MS Office & Outlook 2K problems

[basketcase]

Before I get into the problem, here is my (possibly) relevant system info:
- Dell Dimension 4100
- XP Pro
- Norton Internet Security 2003 (subscription current)
- MS Office 2000
- Comcast cable HSI service

On Wednesday, (2/23), something slipped through my ISP filters and into my Outlook inbox. It came in a group of e-mails from people I know. But at the suspicious item, there was no sender address, and the subject line was blank.

When this has happened before, and I have dealt with it by first reading the known-sender e-mails, carefully skipping over the suspect e-mail, doing Shift/Mouse-click and selecting the group, and finally, doing Shift/Delete to permanently delete the group.

Only this time, (the mouse ball must be slightly dirty, because it stuck and) I accidentally highlighted the particular e-mail.

Seeing as it was Monday #3 of that week, lots of interesting expletive terms came to mind. But nothing happened immediately, so I proceeded to delete it by itself.

Then, over the next several hours, I began getting Outlook errors, with an error box popping up, a message being sent to Microsoft, and Outlook then closing.

So, I ran Norton Anti-virus, and it did not find anything.

Then, I ran Spybot and Adware, and found nothing.

I ran the Outlook Detect and Repair utility several times, and after another while of hair-pulling and teeth grinding, I finally did a complete re-install of the Office 2K suite. But I am still getting Outlook errors, and it has become necessary to reboot to get Outlook to work again. After each reboot and reload, it will only stay up for a few minutes before closing again.

I've switched to Outlook Express for e-mail, and it is working fine. And so far, my home network is functioning properly. But there was obviously something malicious in the suspect message.

So I am wondering, “What exactly did I click on, and what am I to do about it?”

Any ideas from the netizens of this fine establishment will be appreciated! :type

Thanks in advance,
Rick

[BradfordBenn]

First of all, turn off your preview window. The next thing is to check whether or not active content has been activated on your desktop. Make sure that is turned off.

I also have found McAfee to be better than Norton, but I think they are the same company. The L&T Wife got a nasty virus that I ended up needing to format C.

You may want to try running Win Office Update.

[basketcase]

Brad, thanks. My gut says a new format for my HD is coming soon.

Dang -- it is such a pain to make sure every itty bitty scrape of data necessary to soothe my OCD tendencies has been burned onto a CD!

yuhknowwhutimean? ... :brow

[KBasa]

CDs? Go buy a smalliish USB drive and copy everything over to that. You'll be able to copy your entire My Documents at once. You can get a 60GB drive for $100. Seems like a lot of cash, but what price is your data worth?

Then, wipe the machine and start all over. You'll be able to restore your data to your machine easily. You can stash the drive in your gun safe and not have to worry about losing data if you back up to the hard drive once a week or so.

Ugly.

dave

[basketcase]

Now how is a locked up weapon going to help me if I am the object of an invasion robbery -- which we've had a rash of, lately? :dunno

Besides, according to the Drill Instructor Sgt. Smith (MCRD Parris Island, 1972), one's gun cannot be locked in a safe. To my recollection, we recited (with our rifle in one hand, and our gun in the other).

This is a rifle,
This is a gun,
This is for fighting,
And this is for fun!

So I'll keep my gun handy, and my weapon too, thank you. :stick

Anyway, the USB HD is a good idea -- so thanks, that had not occurred to me.

[BradfordBenn]

I use the same approach, except I use a large firewire drive (Terrabyte) from my music studio then burn that data to DVD. Roxio has a pretty cool tool that allows you select a folder or drive that is larger than the media and it will parse the data to fit on multiple media for you.

I recommend taking the entire c:\documents and settings folder not just My DOcuments as there are lots of little things hidden in there.

[robnye]

Hey now,

If you end up having to reformat the drive I would recommend getting the USB drive as K basa suggested and storing all the vitals there.

When you are done with the restore but before you start using the PC get a copy of Norton Ghost and ghost the drive to the USB device. In other words after you reinstall windows and all the other software you use ghost the drive. These days the windows restore is the easy part, it is getting all the other programs you may have loaded over time (mapping, camera drivers, etc) that take so much time, plus you gotta have all the cd and license keys, what a PITA.

If you ever get caught in the same boat again the restore would be quick and painless. You would be right back to the point when you made the image and everything would work just fine.

Good luck

[BradfordBenn]

That is a good idea Rob.

[JetDoc]

I also like the USB HD solution for a backup. The only thing with Rick's problem is it's too late to fix it with a backup. If his system has contracted a nasty bug, and he doesn't know where it's hiding, then he can't trust any of the files on his current system. He's going to have to wipe everything and start over from scratch. A drastic solution, but sometimes it's the only efective way to recover. Once he has the system up and running with known clean software, then he can start using the USB HD to back up on a regular basis. Fun, huh?

Oh, and Rick... Don't forget to wash your hands... :wave

[basketcase]

Actually, I have two hard drives in the computer. Drive C is a 30 gig, and drive D is a 60 gig. When I added the 60 gig HD, rather than jump through all the installation hoops to make it C and the original drive D, I simply formatted the new one and kept on working.

So, my full system -- meaning all software and data backups, which are done regularly, are on drive D.

I wonder if I could do a restore from the last backup, get around the reformatting issue, and not lose anything in the process?

My next thought is, "That is probably going to result in avoidable complexification ..."

Back to square one: copy the data off onto ... something, reformat C, and then reload the software and data.

Bummer ...

[BradfordBenn]

Depending on how tweaky you are, you might also want to look at going non-Microsoft for such things as mail (Thunderbird) or browsing (Firefox) they typically are not as suseptable to viruses.

[Hodag]

I just print off hardcopies of everything, and then put them in the scanner if I ever have to reload from my paper copy backup.

[matthew517]

I would right click on my computer and go to properties. Go to advanced then go to startup and recovery. Uncheck the auto restart box. Then go to error reporting check the disable error reporting but notify me when critical errors occur.

I would hold off reformating my hard drive. I would go to start then to all programs then to accessories then to system tools. To system restore. Run the system restore to a time prior to your event.

Hope this works for you.

[GregFeeler]

Depending on how tweaky you are, you might also want to look at going non-Microsoft for such things as mail (Thunderbird) or browsing (Firefox) they typically are not as suseptable to viruses.


I'll strongly second Brad's suggestion. I use Eudora (www.eudora.com) for my email and love it for several reasons. First, it won't get whacked by the Outlook expolits, secondly it has very powerful filters which allow you to manage many email accounts and/or mail from lists and put them automatically into specfic mail boxes, and third all the mail boxes are individual files you can move/backup/rename or otherwise manage very easily. It also has a great spam filter and a feature that notifies you of "phishing" messages that direct you to phony web sites. It's $35 or $40 but wouldn't you pay that now to get your PC back to were it was before it got infected? :stick

[basketcase]

I am not a Microsoft stockholder, and even if I was, I would be so hacked by now that I would use some other mail handling tool.

For the interim, I've installed the Mozilla stuff to give it a try. Firefox does not behave exactly like IE, but it's passable. And I actually like the look of the Thunderbird mail hander better than Outlook or Outlook Express. For some reason, all of my bookmarks did not import into Firefox, but I can gradually hunt up the various sites where I shop or hang out as needed.

Can anyone recommend a nifty scheduler/appointment manager? The only thing I am missing about MS Outlook is the integrated desktop with appointments, reminders, etc.

I use WordPerfect for my correspondence and writing projects, so given my generally p.o.'ed attitude today, I could switch over to another appointment manager by this evening and never look back.

Thanks to all for the input.

Rick (scratching dirt -- Alpha dog style, on Microsoft products today) in AL

[GregFeeler]

...Can anyone recommend a nifty scheduler/appointment manager? The only thing I am missing about MS Outlook is the integrated desktop with appointments, reminders, etc....
Rick (scratching dirt -- Alpha dog style, on Microsoft products today) in AL

Rick,
Try AnyTime Organizer from Individual Software:
http://www.individualsoftware.com/new/consumer/details/at9_details.htm

Nice features, interface, and reports. Will sync with a varity of products. I've tried their tech support and got right in and they seemed to know their product.

[JetDoc]

The April 12 issue of PC Magazine has a good article on ad-ins for Firefox. Didn't see anything about an appointment manager, but someone is probably working on one and will have it out there soon.

[BradfordBenn]

There is a calendar extension for THunderbird, I have it installed but have not done a whole lot with it yet.

[Montana]

Once you remove the mail services you can keep only the calendaring function of Outlook as the active application. My home computer uses Mozilla email and Firefox browser, but the Outlook calendar is still functional and utilized. Or just delete it and reinstall it selecting scheduling only, which you used to be able to execute directly with a MS Schedule Plus shortcut instead of a full Office shortcut. You might still be able to keep Contacts, too, just get rid of all communicating services.