Resize picture attachments using Windows 7 or Outlook

Manage Picture Attachments using Microsoft Outlook

If you email photos using Microsoft Outlook, you might like a quick and easy way to "shrink" the file size.


In Outlook 2007, after you attach a photo, click the Insert tab on the ribbon, and then click the dialog box launcher in the bottom right corner of the Include tool group. The Attachment Options task pane will open on the right side of the message window.


Notice the Picture Options area in the bottom half of the pane: click the drop down arrow and choose to resize your picture to Small, Medium, or Large size. You might want to click the check box at the bottom of the pane to automatically "Show when attaching files."

In Outlook 2010, this feature has been changed. To downsize a picture attachment in 2010, after you have attached the picture, click the File tab to access the backstage view of the message window. In the Info category, choose the option at the top to "Resize large images when I send this message." Images will be a reduced to a maximum of 1024x768 pixels, which must be done on a per-message basis. Click the File tab again to return to the message window.

A third option exists for Windows 7 users. Select one or more picture files in an Explorer window. Right click on a file name and choose Send to/ Mail recipient from the menu. The Attach Files dialog box will appear. Choose Smaller, Small, Medium (the 1024x768 default), Large, or Original Size. Click the Attach button and a new message will be created with the images attached and sized as you have selected.

- Irene Heckert, Microsoft Office Expert; CTT, MCAS, ITIL Certified, MOS LinkIn with Irene

Security Tip for Windows Users

Hey, Windows Users! Thought this article was important enough to pass along, especially if you are dead set on closing all of your vulnerabilities:

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/the-one-security-tool-every-windows-user-should-know-about/2848

Good luck!

- Bob Reinsch, Microsoft Exchange/Windows 7 Expert; MCT, MCITP LinkIn with Bob

Exchange 2010: LFAQ's (Less Frequently Asked Questions)

It's fairly easy to navigate Microsoft's website and find the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) for Exchange 2010. I've noticed in class that some questions seem to pop up, but with a little less frequency. 

I recently came across a nice little blog that features the LFAQ - less frequently asked questions...thanks to Clint Boessen for this!

 

http://clintboessen.blogspot.com/2010/01/exchange-2010-licensing-and-high.html

- Bob Reinsch, Microsoft Exchange/Windows 7 Expert; MCT, MCITP LinkIn with Bob

Get a jump on your files: Windows 7 jump lists

In Windows 7, jump lists are a list of the files you have opened recently from an application. These appear on the Start menu when you point at the application. Click on the file name and the file will open.

But wait... there's more! If you have a file you want to have quick access to, "pin" it to the list. Slide your mouse over the file name, and then click on the pushpin you see to the right of the name. The file will now appear at the top of the recent list. If you need to remove a file name from the list, just click the push pin again to "un-pin" it.

- Irene Heckert, Microsoft Office Expert; CTT, MCAS, ITIL Certified, MOS LinkIn with Irene

Windows 7 Administration: Create your own toolbox!

I recently spent a couple of days on-site teaching a group of admins some of the ins-and-outs of Windows 7, and one of my students commented that it would be nice to have all of the tools available in one spot, instead of having to look in the Control Panel for this tool, dig into Computer Management for this other one, etc. 

After doing a little bit of a search, I think I found the solution she was looking for and shared it with her and the rest of the admins, and it seems appropriate to share it with everyone else as well.

Here's the trick - create a folder in explorer, and give it a name. The example I found use the name "Everything", but you can name it whatever you like, "Command Center", "Master Links", it doesn't really matter, as long as it makes sense to you. I'm going to stick with the "Everything" example. After you've created it, go to rename the folder and append this string to the name "{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}", so the full name becomes "Everything.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}" (Don't forget the period between the name of the folder and the extension). 

After you have done that, you'll notice a change in the icon for the folder and when you open it up, you'll have links to just about everything you'll ever need to administer Windows 7.

Thanks to techrader.com for this tip - here's the link to this tip, and many others!

- Bob Reinsch, Microsoft Exchange/Windows 7 Expert; MCT, MCITP LinkIn with Bob

What exactly is a Zero Day attack?

This is a question I get all the time from clients and students.  I tell them a "zero day attack" is when a vulnerability is discovered in an application or an OS and is unknown to the vendor or general public and a patch has yet to be released to fix it.  The term zero day indicates basically that the attack could happen anytime because the system does not have a patch to fix the vulnerability.

Zero day attacks are the worst situation for security folks because we just do not know when said attack will happen.  We are left in kinda of a limbo wondering if and when the attack might happen to our systems.

Here is a current example:

1)  Microsoft has a known vulnerability in IE 8 for certain OS's.  The vulnerability may allow an attacker to create a cross site scripting (XSS) attack to gain access to a system.  Microsoft has not issued a patch but is investigating the issue.  link

2) Vuepen Security has confirmed that this is a vulnerability.  link

3) Metasploit also has included this vulnerablity and the actual code to exploit it in there latest release of Metasploit as well.  link

(By the way if you are not familiar with Metasploit check out my video.  link)

The only good news is that we can use Metasploit to test if our systems are vulernable to the attack, the bad news is hackers can also use Metasploit to attack a system.  This is what makes a zero day attack so dangerous.

Only time will tell on a zero day attack.

- Tom Pruett, Cisco & Security Expert; MCT, CTT+, CISSP, CWNA, CEH, CHFI, CCSI, CCNA, MCSE LinkIn with Tom

Google Chrome and Auto Postbacks: What You WON'T See When Testing ASP.Net Apps

One common way developers transform a static web page into a dynamic web page (one that could contain different content based on varying circumstances) is by writing logic on the web server that essentially "generates" the HTML code that is needed.

Perhaps the ASP.Net code for my homepage is set to include a certain banner image if it's Friday, but a different banner for all other days of the week. When you visit my website, your browser is making a request to my web server. The web server checks the day, and only then sends the appropriate HTML code back to your browser. If today is Friday, you'll see my Friday banner at the top; otherwise you'll see another.


This is because the web server will send different HTML code based upon the circumstances. You can literally see the difference in this HTML code if you use the View Source feature in your browser on a Friday and then again on another day. It's different code being "translated" by your browser into content on the page.

Now, one of the most common ways in ASP.Net applications to dynamically update a page that’s already been requested (barring the use of AJAX) is to let the user make some choice that causes an auto postback. This means that you are already viewing a page in a browser, but something causes a new request to be made to the web server and it "re-generates" the HTML code for this same page, essentially updating it with new content.


For example, I might create a DropDownList that contains options for different headings to display on a page, then set the DropDownList's AutoPostBack property to true, and set its default event handler (SelectedIndexChanged) to display the heading chosen from the DropDownList. This configuration will cause an auto postback when you choose a different option from the drop down box on the page - meaning another request back to the web server to update this page. The web server will generate the appropriate new HTML code and send it back to your browser, where it will be reinterpreted and you'll see the new heading displayed.


Sample Code for an auto postback
Click on either image below for sample auto postback code. The first is the aspx page. The second is its aspx.cs C# code-behind file.

ASPX page code - auto postback example

ASPX.CS code-behind page - auto postback example



This is a very common technique. And for ASP.Net developers testing their application, it would be common not only to verify the browser screen has updated as expected after an auto postback, but also to use the View Source feature of the browser to see how the new code was generated.


Common Browser Handling of auto postback and ViewSource
Below is an example of the browser screen and View Source HTML code in Internet Explorer 8, before and after choosing an option from the dropdown list and causing an auto postback. Most browsers will display this behavior.

Common browser handling - Screen and ViewSource at initial page load:



Common browser handling - Screen and ViewSource after auto postback:



Notice how in the second image, after the user chose "Wacky Heading" from the dropdown list, two things happened? The heading changed in the browser screen, and the View Source window reflected the updated code that had been sent back from the server.


Google Chrome Handling of auto postback and ViewSource
But if you're using Google Chrome, the View Source won't show the updated code. Unlike all the other major browsers out there, Google Chrome does not actually update the HTML code that its View Source displays when you "post back" to the same page with updated code. It will still show the code generated from the first request to the web server (as in the "is-it-Friday-or-not" example above), but if there is an auto postback that results in different HTML code for the page, Google Chrome's View Source will only show the original HTML code, which is very misleading. The page you see in Chrome will update (say with the new "Wacky Heading" chosen from the drop down list) but if you view the source, Chrome will still be showing the originally requested HTML code file.


Google Chrome handling - Screen and ViewSource at initial page load:



Google Chrome handling - Screen and ViewSource after auto postback:



I'm personally still a big fan of the Chrome browser for many types of browsing, but ASP.Net programmers should beware of this bug when testing.

***2011/09/30 Update:

Note, since this post was created, Chrome appears to have "gone legit" in regard to its implementation of the View Source feature, and handles the process in the traditional way now, updating the source after postbacks. (Thanks to the screenshots from the original post, though, you can still see the behavior for a browser that handles postbacks in this way. Incidentally, you'll still see this type of behavior in any browser where an asynchronous JavaScript postback manipulates the DOM behind the scenes, and the View Source fails to be updated.)

- Eric Reid, Design Expert; CTT+, ACI (Adobe Certified Instructor), ACE (Adobe Certified Expert), i-Net+, IC3 LinkIn with Eric

Installing RSAT on Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise or Ultimate Machine

A common question that I am receiving from students in many classes is how to install the Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) on a Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise or Ultimate computer. The first task is to download the Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 7. 

To find the tools click here. Once on the website, select either the 32 or 64-bit RSAT and click download. Once the tools are downloaded, log on to the Windows 7 computer as a member of the Administrators group. 

1. Double-click the package to unpack it. When prompted to install the KB click Yes. 

2. Read and accept the License agreement. 

3. Wait for the installation to complete. Once the installation of the RSAT is complete, continue to the next step.

4. Click Start, select Control Panel, and then select Programs.

5. In the Programs and Features area, select Turn Windows features on or off. If prompted by User Account Control, click Continue.

6. In the Windows Features dialog box, expand Remote Server Administration Tools. Expand the selections and choose the remote management tools that you wish to install. Once you have completed your selections, click OK.

7. The Start menu should now have display the Administration Tools. If not, follow the next steps to add it.

• A) Right-click the Start menu and select Properties.
• B) On the Start menu tab, click Customize.
• C) In the Customize Start Menu dialog box, scroll down to the System   Administrative Tools and select Display on All Programs menu and the Start menu.
• D) Click OK.

- Janet Nichols, Windows Server Expert; MCT, MCSE, MCITP: Enterprise Admin, Server Admin; Windows 7 EDA, MCTS LinkIn with Janet