How to add your Hotmail account to Microsoft Outlook

Hotmail is one of the biggest free email providers on the internet. They were around way before gmail was even a thought in anyone's head. The one thing I notice is that when people start to use Microsoft Outlook they really miss its features when they use web based email.

Other free email providers like gmail provide a POP3 connection that allow programs like Microsoft Outlook receive mail from your free account. POP3 is a protocol that is widely supported by just about any email client on the net. I don't think Microsoft ever allowed this with Hotmail. It is clearly a marketing decision. Many people just stop there. It is easy to assume that if there is no POP3, there is no way to get the email from another program.

A part of that marketing strategy is a plugin within Microsoft Outlook that is specifically designed to allow you to access your hotmail account. It is really quite easy to add.

Open up Microsoft Outlook, and click on tools then E-Mail Accounts

In the email section of the displayed form, check the item that says "Add a new email account"

Click next. Now you are shown a list of account types:

Select the HTTP server type and click next again

Enter all of your account information. Make sure the HTTP Mail service provider is set to Hotmail, and fill out your hotmail email address, login, and password.

Click next and you are finished!

Now in Microsoft Outlook you will see a new item named Hotmail - that is where all of your Hotmail messages will be located.

That's all there is to it! Now you can easily read your Hotmail from Microsoft Outlook.

Posted By: Steve Wiseman on Thursday, October 12, 2006

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Disable automatic install of IE 7

Many administrators are going to be taken by surprise when they find out that IE 7 is going to be installed automatically via Windows Update.

There are considerable changes that could cause many headaches. Most administrators would prefer to decide when IE 7 is deployed on their network.

This is why microsoft has released the IE 7 blocking tool. It can be downloaded from here at Microsoft's website.

Once you download and extract the package you will see that it is a command line tool. You simply call the script with the computer name and /b

Alternatively you can simply create a registry key that will block the install. It is located under this key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Setup\7.0

The key name is: DoNotAllowIE70

Setting this to 1 blocks the install, setting to 0 allows the install.

I for one hate messing around in the registry, and sometimes I don't want to use the command line - I want a nice GUI interface to make these types of changes. That is why we have created two more free tools to make the changes for you.

For changing the setting on remote machines:

You can download it here

And, finally if you need to just do it on your local system this will do the trick:

You can download it here

As always our tools have no spyware, no adware, and the programs can be run from a USB memory stick with no install!

Posted By: Steve Wiseman on Tuesday, October 10, 2006

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Update your Windows XP SP2 Serial number

I have many friends who are getting notifications like this from Microsoft:

Many times I would shake my head when they bought their machines from a corner computer store - that had photo-copied licenses keys included with the machine. It was pretty obvious that the serial numbers were pirated.

With the Genuine Advantage push by Microsoft I get a call from a different friend almost every weekend now asking me what it means - I tell them they need to go out and buy a copy of XP.

A friend called me this weekend. She needed my help since she had no idea how to update the serial number without reloading the entire OS.

I looked up one of my old articles that had a script for updating the Windows XP serial number. I tried it out.

Hmm. It came back with an error code.

After searching the net, I found that Microsoft no longer allows you to update the serial number using this script. Modifications made by Service Pack 2 render the old scripts useless. They now have a new program for updating the serial number:

It can be downloaded from here

What is good about this new way of updating the serial number is that it will check the system files for anything that is out of order. This is important because many cracked versions of XP will have hacked system files that will keep important updates from being applied.

Once it is finished it will ask you for the new Key:

Enter the key click finish and it will make the change and reboot. Now that the serial number is updated you will no longer receive the warnings from Microsoft, and updates will be properly applied.

Posted By: Steve Wiseman on Monday, October 09, 2006

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