I have a customer who’s been trying to use Windows Live Mail (WLM) 2011 for the past 6 months, but keeps running into issues and problems in using it. So today I installed Outlook 2010 onto his computer, and began the process of exporting his email and contacts from WLM to Outlook. Several things I discovered during this process.

1. I exported the WLM account settings to an IAF file, but then discovered that Outlook 2010 does not recognize/support importing an IAF file for setting up an email account. The reason I was trying to do this was because we did not know the user’s email/account password! So, what does one do? A quick search of the Internet uncovers an online IAF decoder program! It worked like a champ. It displayed the entire contents of the IAF file included POP and SMTP URL’s, user name AND password, ports used, and more. I was then able to proceed and create the user’s mail account in Outlook 2010.

2. Next I was ready to export the email in the WLM inbox, but when I went to do so, I thought it was strange that it never prompted me for a file name or file location to store the export file. I naturally assumed it was going to create a PST file. Lo and behold, there was no need to ask for a filename, as WLM directly imported the contents of the mailbox into Outlook 2010. Very nice!

Note: to transfer mail boxes, click on File > Export Mail > Email Messages > click Select Microsoft Exchange (even if you are only using standalone Outlook!) > Next > OK > click Selected Folders > and then select mailbox to be transfered.

3. Then I was ready to transfer over Contacts. WLM creates a CSV file when exporting contacts. Be sure to click on the mapping button and map the first name and email address. For some reason those are not selected automatically.

I’m connected to a workstation remotely via LogMeIn to do some cleanup work. I download and run SuperAntiSypware (SAS). It reports that it finds two issues:

Security.HiJack[ImageFileExecutionOptions]
 HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\EHSHELL.EXE
 HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\EHSHELL.EXE#Debugger

Searching the Internet suggests that these are false positives. But why? Finally I find the answer on the Experts-Exchange website: SAS will only flag these two registry keys when LogMeIn is running!

So, if you are running SAS via a LogMeIn session, and it flags these two registry keys, you can safely uncheck them.

I have many HP MediaSmart and Data Vault servers installed in businesses to backup client workstations. They do an excellent job and have made me look like a hero more than once!

On several units, however, I will see HPServiceManager warnings showing up in the event log every 5 seconds! (see screenshot to the right).

Thanks to Alex Kuretz, I finally found a possible solution to eliminate these events.

Run the following command from a command prompt from the Home Server console. then reboot the server: lodctr /R

Please note that the HPServiceManager warning can be caused by several different issues, and running lodctr /R may not fix every one of them. Another suggestion is to run a chkdsk on all the drives.

While reviewing systems after a three day vacation, I noticed that Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) had identified a potential Adware:Win32/Hotbar issue on several machines (see below). Upon further research, I discovered that MSE was flagging it’s own signature update as a threat! Click here for explanation.

Adware:Win32/Hotbar
Category: Adware
Description: This program has potentially unwanted behavior.

Recommended action: Review the alert details to see why the software was detected. If you do not like how the software operates or if you do not recognize and trust the publisher, consider blocking or removing the software.

Security Essentials detected programs that may compromise your privacy or damage your computer. You can still access the files that these programs use without removing them (not recommended). To access these files, select the Allow action and click Apply actions. If this option is not available, log on as administrator or ask the security administrator for help.

Items:
file:C:\Windows\Temp\05CF9286-54A9-4EBA-83E0-696343501064-Sigs\98110B50-5C07-4433-AC63-E73247E812BAmpasdlta.vdm.new.temp  <– These are Microsoft Security Essentials own virus
file:C:\Windows\Temp\05CF9286-54A9-4EBA-83E0-696343501064-Sigs\98110B50-5C07-4433-AC63-E73247E812BAmpasdlta.vdm.old.temp    <– definition files being flagged as suspect malware!