Update: This has been tested in Outlook 2010, 2007 & 2003
I find that Outlook’s Personal Folder (.pst) files have a haphazard way of getting corrupted – which obviously impacts daily performance as well as reliability of my email achieve. Microsoft’s Inbox Repair Tool (ScanPST) diagnoses and repairs corrupt .pst/.ost files to make sure the file structure is intact, but the process requires more manual intervention than I care for. So, here’s how I made Outlook’s Inbox Repair process completely automated:
Step 1: Download some 3rd party utilities!
Download NirCmd.zip.
In order to run the ScanPST utility against your .pst/.ost files, Outlook must be shutdown. While there isn’t a way to do what we need natively in Windows, NirCmd (free) allows us to accomplish the task gracefully – meaning Outlook will not shut down when unsaved content exists (in which case the Repair will be skipped for this instance).
(Note: If you prefer to forcefully end Outlook, you can do so using process.exe 1 . Of course, doing this could cause corruption – which is what we’re trying to avoid/fix!)
Extract nircmdc.exe2 to ‘C:\\Windows\System32′. (Note: I don’t usually like to install 3rd party executables to WindowsSystem32. In this case, however, I feel these simple cli utilities don’t justify additions to my Path entry. If you wish to install somewhere else, you can add the location to your Path3 or add the full path into the script file.)
Download cmdscan.zip. Quester‘s cmdscan (free) allows us to run ScanPST without any user interaction.
The next Steps will outline what is happening in the batch file:
Step 2: Make sure Outlook is not running/Close Outlook if it is.
(informational) To gracefully close outlook, the script executes:
nircmdc closeprocess outlook.exe.
To test your nircmd install, open Outlook and execute this command from the command prompt.
(informational) We want to wait for Outlook to close because the Repair Tool will not analyze/fix an open .pst file. To do this, the script executes: nircmdc waitprocess outlook.exe.
Step 3: Run ScanPST from the Command Line.
Find the path to scanpst.exe on your computer:
in Outlook 2003 – C:\\Program Files\Common Files\System\Mapi\1033\
in Outlook 2007 – C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\
Edit autopst.bat in notepad and verify ScanPST-location=”<your path>”
If your .pst/.ost files are in the default location, the command in the script – cmdscan %ScanPST-location% *.pst *.ost – will work just fine. (Otherwise, follow the instructions in readme.txt, found in the cmdscan.zip file. It will show all your file selection options).
Step 4: (optional) Open Outlook so it’s ready to go when you access your computer again.
If you prefer to automatically restart Outlook after the scan, remove “REM” from the front of the “REM start outlook.exe” line.
Next -> Browse… -> select the autopst.bat file -> Next
Select task frequency (i.e., Daily/Weekly) -> Next
Set run time (when are you least likely to need Outlook open?
…you get the idea…
Step 6: Test
Double-click on the autopst.bat file or execute the newly created task to make sure things go as expected.
Command Line Process Viewer/Killer/Suspender – This method first tried to gracefully shut down Outlook. If Outlook remains open after 60 seconds, the process is forced to terminate. [↩]
nircmdc is a command line only version of nircmd – this makes popup dialogs print to cmd window instead; thus, allowing us to automate processes more reliably [↩]
Like many, I much prefer the (free) FeedDemon RSS Reader over the one built into Opera. And, one thing that has long annoyed me in Opera is the inability to send feeds to my default RSS Reader (something FF3 and IE do very well).
Nick Bradbury, the creator of FeedDemon, wrote a blog post in 2004 outlining how to add a “Send to FeedDemon” context menu option in Opera1. Still, I didn’t find it to be the complete solution I was looking for
So, here’s how I send RSS feeds from Opera to FeedDemon:
Step 1: Add the Send to FeedDemon Button
Since FeedDemon is intelligent enough to pick up the default feed, this works fine for 98% of my cases.
However, if a site has numerous feeds and you don’t want to pick the default, then the Button isn’t the ideal choice. So, here’s a few alternative ways to accomplish the task.
Step 2: (optional) Disable Mail (and, thus, Opera Feeds)
This will prevent the annoying ‘Do you want to subscribe to this feed in Opera’ popup.2 However, it will also disable the RSS icon that is displayed in the address bar when a feed is found.
Go to Preferences (Alt+P) -> Advanced Tab –> Programs.
Select “Add…”.
Under Protocol, type feed:http .
Select “Open with other application” then Choose the FeedDemon.exe path (note: if FeedDemon is your default feed reader, this step isn’t absolutely necessary. Still, I like setting this so that even if another broswer/app steals the feed protocol, FeedDemon will always be used.)
Step 4: Add the ‘Send to FeedDemon’ context menu.
Open Windows Explorer and browse to ‘C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Opera\Opera\profile\menu’.
Go to Opera Preferences (Alt+P) –> Advanced Tab –> Toolbars and select ‘Opera 9.5 + FeedDemon’ from the Menu Setup.
Step 5: How to Use.
Click the ‘Send to FeedDemon’ button while on the website. Or…
Right-click in the whitespace of this webpage and select “Send to FeedDemon” from the menu. Or…
If the link uses the feed protocol, clicking on the link directly will open the feed in FeedDemon. Or…
In some cases (like with FeedBurner, for example), you will be redirected from the main website to a page where you can select the RSS reader of your choice.
This tweak initiates the User’s logon/startup sequence before locking Windows 7/Vista/XP; thus, speeding up the OS startup process while maintaining the security provided by the login screen.
What it solves: Traditionally, you turn on your computer and wait a few minutes. Then, you log into windows and wait a few more minutes. This tweak eliminates that wasted time by allowing you to turn on your computer, go work on something else for a few minutes, come back, login and begin working immediately because your profile and startup programs have already loaded! It is particularly useful for people who are the sole or primary user of their PC and use the login screen purely as a security mechanism.
I couldn’t find a streamlined step-by-step guide online so I figured I’d put one together myself. Sources are credited below.
In Vista/7, Click Start, typenetplwizin the search field, and hit Enter. In XP, Click Start, click Run, type control userpasswords2
(This loads the Advanced User Accounts control panel).
Uncheck the Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer option.
Click Apply.
Enter your password into the Automatically Log On dialog box that pops up and click “OK“.
Click Start -> All Programs, right-click on the Startup folder, and select Open.
The Explorer Window opens. Right-click in the whitespace and point to New and click Shortcut.
The Create Shortcut Wizard opens. In the text box, type the following: rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation
Click Next.
Enter a name for the shortcut (e.g., “Lock Workstation“).
Click Finish.
Step 3: Reboot.
Step 4: Enable Power-On Security.
Please view your BIOS Security options and enable the power-on password feature. Otherwise, you run the risk of allowing someone to boot to safemode without any password access (as pointed out by a commenter).
The WP-Profilactic Plugin publishes your LifeStream or informs readers where to find you online by parseing your aggregated online activity feed from Profilactic.
If you want to keep friends in-the-know on your life online, then you need a way to aggregate your online activities. But, with the number of social sites on the web today, it’s hard to manage one’s own online identity/activies, much less that of friends.
If your friends care to know what books you’re reading, what music you’re listening too, what restaurants you love, etc., then services like FriendFeed, Plaxo Pulse & Profilactic – commonly referred to as “lifestreams” – are a great way to keep friends in the loop. (Compare Services at lifestreamblog.com)
As I searched for a solution to aggregate my lifestream to my blog, I came across Kieran Delany‘s WP-SimpleLife plugin for WP. It did exactly what I wanted; however, adding new services was somewhat tedeous (others agreed. So, I began searching for a simpler solution.
My search of online aggregators led me to Profilactic. The noticable initial diffirentiator between Profilactic and the others (w.r.t. what I needed) was the large number of supported sites (175 at the time of writing this), the ability to include your own RSS feeds, and the title formatting. All the other LifeStream Services post items to the feed in a consolidated format (i.e., UserX posted three links on delicious); whereas Profilactic displays the title of each post individually so that users can see exactly what I bookmarked without having to go the services’ website to read the rest of the content.
So, I forked K’s SimpleLife plugin and came up with WP-Profilactic. Visit the Project Page to download. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at prof…@opindian.com).
September 2, 2008 : Permalink : 
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Tags: email, optimization, Outlook, performance, repair, software, tweaks
Like many, I much prefer the (free) 
