Sunday, May 15, 2011

How to Creating an HTML Signature in Outlook 2007

Here is the workaround to create HTML signatures for Outlook 2007. When you create a signature in Outlook 2007 it creates 3 separate files (.htm, .txt and .rtf). To create a more custom signature you can write it in HTML – this is especially useful for when dealing with graphics and advanced formatting.

How to create signature in Outlook 2007:

  1. In Outlook go to Tools > Options and the Mail Format tab.
  2. Click the Signatures button.
  3. Click the New button.
  4. Give your signature a name like ‘MySignature′
  5. Click on OK

Outlook doesn’t require any content to be added and will create the 3 individual files. Click OK and close Outlook

How to Locate your signature folder: Copy one of the following lines depending on what your operating system is.

  • Windows 7: %userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Signatures
  • Vista: %userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Signatures
  • XP-2003: %userprofile%\Application Data\Microsoft\Signatures

Click on Start and then Run – paste the line you copied into the Run box and hit Enter

You should see 3 files created for your "MySignature” file (in .htm, .txt and .rtf formats). If you can’t see the file extensions, go to Tools / Folder Options / View and untick ‘Hide extensions for known file types’, or right-click the file and select ‘Properties’ to determine the file type.

Replace the HTML file created by Outlook:
Take your HTML signature file and use it to replace the .htm file in your signature folder (i.e. save it as in this system folder, using the same filename as the .htm signature file created by Outlook ).

To start using your new signature:
Restart Outlook.

It worked for me on Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2010. Hope this is useful for you Smile

Wednesday, May 04, 2011

Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 7

Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 7 with SP1 enables IT administrators to manage roles and features that are installed on remote computers that are running Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP1 or Windows Server 2008 R2 (and, for some roles and features, Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2003) from a remote computer that is running Windows 7 or Windows 7 with SP1. It includes support for remote management of computers that are running either the Server Core or full installation options of Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP1, Windows Server 2008 R2, and for some roles and features, Windows Server 2008. Some roles and features on Windows Server 2003 can be managed remotely by using Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 7 with SP1, although the Server Core installation option is not available with the Windows Server 2003 operating system.


This feature is comparable in functionality to the Windows Server 2003 Administrative Tools Pack and Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows Vista with Service Pack 1 (SP1).

Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 7 with SP1 can be installed on computers that are running the Enterprise, Professional, or Ultimate editions of Windows 7 or Windows 7 with SP1. This software can be installed ONLY on computers that are running the Enterprise, Professional, or Ultimate editions of Windows 7 or Windows 7 with SP1; it cannot be installed on target servers that you want to manage.


Both x86- and x64-based versions of Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 7 with SP1 are available for download on this page. Download and install the version that matches the architecture of the computer on which you plan to install the administration tools.

For more information go to MSDN for help. You can download this for 32 bit and 64 bit in the this URL.

Google SketchUp 8

Here are the features that Google is providing with this SketchUp software. Because almost everything is somewhere. By using this everyone can do 3D Modeling.

Whether you're designing in context, creating a shadow study or photo-modeling existing structures, SketchUp 8 provides easy access to Google's huge collection of geographic resources.

  • add-geo-location
    Model geo-location with Google Maps

    We've built Maps right into SketchUp. Adding a geo-location to your model is now an elegant, one-app process.

  • color-terrain
    Color imagery and more accurate terrain

    The snapshot you get when you add a geo-location to your model now includes 3D terrain data that's more accurate, and -- for the first time -- aerial imagery in color.

  • photo-match-improvements
    Match Photo improvements

    Our Match Photo feature lets you trace one or more photographs to build a model; it's an incredibly powerful tool. For SketchUp 8, we've tweaked some things to make using Match Photo easier than ever.

  • building-maker
    SketchUp, meet Building Maker

    When it comes to modeling existing buildings, it's hard to beat Google Building Maker for speed and efficiency. We've made it simpler to open and refine Building Maker models in SketchUp. Watch a video

    Watch a video about modeling in context with SketchUp 8

Download Google SketchUp 8

Friday, April 15, 2011

Silverlight 5 Beta Released & Microsoft Silverlight 5 Beta Tools for VS 2010 SP1

Microsoft has just released first beta of upcoming Silverlight 5.
Microsoft Silverlight 5 Beta Tools for Visual Studio 2010 Service Pack 1 is an Add-on and pre-requisite files for Visual Studio 2010 Service Pack 1 to develop Silverlight 5 Beta and Microsoft WCF RIA Services V1.0 SP2 Preview (April 2011) applications.
Download: Silverlight 5 Tools Beta
Microsoft® Silverlight™ 5 Software Development Kit Beta
Silverlight 5 Beta Documentation

Getting Started with Silverlight 5 Beta

Monday, April 11, 2011

10 Great Features in 10 Different OSes

If you are making the ultimate OS, what features would you choose?

  1. Mac OS X, Time Machine: Apple introduced Time Machine backup software with the Mac OS X 10.5 in 2007. You can back up to a local drive connected via USB or Fire wire, or even to network storage via Ethernet or Wi-Fi. As long as your backup volume is available. Time Machine creates hourly, daily and weekly incremental backups of your system.
  2. Unix, The Shell Terminal: There's always tension between command-line and graphical interfaces, and for the last decade or more, GUIs have been the dominant face of most OSes. But as Max Steenbergen writes in his article "Commands Lines: Alive & Kicking" for UX Magazine, the command line is making a comeback via app launchers like Alfred, Launchy and GNOME Do.
  3. Ubuntu, Simplified Linux Setup: Ubuntu aims for easy installation and configuration, and that's been my experience so far. You can download a live CD ISO or a Windows installer to get going. It doesn't require much of a commitment if you just want to give Ubuntu a try. Burn the ISO to CD and boot from that, or install it in a virtual machine using VirtualBox, Virtual PC or VMWare Player
  4. BeOS, 64-Bit Journaling File System: When Jean Louis Gasse left Apple, he founded a new team that created the charming and forward-looking BeOS in 1991.The file system included with BeOS, however, is one of its truly cool features. Called BFS (BeOS File System), it was a 64-bit journaling file system using file attributes, or metadata. The ability to query and sort against file metadata gave BFS some relational database-like quality similar to what we may finally see via WinFS in Windows 8. The 64-bit address space gave BFS the theoretical ability to support volumes of more than eight exobytes and files over 30 GB. This at a time when 30 GB hard drives were hardly commonplace.
  5. IRIX, SGI Dogfight: The first components of what would become the Dogfight demo were created by Gary Tarolli in the early '80s. OK, technically Dogfight wasn't an OS feature like some of the other items we've discussed here, but it was designed specifically to highlight the advanced (for the time) 3D rendering capabilities of SGI's systems.
  6. NeXTSTEP, Right-Click Context Menu: While the Mac OS didn’t embrace the right-click context menu until much later, it was an OS feature from the start in NeXTSTEP.
  7. MS-DOS, BASIC: MS-DOS was undeniably the dominant desktop operating system throughout the '80s, and every one of those computers running MS-DOS included the Microsoft BASIC programming language in one form or another. In fact, the version of BASIC created by Paul Allen and Bill Gates predates even MS-DOS, originating as Altair BASIC in the '70s
  8. Windows 3.0, Alt-Tab Task Switching: Pressing the Alt and Tab keys brings up a window that displays an icon for each open window present on the system (even if minimized). The currently active window is highlighted by default. Holding down the Alt key, you release and press the Tab key to move the highlight to the next window, thereby making it the active window and bringing it to the front.
  9. iOS, Multi-Touch: The introduction of what we now know as iOS for the iPhone in 2007, however, represented the first chance for many of us to have a hands-on experience with multi-touch
  10. Windows 7, Start Menu and Taskbar: The Start menu and taskbar as we know them in Windows today debuted in Windows 95. With each new release of Windows, new features have been added: integrated search, pinned applications, recently used files and one-click access to often used folders and system configuration tools. Vista added the ability to type a string into the search box and get a list of files and applications matching that string. Windows 7 made that feature actually work properly (mostly through more efficient file indexing) and added per-application recently used file listings.

These are captured from blog of Terrence Dorsey, who is the editor of MSDN Magazine.