The Address Book Failed to Load. Outlook Express…
…is incorrectly configured, please re-install.
If you are reading this article right now because you were searching for this through Google I am sure you are not too happy. I don’t blame you. Let me guess, Outlook Express is on the fritz, it won’t open (or it will but all you get is the mentioned error) you can’t get your email, and you are being told to reinstall the program but you were never given a disk to do this. Sound about right?
It will be okay. I have been there too. This issue was one of the main experiences that made me decide to switch over to Linux but I want to share my story to help others that are running into this problem.
I am going to outline what caused the problem. Things I tried that didn’t fix the problem, and the way I finally resolved the issue.
CAUSE:
A corrupted or damaged Address Book in Windows.
When I came across this it was because the Address Book in Windows became corrupt after I deleted all the contacts from it at once. I was working on a clients PC and she had upgraded from Windows 2000, to XP.
When we backed up her address book and exported the CSV file some of the information did not get copied to the correct columns. To fix this I manually edited the CSV file in Excel to put the data into the proper fields. Once this had been done I deleted all the contacts so I could re-import the corrected list.
Unfortunately Outlook Express (or Windows) does not like when you delete all the contacts. This can sometimes lead to a corrupt address book, which will lead to the above error message.
FIXES (That do not work)
Now it’s funny that Windows tells you to reinstall Outlook Express because the program actually comes embedded in the operating system. Don’t mistakenly think that a Microsoft Office disk will correct this because the mail client MS Office installs is “Outlook” and not “Outlook Express”.
So because the program is embedded in Windows you cannot reinstall it in any traditional way. Going into Program Files > Control Panel > Add Remove (Windows Components) will only actually remove shortcuts from the Desktop or Start Menu.
So now you would think the logical thing to do to fix software that is embedded into your operating system is to do a Windows “Repair”.
This was a huge mistake on my part. Because I had all the most current Windows updates and I did the Windows repair this forced Internet Explorer to roll back from 7.0 to 6.0. Because IE and OE are embedded in your OS, and are tied so closely together this totally borked Outlook Express. Now the program wouldn’t load period. *sigh*
So after checking online for some other ways to “reinstall” Outlook Express someone recommended that installing the latest service packs should take care of the problem.
I went ahead and downloaded all the latest Windows updates and got the program back to a point where it would startup. Although I was still getting errors when I tried to access the address book.
Other methods that failed to work were the numerous registry fixes people recommended, or programs that supposedly repaired corrupted DBX files.
Finally I came across a blog with a fix that was written out so easy I was sure it was bound to fail. It’s funny how sometimes the most simple solutions are no where to be found on the internet or the Microsoft support pages about their own software. The solution went as follows:
SOLUTION:
The solution was to rename the file extension on any instances of the Windows Address Book that show up on the system. To do this you need to first open a search window.
Start Menu > Find > Files or Folders
In the search field type
*.wab
This tells the computer to search for any files that end with the WAB (Windows Address Book) extension. Make sure you have selected the “All files” option in the search window so it is not limited to a specific type of file.
When the search is complete it might have found a couple files with the WAB extension. Right click on each file and select the “Rename” option.
(You need to make sure you can see the file extensions in order to rename the extension. If you cannot see the file extension open Windows Explorer (Start > Run > Explorer > Enter) and go into Tools > Folder Options > View, and uncheck the option for “Hide Extensions for Known File Types“. You should now be able to see and rename the file extension.)
Rename the file/s from “Addressbook.wab” to “Addressbook.old”. Once they are renamed the system should no longer be able to find the existing address book, so when you re-launch Outlook Express the program should create a fresh address book from scratch.
This will not help you recover data but it will allow you to access your address book once again. From here you can re-import your old address book data to recover your contacts. If you did not back up this data beforehand you will need to recreate your contacts, but hopefully this will have helped get you to a point where this is possible.
Thanks for checking out Pseudorant. We appreciate the support!
How to Install Windows on Linux
Setting up a Virtual Machine in Kubuntu
Todays guide is going to cover how to setup a Virtual Machine on Kubuntu so you can install Windows or any other operating system you prefer onto Linux.
The reason this may be useful is because sometimes new users to Linux can run into compatibility issues with certain programs, or may not be able to find a program that does what they need it to do.
A good example for me is that I have been a designer on Windows for so long I NEED to use Photoshop. GIMP is a nice program but I have 10+ years of training in Photoshop and I tend to use it on a daily basis.
This is a good example of where having a virtual machine is useful. Because I am new to Linux myself I can’t tell you if there is a version of Photoshop for Linux or not. But because I have already paid for my license I am going to continue to use this software for as long as possible to get my moneys worth.
So without further delay let’s discuss how to install Windows onto Kubuntu by creating a Virtual Machine.
…
The first thing you need to do is install “Virtualbox”. You can do this using “Adept Manager”.
K Menu > System > Adept Manager
Once you have Adept Manager open do a search for “Virtualbox”.
Once the program returns search results find:
“Virtualbox-OSE” and click on the program title.
This will open a drop down menu that has a button that says “Request Install”. Press this button. Repeat these steps for:
“Virtualbox-OSE-Modules-2.6.24.16-generic” and…
“Virtualbox-OSE-Modules-generic”
(I believe I needed to install these files in addition to Virtualbox to get the program to work.)
Once you have these three items selected click the “Apply Changes” button at the top of Adept Manager.
You will now see some installation screens while Adept Manager loads the applications onto your system. Adept Manager is an easy way to add and remove programs from Kubuntu.
Once Adept Manager finishes up you need to open Virtualbox. Go to:
K Menu > System > Virtualbox (which should now show up in this menu)
Now we will want to setup our new operating system in Virtualbox.
Click the “New” button in Virtualbox. This will open the new Virtual Machine dialog. Click “Next”.
Now type the name for the new Virtual Machine. I am going to use a name that will describe what we are installing, so I’ll pick “Windows XP”.
You can also select the OS type from a drop down menu below this. Choose your OS from the list.
The next screen will allow you to choose the amount of base memory you would like to assign to the virtual machine. Going with the default will probably be fine. I selected 256mb for Windows XP and it runs great on my old laptop in Virtualbox. (I believe the default was 196mb)
The next screen allows you to setup a virtual hard disk. Since we are setting up our first Virtual Machine we will select “New” which will open another dialog box.
In the “Create New Virtual Disk” wizard click “Next” to begin.
For our “Disk Image Type” let’s go with the “Dynamically Expanding Image” to make a more efficient use of our hard drive space. (Keep in mind I am doing this on a laptop so space in a factor)
Then select an image file name. I am going to name mine “Windows XP” so it matches the virtual machine name. Then select an image size.
Since you will be using the OS to work and test things you probably won’t be installing games or downloading so you shouldn’t need a really large disk size. (Unless you plan to do those things.)
For a Windows installation I would recommend between 4 to 6gb keeping Windows updates and service packs in mind.
Once you have selected a size, click “Next” this will take you to the final screen where you can click “Finish”. You have now setup a virtual hard disk and will be taken back to the previous setup dialog.
Click “Next” and then click “Finish”. You should now see the virtual machine you created appear on the left hand side of the screen.
There is one other thing we need to do before we can install our OS. We need to change account permissions to allow the virtual machine to operate properly.
Go to the “K Menu” > “System Settings” > “User Management” click on the button “Administrator Mode” in the lower right corner. Enter your root password.
Once you have done this double click on your user name and click the middle tab, “Privileges and Groups”. In the new menu you’ll see a menu to the right called “Secondary Group”, scroll all the way to the bottom of this menu.
Look for an option called “vboxusers” and make sure it is check marked, once you have done this click “OK” and close out of User Management.
Now go back to Virtualbox and insert the CD for the OS you are going to install. When you insert the disk Kubuntu may prompt you for what you would like to do. Ignore this and go back to Virtualbox.
Now on the information screen that is displayed on the right you should see some info about your virtual machine state. If you see nothing next to the “CD-Rom” section follow these steps before you start.
Make sure you have your Virtual Machine name highlighted and “right click” to bring up the menu. Select “Settings” from the top of the menu. In the settings window select “CD/DVD-Rom” from the left hand menu.
Under the CD/DVD-Rom select the “Mount CD/DVD Drive” option. You will now see other options become available.
Select “Host CD/DVD Drive”. (You may need to select the correct drive from the drop down menu if you have more than one drive in your system.)
Once you have done this click “OK”. You should now see your drive listed in the Virtual Machine information window.
Now make sure you have your Virtual Machine name highlighted and click the “Start” button at the top of Virtualbox.
You will now see a new window popup and virtual box should start the installation of your new OS. I am sure anyone installing XP onto their Kubuntu system is familiar with how to installation goes so I am not going to outline this part.
…
Congratulations! You have now setup your first Virtual Machine and are running Windows XP on Linux. Keep in mind that your Windows installation is full fledged and can do anything a normal Windows installation on a system can do.
Now that you are familiar with how to setup a virtual machine you can also play around and add other operating systems to your computer as you see fit. This is a really good way to experiment with other operating systems without having to commit to formating your current operating system.
I will post some follow-up articles when I find other cool things you can do with Virtualbox. If anyone has any suggestions or recommendations I would also be glad to see them in the comments.
Thanks again for checking out Pseudorant. Please tell your friends to checkout the site! I appreciate the support.
More Reasons Why I Hate Microsoft
Microsoft Reaches out from Beyond the Grave!
Woo, early morning blogging. Well more trouble with Microsoft. I’m sure people are shocked to hear that.
I got a call from my customer about another issue she was having with the new computer I built for her. Any Microsoft Works documents she was opening were causing the system to hang and displaying that they were around 32,000 pages long. Even though I know these documents were about 3 to 4 pages tops.
I checked online and could not find any information on the problem. Of course Microsoft does not have any documentation on this issue. I tried to repair Microsoft Works, I changed the installation of Word manually to include all the program conversion filters, and even tried installing Windows updates to see if this would fix the problem.
Nothing did. So on top of these documents displaying incorrectly, they would actually try to print 32,000 if you selected to print them. I did find out that these documents would open fine if you opened them through Microsoft Word, they would not open however if you choose the “open with” option.
My client needed these documents in a rush so I decided the best course of action would be to just convert them all from WPS format to DOC format so that they could be opened in Word by double clicking on them. This would be the easiest option for everyone, or so I thought.
After looking online I finally found Microsoft’s answer on how to convert the WPS files to Word format.
Opening each one individually and selecting “SAVE AS”!
Wow… Once again Microsoft you have left me speechless. It seems to me, a Monkey with a catapult and a bucket of poo, could come up with a better solution than this.
So I spent the next hour and a half converting her 315 WPS files to DOCs. Yes there may have been a better solution, but after having already spent 8 to 10 hours troubleshooting “Windows” problems that had nothing to do with the system I built, my patience was wearing thin.
So after all the shenanigans I went home, had a few beers and played with Kubuntu some more. I learned a couple new things last night with help from my friend Joe, and I will be posting them in a follow-up guide very soon.
Until then thanks for checking out the site, I appreciate the support!
What Version of Linux is Right for Me?
How to Choose a Linux Distribution
If you read my previous article “Microsoft is the Debil!“, than you probably know I am in the process of switching over to Linux. As I mentioned in that article I have no experience what so ever with Linux so I am writing a series of guides to document my first steps to help others who have been considering the switch but are nervous about what it may entail.
There are several considerations I need to make now that I am switching over to Linux. The main consideration is that I will be installing it onto a laptop that me, and my fiancée share so I need to find something she can easily use also.
I considered doing a dual boot setup incase I need to run Windows for one reason or another but I feel that this will defeat the purpose of this project. I may outline installing a dual boot system in another guide, but for the time being we will be focusing on installing one operating system onto the laptop.
With that being said there are other considerations that need to be made also. What is a good graphical version of Linux? I am a designer and artist by trade so I prefer a visual operating system over command line. I also prefer this for practicality. Since we are looking for a “Windows alternative” here, I do not want to make any sacrifices when choosing my new OS.
Other considerations include hardware and software compatibility, the ability to install onto a desktop or laptop, ease of use, easy access to software, an easy installation, etc.
As you can see there are a lot of considerations that a person can make. Fortunately someone has put together a “Linux Distribution Chooser” that will help someone that is new to Linux (like me) find the distribution that will best suit their needs.
The link below will take you to the “Linux Distribution Chooser” website:
http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/
Now that I am at their website lets find a version of Linux that is right for me (or you!). I will be outlining the questions asked and the answers I provided to help others with the considerations I made when taking the test.
NOTE: It is not necessary to read the following section if you are confident in getting started with Linux. I have merely provided it for those who want additional information to help them in making decisions regarding their new operating system.
The first thing I need to do is click the “Take the Test” button to start. Now I will choose my Language which is “English“.
This takes me to the test and starts a series of roughly 10 questions to help me determine what version of Linux will best fit me.
The first question is:
01. Do you know what a “Linux distribution” is?
I am selecting “Yes“. A Linux distribution, often referred to as distribution or distro, is a member of the Linux family of Unix-like operating systems comprised of the Linux. I am guessing that most anyone reading this article is somewhat familiar with what this question is asking.
The next question is:
01a. Have you successfully installed an operating system before?
Once again I will choose “Yes“. I work for a computer company and have been working with computers for years so I have had to install my fair share of operating systems over the years. If your answer is “No”, don’t worry, the test is designed to point you in the right direction, not to judge you. Answering the questions incorrectly will only steer you away from a version of Linux that will work best for you.
Now that we have answered these questions lets click “next” in the lower right hand corner. This takes us to the second screen which is asking:
02. Do you know how to “partition” a hard drive?
I will say “Yes” to this because I have had to do this prior to some Windows installations. I have done this through both FDISK and the Windows Setup interface. If you are unfamiliar with what partition means see the definition below.
Define:Partition - Logical storage unit. One hard disk can be divided into one or more partitions. Each partition is regarded as one logical storage unit, and normally contains one file system. In the Windows operating systems (95/98/NT/2000) each partition is assigned one station letter (C:, D: etc).
The following question is:
02a. Which kind of installer do you prefer?
.
I’m going to choose “Graphical (Point and click)” because as I mentioned above I am looking for a Windows alternative. Also note option 4 which says “What is the difference?“. If you are unsure of any questions in the test you can always use this option for a more detailed explanation of what is being asked.
Once again click “Next” to proceed to question 3.
Question 3 asks us:
03. How would you rate your technical skills?
I’m going to choose “Intermediate / Advanced” because I have been working with computers for years but I do not know advanced computer fields like programming, or high level networking and security. These things may get factored into the type of distro that is recommended so I want to be as accurate as possible. Once again choose the option that is right for you.
Click “Next” once you have answered this question.
The next question on the test says:
04. What kind of computer are you installing on?
I’m going to go with the “Could be both” answer because as I mentioned I am looking for an OS that will allow me to replace Windows. I will initially be test driving it on my laptop with the intention of installing it onto all my computers in the future.
The follow-up question asks:
04a. What is the primary use of this computer?
I will say I’m probably going to be using this for a “Desktop / home system” which is what I currently use my laptop for. I mainly need to be able to write, with access to some type of office software, and the ability to go online, play music, and watch videos. I think this is a good option to go with while I’m starting out, to find a good Linux distro.
Click “next” to proceed:
Question #5 asks about 64bit processors (CPUs):
05. Do you have a 64-bit processor?
I am going to choose “No” because I do not have one on the laptop. I do however have one on my main PC, and server. This is something you will want to check on your system before answering. If you have purchased your computer in the past two years or so (written as of 05/08/2008) you most likely have a 64bit processor.
If you are unsure you can always select “No”. The worst case scenario is you will get a Linux distro that doesn’t make full use of the 64bit function of your CPU. In any case it will still run much faster than Windows because Linux is designed more efficiently than Windows so it makes better use of your hardware. Keep in mind most Windows software at the time of this writing does not make use of 64bit processors with the exceptions 64bit versions of Windows. Aside from the operating system, not many applications that are out make use of 64bit CPUs either.
Once you have answered for your specific system click the “Next” option:
The next question is:
06. How old is the computer you are installing Linux on?
My answer is “Just a few years old“. I bought my laptop (a Sony VAIO) from a friend in 2005. I would say we can assume that “just a few years” probably ranges from about 2-4 years old. Anything newer would be “still shining” and anything older would be the first option. This question most likely will try to take hardware support into consideration for the Linux disto that is recommended to you.
The follow-up question asks:
06a. How would you rate your knowledge of linux?
I’m going to choose “I’ve never used linux before / only tried it a little“. In fact, I have tried it… “a little”. I work with Linux at my work for a QA procedure, but this is laid out for me on paper and has not required me to actually learn Linux. This is another question where you will just need to use your best judgment. Because I am looking for a good Windows alternative I am going with this answer so I can find something that is really easy to use.
Click “next” to proceed with the test.
The seventh question states:
07. Do you need easy access to a lot of ready-to-run software?
My answer here is definitely “Yes, please” because as I stated, I will be using this for my “office” type functions for writing and publishing, and also for entertainment purposes like music and videos. Since I have not used Linux before I would prefer this came with the operating system instead of requiring me to go online to find compatible software and then figure out how to install it.
The next question is:
07a. Will you be installing the distribuion on a PC or a Mac?
In my case “I am installing it on a PC“. Just pick the answer that applies to your system.
The follow-up question to this is:
07b. Please select what best fits you..
I’m going with the “I prefer to use perfectly stable, thoroughly tested software” option because as I mentioned I need to share this laptop with my fiancée. I also do not want any crashes or problems when I am typing up articles. I feel the answer here can really vary depending on what you are using the computer for. Since I am using it for “office” use, I want it stable. Select the option that best suits you.
Click “next” to proceed to the last question.
The final question is:
08. Does the Linux distro have to be free (gratis)?
I am choosing “Yes” because one of the biggest advantages of Linux is that you are not required to pay to use it. If you would like to know why someone might choose to pay for Linux, check the “What’s the advantage of paying?” option.
The follow-up question is as follows:
08a. Do you want to include Live CDs in the results?
I’m going to choose “No, just standard distributions” because I want an installed operating system on my laptop to replace Windows. If you do not want to replace Windows and still want to try out Linux this may be a good alternative. For more information on “Live CDs” check the “What’s the difference?” option.
define:live CD - LiveDistro is a generic term for an operating system distribution that is executed upon boot, without installation on a hard drive.
Once you have selected your answer you are done with test. Congratulations.
“Thank you! Now, let us find a Linux distribution that best suits your needs!”
You can now click the “next” button to see the test results and what distributions of Linux are recommended based on your answers.
As you can see based on my answers there are several recommendations for a Linux distro. They are:
Ubuntu
Kubuntu
OpenSuSE
Freespire
Mandriva
You will notice that each distribution has a link to the homepage where you can download the software. They also have a link below that which will let you see screenshots for each distribution, and a brief description of the distro so you can get a general idea about it before deciding on one.
This test is really convenient because it allows you to cover all the major considerations involved in switching to a new operating system, especially if you do not know what questions you need to ask yourself.
Now that these issues have been addressed I can make my final decision based on the visual look of the options that were recommended to me. All of these options should meet my criteria, so which ever one I think will make a visually good Windows alternative will be the option I go with.
After looking at the screenshots provided in the results I am going to go with Kubuntu (Hardy) as I feel this will provide a good Windows alternative for me. I will posting follow-up articles on my switch to Linux so users who are “new” (like me) can get a good feel for what it is like to approach the process having almost no knowledge of Linux.
As always thanks for checking out Pseudorant. If anyone else you know would be interested in this article please send them the link! I am hopeing this type of guide will appeal to people who have always wanted to switch but were nervous to do so for one reason or another.
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