric.
- June 19, 1998 -- A bug or a feature? Outlook Express will let you parse up a large email attachment, effectively creating multiple email messages to get a large file through some ISP email gateways. Some gateways object to single large attachments and, according to Microsoft, this is a user requested feature. The problem is that a large file parsed to the lowest setting allowed by Outlook Express (16 kbytes) can create a very large number of email messages - potentially causing an email overload at the recipient's mailbox. Last Monday, BugNet went over the top, calling this a "mail bomb" when it's simply an advanced feature that could be abused by those predisposed to try and cause havoc.
- June 17, 1998 -- Microsoft unveils the upcoming Office 2000 the next version of the current Office 97 application suite. Due to hit the beta streets next month but not expected to ship until sometime in 1999. There is an article on InfoWorld Electric with more details. Look for lots of HTML file format support with "Web" and "Internet" stuff oozing from every nook and cranny of your favorite Office applications. Microsoft has an official list of new features and assorted press releases and articles at their Microsoft Office 2000 page.
- June 16, 1998 -- Ever wanted to take a peek into the FBI files? Now's your chance! The FBI Headquarters Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Home Page now makes the FBI's selcuded reading room available online. Click here to check up on Errol Flynn, The Hindenburg Disaster, Mickey Mantle, Marilyn Monroe, Eliot Ness, Nikola Telsa, and many others.
- June 15, 1998 -- Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water... comes a new Office Assistant alter ego, Kairu the Dolphin (please no Cairo jokes). For those of you who can't get enough of those wacky animated Office Assistants you can get your own Kairu by clicking here. [An unnamed Microsoft representative assured us that no free-range tuna were harmed in the creation of Kairu. Reports of a "Free Kairu" group protesting the exploitation of Kairu were unconfirmed as we went to press.]
If you're running Outlook 98 in Corporate/Workgroup mode you can now download the Microsoft LDAP Directory information service that lets you search for email addresses on any LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) directory server such as Bigfoot or 411. Outlook users running in Internet Only mode already have this service built in.
Click here to download this service.
If you need to read emails in Outlook 98 using Japanese, Korean, Chinese Simplified, or Chinese Traditional characters you need to install the Far East Support for Outlook 98. Click here for the details.
- June 11, 1998 -- Wondering which Web search service is hot? Reuters reports that Yahoo has been the most-traveled Web site every month this year. According to statistics compiled by RelevantKnowledge in its "Top 25 Dot.com Domains" report (http://www.relevantknowledge.com/), last month Yahoo was visited by 30.6 million unique visitors. That's a whopping 34% more traffic than runner-up AOL (although a footnote indicates that RK's analysis consistently underreports AOL traffic "due to technical reasons"). AOL's family of sites was visited by 22.8 million folks, and third place goes to Netscape Communications at 18.8 million. Also according to RK, about 57 million people in the U.S. used the Web in May.
- June 9, 1998 -- Microsoft is giving away a household items inventory database for Access. Record in Access information on serial numbers, purchase and replacement information, all that little flotsam and jetsam that is hard to track but vital in the case of loss or damage. Click here for more information.
- June 2nd, 1998 -- Microsoft has reacted to the AccessIV.a virus (see the April 1st Annoyance Update). If you did not get the fix utility from FMS you can get Microsoft's AccessIV Virus Utility. Click here for details.
- June 1st, 1998 -- Microsoft has put together a set of three press release templates for Word 97 complete with step by step instructions for creating attention getting press releases. Interesting that the fictitious company used as placeholder text in the templates is "Blue Sky"... wonder how Blue Sky Software, the makers of a number of Word add-ins, feels about that. Click here to download this free template set.
- May 29th, 1998 -- Wondering if you should plan on getting Windows 98 or just avoid the whole thing? Check out c|net's user perspective analysis.
- May 28th, 1998 -- You say you can't keep up with changes to Microsoft's email addressing on MSN? You say you can't get your messages through because of the quirky address format conversion nonsense? Is that what's bothering you, Bunky? Well cheer up! From the makers of MSN is their new beta Microsoft Network Conversion Utility. This neat-o tool finds all your Outlook Contact email addresses in MSNINET (Microsoft Network-only) format and converts them to Internet format. Click here for all the details.
- May 26th, 1998 -- U.S. Deserves a Crash in Microsoft Suit. Killer article from Al Gordon, a Newday Viewpoints editor, on some of the tail-chasing that the DOJ is doing in its pursuit of Microsoft and some insights on where the government is missing the boat as to where the real danger lies. Click here to read this outstanding article which appeared in Newsday on May 20th, pp A41, copyright 1998 Newsday Inc.
- May 26th, 1998 -- Get it while it's free! Outlook 98 is still a free download but only until June 30th, 1998. If you've not picked up your copy you should give it some serious thought as this upgrade is a must have for Outlook users.
- May 21st, 1998 -- Good news, bad news... First the good news, as mentioned in this week's WOW, the first Internet Explorer Service Pack is now available from Microsoft. The bad news is you have to download and reinstall IE 4.01 in order to get it. The update patch for users who want the Service Pack but don't want to download the entire bulk of IE 4.01 will have to wait but it should be RSN (real soon now) according to Microsoft. Click here for details.
- May 19th, 1998 -- Ah, lemme see, if Coke puts two cans of Pepsi in each six-pack then Burger King would have to sell McDonalds fries? No, if Pepsi owned all the grocery stores in the world then Dr. Pepper... what does this have to do with software again? Confused? Lord, aren't we all. Get a great overview of what the hoo-hah is all about from Aaron Zitner in the Boston Globe.
- May 19th, 1998 -- Microsoft has published a Knowledge Base article on the Outlook encryption bug. Check out Knowledge Base article, Q185621.
- May 18th, 1998 -- The Department of Justice dropped the long awaited for "other shoe" today and along with the Attorneys general from 20 states and the District of Columbia filed suits against Microsoft. The suits will attempt to block the inclusion of Internet Explorer with Windows 98, or to force Microsoft to provide "other browsers" (hmmm, who would that be?) with Windows 98. Microsoft will hold a press conference at 11:30 AM PDT to respond to the lawsuits. Stay tuned.
- May 15th, 1998 -- Microsoft to patch Active Desktop next quarter to prevent attack by the White Ghost Java applet. InfoWorld Electric has a story on "mobile code" attacks using Java and ActiveX to cause havoc on unsuspecting computers. White Ghost demonstrates Active Desktop's vulnerability to mobile code attack; making it unreadable by painting the entire Active Desktop white, forcing the user to shut down Internet Explorer. Check out "Active Desktop spooked by White Ghost applet" for the full story.
- May 14th, 1998 -- Productivity tip: When reading email messages in Outlook 98's preview pane use the spacebar to page down through the message. Pressing the spacebar when at the bottom of the message marks that message as read and displays the next message in sequence (from top to bottom in the list). Thanks to Dan Butler for this tip. Dan points out that in Internet Explorer you can use the spacebar to page down when browsing a page.
- May 13th, 1998 -- Possible Outlook encryption bug. Wired has reported what may be an Outlook bug having to do with encrypted email messages. Seems that if you start creating an encrypted email, then cancel the process, the email is still sent only it is not encrypted. The recipient thinks it is encrypted and may reply thinking their response is secure but it won't be. However, Microsoft reports that it cannot replicate any of this. Check out the article at Wired News. We'll keep you posted.
- May 9th, 1998 -- Productivity tip: if you have not already installed the PowerToys for Microsoft's Internet Explorer you should do so right now. The Image Toggler alone will save you up to a couple of hours a month in your Web browsing. Click a button and turn graphics on or off. Pages load like lightning without graphics. If you want to see the images a single click turns pictures back on. A major timesaver. Pick up the PowerToys for IE over on the Microsoft site.
- May 9th, 1998 -- If you're running NetMeeting 1.0, 2.0 or 2.1 you should get the patch that fixes the NetMeeting Speed Dial Issue (why can't Microsoft ever call a bug a bug?). Chances are small that you'll ever run afoul of this bug but the fix is free and a relatively quick download. Pick it up from the Internet Explorer Security page.
- May 6th, 1998 -- Three cheers and a tiger for us! You can now order a copy of Outlook Annoyances from the mighty Amazon.com. The latest from the collective pen of Woody Leonhard, Lee Hudspeth, and T. J. Lee, Outlook Annoyances can help you keep your annoyance level from hitting the red line as you work with Microsoft's premiere personal information manager. Covers Outlook 97 and 98.
- May 6th, 1998 -- Coming Soon! Stay tuned for the sequel to Office Service Release 1. That's right, Microsoft Office 97 Service Release 2 (SR-2) -- Office Part Deux? -- is planned for release some time this summer. Get what few details are available from the Fact Sheet on the Microsoft Web site. Microsoft claims that this service release contains no new features and unlike the SR-1 Enterprise Update, it is not a re-release of Office 97. So what is it? Good question. Based on the Fact Sheet it looks like it includes the Excel recalculation patch and a fix for date formats in PowerPoint 4. If we were taking bets we'd wager that there's a bit more to it than just this. We'll keep our ears to the ground and keep you posted on SR-2.
- May 5th, 1998 -- BUGS BUGS BUGS! Woody came across this item on BugNet and while not strictly an Office application, this data destroying bug is certainly annoying. Front Page 98 has a bug that can delete an entire drive! Seems if you create a disk-based web in the root directory of your hard drive, then delete that web, Front Page 98 goes on to cleanse your entire drive.
- May 5th, 1998 -- Accountability! That's what we like to see. Want to drop a note to the Outlook Development Team? Stop by the Microsoft Outlook Team Credits Site. We came by this tip from the WOW VBA Valet, Claude Almer, himself. Claude points out the Outlook 98 Easter Egg: create a new Contact named Ren Hoek, select it, select Help / About, press and hold Ctrl+Alt+Shift while clicking on the About box's OK button. You'll see the credits for the Outlook Design Team and a link to the aforementioned Credits page.
- May 4th, 1998 -- VBA developers beware! If you think your password encrypted Visual Basic for Applications project source code modules are secure think again! Sad but true, there are cracker utilities that you can buy for a pittance that will cut through VBA security like a hot knife through butter. As Office add-on and utility developers ourselves we find this most annoying. We've asked Microsoft to comment. Stay tuned.
- May 3rd, 1998 -- A number of Woody's Underground Office newsletter articles are available for viewing. Check out the WUON Articles page. Articles require the Acrobat reader.
- May 1st, 1998 -- Outlook Annoyances, the latest tome from the pens of Woody Leonhard, Lee Hudspeth, and T. J. Lee is scheduled to hit bookstore shelves next month. Get the straight scoop on Outlook Annoyances and peruse its Table of Contents.
- April 30th, 1998 -- Sneak preview of Office 9... Office 98? Office 99? According to WOW editor Peter Deegan, the next version of Office is still six months away but he's got the latest info straight from Microsoft. Web enhancements figure prominently as you might imagine but you'll most likely need Windows NT and IIS to enjoy some of the advanced sharing features which are geared towards internal intranets. The real good news from Redmond is that the file formats for Word 97, Excel 97 and Powerpoint 97 will remain unchanged in Office 9. Yea! Check out the WOW special issue Vol. 3 No. 18 for the details.
- April 29, 1998 -- Twelve states, California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, South Carolina, Texas, Wisconsin, and West Virginia, in conjunction with the Justice Department, may file antitrust suits against Microsoft next week. Will this block the release of Windows 98 scheduled for June 25th? Check out the story on C/Net at http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,21607,00.html.
- April 22, 1998 -- Internet Explorer 5.0 beta is only weeks away (see related article on PCWeek Online.) Look for IE5 to be much more modular, as in you can decide what components to install, even whether or not to include the Java Virtual Machine! It's not entirely clear if this is a move to put more control in the hands of the users or to just dump on Sun and Java.
- April 20, 1998 -- Spring Comdex demo hell: According to a report on InfoWorld Electric, Bill Gates was giving a Windows 98 demo when the soon to be released operating system went belly up and crashed. Now, we've all experienced Windows crashes but imagine Bill in front of a huge crowd, giant monitor screens towering over the stage, the audience hanging on every word, when oops! Seems like now would be a good time to reboot. And they say there's no justice!
- April 20, 1998 -- Outlook Annoyances by Leonhard, Hudspeth, and Lee, published by O'Reilly & Associates and due to be in a bookstore near you in June can now be ordered directly from the O'Reilly Web site.
- April 17, 1998 -- Coming soon... Internet Explorer Service Packs!. The first, Service Pack 1, will be made available on the MSIE page at http://www.microsoft.com/ie/default.htm within the next 60 days and will reportedly fix several Y2K bugs. We'll wager that this update will tweak more than just IE. We'll keep our eye out and holler when it's actually made available.
- April 15, 1998 -- Got them Y2K compliance blues? With the double-ought year barreling down on us Microsoft Corporation has rolled out its Year 2000 Resource Center. Check out http://www.microsoft.com/year2000/ for just what the year 2000 has in store for Microsoft applications. Seems there are what Microsoft calls issues with some of the software you may be running like Windows 95, Office, Visual Basic, and others. Guess we'll all be upgrading over the next 20 months.
- April 12, 1998 -- In related news... The race is on between Microsoft and the DOJ. Redmond Rangers are burning midnight oil trying to get Windows 98 to manufacturing by April 30th. At stake is $1 billion in sales revenue if they can get Win 98 out the door before the DOJ takes further action that could halt the release. Details of this high stakes race at Windows 98 time bomb ticks away over on PCWeek Online.
- April 9, 1998 -- In related news... Microsoft takes its message to the people by launching a huge media campaign in an effort to get public opinion on its side. Feeling heat from Congress and the DOJ Microsoft has taken out ads in five major newspapers calling for freedom to innovate. The pro-innovation, Mom, and Apple Pie ads were taken out in the following papers (you won't find the ads on the Web sites listed here, you'll have to spring for a copy of the paper.)
Washington Post
Washington Times
New York Times
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Seattle Times
- April 2, 1998 -- PRIME Consulting Group, Inc. is currently beta testing their PRIME Utilities for Word 8 (Office 97). If you're interested in participating in this beta fill out the form at http://www.primeconsulting.com/beta/. Those accepted and that participate in the beta will receive a free copy of the Utilities.
- April 1, 1998 -- Despite the date this is no joke! From this week's WOW is more information on the recently discovered Access macro virus. A company called FMS is working on a freeware detector that will identify this virus, called A97M/AccessiV.A or just AccessIV. It wasn't posted when we last checked but when it's available you'll be able to pick it up from http://www.fmsinc.com. Supposed to include instructions on how to remove the virus if found. We'll keep an eye on their site and post an Update when it's available.
- March 30, 1998 -- Woody pointed out the following item in the continuing Excel recalc bug saga. It seems that the latest patch released by the Redmond Rangers on March 20th "does not resolve all possible instances of the shared formulas problem". Ouch! They say they'll have a new and improved patch sometime in early April. Check it out on the MS site at http://www.microsoft.com/excel/patchinfo.asp. Better yet, build your spreadsheets with built-in error trapping and self-checking routines. See Excel 97 Annoyances, Self-Monitoring Error Traps, page 220, for ways to protect yourself from glitches in any spreadsheet's calculation engine.
- March 27, 1998 -- CNET NEWS reports that there's an arcane bug in the Microsoft Office 98 suite for the Macintosh, a bug discovered internally by Microsoft. If you were to manually perform the admittedly uncommon action of moving the Office 98 library to the Extensions folder from the Microsoft Office 98 folder and then run the Remove Office 98 utility (a CD-based utility that's part of the Office 98 ValuePak), the System Folder -- instead of the Office 98 folder -- would be put in the trash. At the next system restart when the trash is automatically emptied, bye bye System Folder. A Microsoft spokesperson says the company will post a fix on its Web site this week, so watch http://www.microsoft.com/macoffice/.
- March 25, 1998 -- A report in this week's WOW (Woody's Office Watch) newsletter indicates that the Access virus reported on March 20, 1998, is indeed real. It has been identified and given the name A97M/AccessiV.A. It is still unclear how much of a real-world threat potential this virus has. Check out Trend Micro's site, http://www.antivirus.com/vinfo/faq/faqjetdb.htm for more details.
- March 23, 1998 -- Outlook 98 is available for download! Pick up yours at http://www.microsoft.com/outlook/ free for the next 90 days. Thereafter only registered users of Office 97, Outlook 97 and Exchange Server can get the free upgrade. You can download Outlook 98 now, or you can order it on a CD for $9.95US (the order link is not yet working and MS says it's "coming soon.")
- March 23, 1998 -- Microsoft has posted a fix last Friday for the Excel 97 Shared Formulas Issues aka the latest recalc bug found in Excel. This 47k download requires 5 megabytes of free disk space to install itself. We have not installed this patch and will probably wait a week or so to see if there's any additional fallout from the patch itself. It's easy to fix one thing and wind up breaking something else and with a patch there is often no easy way to uninstall or unwind it short of reinstalling Excel from scratch.
- March 20, 1998 -- Reuters reports that Trend Micro Inc., makers of computer virus protection software, has discovered a new virus that can infect and replicate across Microsoft Access databases. It should be noted that this virus has not been reported "in the wild". Interesting that. Ever wonder just where viruses that are not found in the wild are actually found? In any event, we've not seen this virus ourselves but the potential for infection would seem low since Access databases are not as often exchanged between users or over the Internet as Word documents or even Excel spreadsheets.
- March 18, 1998 -- The furor continues over the latest Microsoft Excel recalc bug. Not to downplay the seriousness of the bug there are some basic spreadsheet design tips that will catch not only the "Shared Formulas Issue" as Microsoft refers to this bug, but will keep you from shooting yourself in the foot by missing a key cell reference in a formula. A simple crossfoot check formula (see Excel 97 Annoyances, Chapter 6, Self Monitoring Error Traps, page 221, Figure 6-6) would catch this bug. The use of conditional formulas and error tables would also go a long way to ensure spreadsheet integrity and protect you from both recalc bugs and errant formulas.
- March 13, 1998 -- Microsoft soft-pedals Excel recalc bug! Calling the latest recalculation bug the "Shared Formulas Issue" Microsoft has posted a notice and workaround on their Excel page (see http://www.microsoft.com/office/excel/.) The workaround is to do a find and replace of the equal sign ("=") with the equal sign ("=") across the entire worksheet. This forces a recalculation of each formula in the sheet. Microsoft bills this as a temporary workaround and says they will incorporate a fix into the existing recalc bug patch before the end of March. Stay tuned.
- In related news... Windows 98 is rumored to hit the shelves on June 25th and according to the latest DOJ speculation there may be two separate flavors, Tutti-Fruiti (with Internet Explorer) and Vanilla (without Internet Explorer.) We can see Microsoft going along with that since almost every application program now coming out of Redmond requires that you install IE4 as part of its installation. Sheesh!
- March 3, 1998 -- WOW (Woody's Office Watch) broke the story about a second more sinister Excel 97 recalculation bug discovered in Microsoft's flagship spreadsheet application. Affecting a number of functions in Excel 97 for Windows, this bug can, under certain circumstances, befuddle the recalculation engine and leave formulas reporting incorrect data. For more details, check out http://www.zdnet.com/zdhelp/nonzd/excelbug.html.
- The same folks that publish Windows NT Magazine (Duke Communications International, Inc.) launched a technical newsletter for Exchange and Outlook administrators in March of 1998. Check it out at http://www.winntmag.com/. Discount charter subscription rates are available.
- Outlook 98 will be free to anyone for the download (or willing to pay shipping and handling for a CD) for 90 days following its posting to the Microsoft site (sometime at the end of March). Following the free period you can upgrade registered copies of Office 97, Outlook 97 and Exchange Server to Outlook 98. We'll post the download URL as soon as it's available. Note that the current betas of Outlook 98 require you to have IE4 installed in order to work (IE4 comes with the beta download). No word on if the final version due at the end of March will also require IE4 but we bet it will.
- Office 98 for the Mac has been released (much to the collective relief of Mac users stuck with version 4.x seemingly forever), complete with annoying Office Assistant characters. While Mac users are jazzed, the "98" version only brings them to par with the Windows Office 97 product although it does have some spiffy features tailored for the unique graphics ability of the Mac. Rumor has it that Office 98 for Windows is still 6 months or more away.
- Annoyances reader Walter Smith reminds us that not everyone has upgraded to SR1 and may be subject to some of the bugs that SR1 addresses. If you have customized your toolbars (for example, as with the Annoyances toolbars in Excel), beware of the bug that causes a GPF if you fire up the Chart Wizard while you have have the light or dark shading buttons displayed on a toolbar. SR1 fixes this annoying bug. Be sure to upgrade to the Office service release SR1 Enterprise Update. We recommend the full SR1 EU CD-ROM upgrade which contains a complete update to all the Office 97 applications as opposed to the "patch" available over the Internet. See Office 97 Service Release 1 - Revealed for more information.
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