Microsoft Office Reference Guide

Mar 26, 2004

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Making Office 2007 (and Vista) Work Properly

In my previous update I detailed some severe issues that I had in setting up and using a brand new Dell laptop with Windows Vista and Office 2007, specifically Outlook 2007.

After stewing on the situation overnight I swallowed my pride and decided to call Dell Tech Support. This is akin to asking for directions while driving and has the additional problem of generally resulting in losing my temper; as a presumably advanced user I like to ask questions and get answers.

I was not looking forward to hearing, "Yes sir, I am eager to help you, can you tell me please what operating system you are using?"

Especially since Dell should have all that info already...

Amazingly that was not what happened. Instead I got a very bright young Canadian who responded directly to several specific questions. It turned out that my Outlook 2007 problem (where the taps on the keyboard showed up on my screen after several seconds of delay) was specifically related to installed software for the Dell Media Direct feature set — this allows you to play DVDs and audio CDs without booting up.

Why this would affect Outlook I had no idea, but there it was, under Add or Remove Programs, the Cyberlink Add In Manager for Outlook. Apparently this varmint slows down your Outlook in the manner I described and I was able to uninstall it.

Of course if you've used Vista you may have discovered that in Control Panel there is no longer an Add or Remove Programs options. (That would be way too easy). You now need to locate Programs and Features (in Classic View), sufficiently renamed and hidden to be almost impossible to find.

My understanding of Classic View is that is should resemble how it used to work. Why Classic View has changed that I have no idea.

But I was sufficiently excited about the results of uninstalling Cyberlink's Outlook Add In that I continued with the Canadian expert into some other areas.

He asked me about the Outlook Add Ins I might have installed myself. The only Add In I was using was Anagram, a favorite program that uses Artificial Intelligence to populate Contact fields and Appointments with information copied to the clipboard.

I had looked under Outlook Tools > Options for Add Ins to uninstall before calling Dell, but again, that was the old way of doing it.

The Canadian pointed me elsewhere — the "Trust Center" under the Tools menu.

Outlook Trust Center

For Office 2007 users the Trust Center brings up a window that closely resembles the one opened by the Office Button in Word, Excel and PowerPoint, but since there is no Office Button in Outlook (although there is a Ribbon, sort of... once you open an email message or contact item you do get a Ribbon) they hid a bunch of important stuff in the Trust Center.

When I opened the Trust Center of Outlook 2007 I could barely contain my excitement — there was an option to turn off the default in Outlook not to download images into HTML email.

I hate having to right-click to see what I am receiving in an email message.

Figure 1309

Next I opened the Add-Ins window and lo and behold — look at all those &%$#@ Add Ins!

Figure 1310

Of course you can't just get rid of them from here — you need to click Go and uncheck the options boxes for the Add Ins you figure you will never use.

How do you know you will never use them? Good question. I figure if I need them I can always reload them — but since I don't use Microsoft Exchange Server its add ins are a good place to start.

I might interject here that some of these will not go quietly. Others will not go at all — there is a dialog box that pops up that says you can't get rid of the sucker without going into the Registry.

Uh oh.

Of course the basis for all of this is that Microsoft has been hammered on security issues for a long time, so now they opt for high security and also high intrusiveness.

This also accounts for various Vista "features" like "are you sure you want to really really really run this program, even though you clicked it three times?"

This is apparently called User Account Controls — it is also very annoying when you want to move files (once you finally set up your network). Then you get stuff like, do you want to merge this folder. Are you sure? This file too? And this one? How about this folder.

That means you can't just drag a folder over and walk away — you need to reassure Windows you really want to overwrite the files.

So User Account Controls means Microsoft is controlling you and everything else.

Believe it or not you can disable some of this stuff — in the MsConfig program that still exists somewhere in Vista. You need to open the search panel in the Start menu, type in "msconfig" and hit return. Since this program is so useful and dangerous, it is well hidden.

Figure 1311

In the Tools tab of MsConfig you can disable User Account Controls. Highlight the disable option and click Launch.

This opens a DOS window (hello!) and does something and then you can close the DOS window.

Unfortunately the checks and balances for moving files remain, but you can now load programs or install stuff without being asked if you really really really want to.

You can use the Startup tab of MSConfig to turn off a lot of resource sucking icons in the System Tray, and if you open Services, and click to hide all Microsoft Services, you can also remove services that are running by programs you didn't even know you had.

Now admittedly this is dangerous stuff — and it requires a reboot to apply it. But if you don't like the results you can always set a restore point before you do it and go back, or reopen MSConfig and re-enable anything that seems missing.

The fact is that most of these programs don't need to be running just because you started Windows; for example, your printer will probably load its print monitor and driver when you actually print.

(Sounds like a plan, doesn't it?)

If I seem a bit vexed and out of sorts about some of this is because I just don't get the point of creating a brand new operating system with completely different ways of doing everything.

I've gone through this now to Windows 95, Windows 98(2) and Windows XP. You would think that they would settle on a single interface and user logic and continue to build on it.

Similarly in Office 2007 in most cases clicking in the Ribbon opens a set of very familiar dialog boxes. While PowerPoint 2007 has some nice new features, for information workers who have finally learned routines in Office 2003, why do they need to search for the same commands in a brand new program?

One final example. In setting up my Outlook 2007 email, I suddenly could not send mail. It worked for a while but in typical fashion suddenly stopped working an hour later.

Only when I checked an option to log in to my receiving server first, in an Advanced options window under mail setup, did it finally start working again(?)

I check the same setup on my desktop — despite the fact that the same option was not enabled I can send mail fine (for now).

Now, this is an IT web site — so most of you readers probably are okay with figuring a lot of this stuff out or finding the answers using Google, or in my case, amazingly, tech support.

But I think about the average home business user, who just wants to type a letter, print it and go on with his or her life.

It took me nearly three days to set up my Dell with an operating system and Office suite I had already used for a while on my desktop. To me, this level of obtuseness is inexcusable.

Furthermore, after waking up to a Windows Update with my Dell rebooted, some of the settings I had entered to speed up Outlook 2007 were gone and needed to be reset!

If I buy a new model Infiniti, Acura, Mercedes or even a Honda, I don't need the owners manual to start the engine. I may need it to set up my stereo, but most of the controls build on the old versions.

The Windows in Vista are beautiful and Mac-like — they are translucent and have page folds when they open and close.

But I would much rather have ugly windows and be able to run my computer the first time just by turning it on. It's sort of like buying a phone that takes pictures and plays music but having a problem getting a dial tone.

Lastly, kudos to Dell for having tech support that really responds to the questions of users quickly and effectively.

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