Saturday, April 29, 2006
Friday, April 14, 2006
TIPS & TRICKS: Entourage Help Page
mvps.org: The Entourage Help Page
Stumbled upon a helpful page explaining error messages for Entourage. Very helpful to be able to have a fairly comprehensive list of error codes, since Microsoft doesn't seem to provide one directly. I happened upon this because I was helping a client look for Error 5553.
Stumbled upon a helpful page explaining error messages for Entourage. Very helpful to be able to have a fairly comprehensive list of error codes, since Microsoft doesn't seem to provide one directly. I happened upon this because I was helping a client look for Error 5553.
TIPS & TRICKS: How to shade every other row in Excel
microsoft.com: How to use conditional formatting to shade every other row in Excel
So often in Excel, I find that I need to create a spreadsheet that has many rows of information that requires a bit more legibility. Of course, I've seen pages where every other row of the spreadsheet is highlighted or shaded to make it easier to read. You could just go to each row and highlight by hand, but if you have pages and pages of data, this isn't very efficient. After all, we are in the age of automation. I'm not quite sure why Microsoft didn't build this feature into a more usable feature within Excels Format menu, but at least they gave us a way to do it.
In a nutshell:
- On the Format menu, click Conditional Formatting.
- Under Condition 1, select Formula Is.
- In the data entry box, type =MOD(ROW(),2)=1.
- Click the Format button. In the Format Cells dialog box, click the Patterns tab.
- Select a readable color, and then click OK.
- In the Conditional Formatting dialog box, click OK.
You may need to tweak it to your needs, but this is the basic way to do it.
For you people who don't mind doing a little programming in Visual Basic to create a macro:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/213616/
Happy shading.
So often in Excel, I find that I need to create a spreadsheet that has many rows of information that requires a bit more legibility. Of course, I've seen pages where every other row of the spreadsheet is highlighted or shaded to make it easier to read. You could just go to each row and highlight by hand, but if you have pages and pages of data, this isn't very efficient. After all, we are in the age of automation. I'm not quite sure why Microsoft didn't build this feature into a more usable feature within Excels Format menu, but at least they gave us a way to do it.
In a nutshell:
- On the Format menu, click Conditional Formatting.
- Under Condition 1, select Formula Is.
- In the data entry box, type =MOD(ROW(),2)=1.
- Click the Format button. In the Format Cells dialog box, click the Patterns tab.
- Select a readable color, and then click OK.
- In the Conditional Formatting dialog box, click OK.
You may need to tweak it to your needs, but this is the basic way to do it.
For you people who don't mind doing a little programming in Visual Basic to create a macro:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/213616/
Happy shading.
Thursday, April 13, 2006
TIPS & TRICKS: Adding A Network Printer For All Users
members.shaw.ca/bsanders/NetPrinterAllUsers.htm: Adding A Network Printer For All Users
Dilemma for me. I don't want to give all my users any sort of admin access to their machines. At the same time, I want them to be able to add new network printers without having me log in for them as admin to install the new driver once.
Three solutions. One, give users access to the location where printer drivers are stored (\WINDOWS\system32\spool\drivers\w32x86\3), which would open up another security hole. Or, two, push out the driver to all machines remotely, which should then allow the user to add the network printer without having to access the directory for drivers. Finally, three, install the printer for all users on each machine, which could also be done remotely by script.
To me, the second option seems to be the most secure. I definitely don't want to give user access to a system32 directory. I also don't want all users to have access to printer, even though we already have printer accounting in place. No need to give users more than they need. It usually results in more questions, at least in my current environment. Pushing out the print driver seems to be the best solution. Now, how to push out the driver?
Dilemma for me. I don't want to give all my users any sort of admin access to their machines. At the same time, I want them to be able to add new network printers without having me log in for them as admin to install the new driver once.
Three solutions. One, give users access to the location where printer drivers are stored (\WINDOWS\system32\spool\drivers\w32x86\3), which would open up another security hole. Or, two, push out the driver to all machines remotely, which should then allow the user to add the network printer without having to access the directory for drivers. Finally, three, install the printer for all users on each machine, which could also be done remotely by script.
To me, the second option seems to be the most secure. I definitely don't want to give user access to a system32 directory. I also don't want all users to have access to printer, even though we already have printer accounting in place. No need to give users more than they need. It usually results in more questions, at least in my current environment. Pushing out the print driver seems to be the best solution. Now, how to push out the driver?
Saturday, April 08, 2006
Thursday, April 06, 2006
TIPS & TRICKS: IE Window Address Bar Spoofing
secunia.com: Internet Explorer Window Loading Race Condition Address Bar Spoofing
I believe this was reported on before. However, considering what it can do, I thought it pertinent to post it this time around.
Basically, if you clicked on a link to go to a website, say google.com, you would expect Google to be the site where you would be directed. However, what if the text that you saw in the URL doesn't actually match the site that shows? As we all know, just merely visting a website (without clicking on anything after the website loads) could infect your machine with all kinds of malware (i.e. spyware, viruses, etc.). If you clicked on something that you thought was taking you to Google, and the web page that comes up looks like Google (I mean how hard is it to copy what the Google page looks like?) but really has some malicious code behind it, the machine would be infected instantly. Scary.
What do I do? I frequently type in my own URL's and stay away from sites that aren't safe. Then you ask what's safe and not safe. Well, the easiest things to stay away from are links that friends or acquaintances send you to "check out this cool thing." Those tend to be to lesser known sites that may or may not be safe. Two things to do if you really want to click on it. Look at the text for the link and type in the URL yourself (i.e. cnn.com) and find ths story yourself. You might say, what a hassle! But consider it like putting a lock/alarm on your house or car. You wouldn't just leave your house unlocked and go on vacation for 2 weeks would you?
Second thing you could do is go to a computer that you don't care about getting infected that isn't on your network or you could remove quickly. This, of course, isn't very practical for many folks, but hey, it is another option.
Stay virtually safe...
I believe this was reported on before. However, considering what it can do, I thought it pertinent to post it this time around.
Basically, if you clicked on a link to go to a website, say google.com, you would expect Google to be the site where you would be directed. However, what if the text that you saw in the URL doesn't actually match the site that shows? As we all know, just merely visting a website (without clicking on anything after the website loads) could infect your machine with all kinds of malware (i.e. spyware, viruses, etc.). If you clicked on something that you thought was taking you to Google, and the web page that comes up looks like Google (I mean how hard is it to copy what the Google page looks like?) but really has some malicious code behind it, the machine would be infected instantly. Scary.
What do I do? I frequently type in my own URL's and stay away from sites that aren't safe. Then you ask what's safe and not safe. Well, the easiest things to stay away from are links that friends or acquaintances send you to "check out this cool thing." Those tend to be to lesser known sites that may or may not be safe. Two things to do if you really want to click on it. Look at the text for the link and type in the URL yourself (i.e. cnn.com) and find ths story yourself. You might say, what a hassle! But consider it like putting a lock/alarm on your house or car. You wouldn't just leave your house unlocked and go on vacation for 2 weeks would you?
Second thing you could do is go to a computer that you don't care about getting infected that isn't on your network or you could remove quickly. This, of course, isn't very practical for many folks, but hey, it is another option.
Stay virtually safe...
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