Follow this tutorial and in less than 1 minute your task shall be done!

Note: The mailbox that you want to add needs to be part of your company Address List (Created by your Exchange administrator

1. First, open Outlook and Click File >>  Info >> Account Settings

(For outlook 2003/2007 click on tools >> Account settings)

2. Highlight the account you want to edit and Click Change

3. Click on “More Settings” button down right of your screen

4. Click the “Advanced” Tab then Click “Add” as shown in the next picture

5. Type in the name of Additional Mailbox and Click OK

6. Verify the new mailbox is listed in the dialog box and then simply click OK to save

7. Click Finish to end

Done!  Your additional Mailbox should now be listed below your primary account!!

Especially if its a public folder that your client is eMailing to.

Here’s how to do it!

1. Open Outlook (Which ever version you have!)

Expand the Public Folders navigation panel (Down on the left)

Then right click on the Public Folder that you would like to configure to auto reply. Once this is done right click on the folder and go to properties.

Click the “Add Rule” button.

Then configure the rule you want to add by typing the Public Folder E-Mail address on the recipient field as follows:

Tick the “reply with” case and then click on “template” button

Configure the reply template you wish to have as follows

Click Save and close then hit “OK” on the folder assistant panels we have open. The rule will apply to the public folder and auto-reply any incoming email to the public folder. If you wish to occasionally edit the reply back – edit the template.

Enjoy auto-replying !

If you want to always move messages from a particular sender, simply select a message from that sender and then set a rule up based on that sender. Easiest to right-click that message, then choose Rules from the menu, and “Always move messages from …”

Then use an existing folder, or create a new one in the dialog box that appears:

You can also use other triggers, such as moving all messages where you are CC’d, rather than a direct recipient:

Choose Advanced Options:

Then you’re under way with the Rules Wizard:

Simply set all the parameters you want and you’re sorted!

In Microsoft Outlook, simply right click your account title:

Select Data File Properties at the bottom, and then click the Folder Size button:

Then wait for it to finish counting!

Mine, here, is approximately 760 MB, or 0.76 GB.

Until now, we’ve been able to act as an honest broker for our clients – recommending and suggesting new expenditure where appropriate, but offering complete objectivity on supplier. I’ve been quite reluctant to jump on the resell bandwagon, in truth – there’s no margin in it, and it’s a pain! And there’s always someone on the web that is prepared to undercut whatever price you offer – with the consequent pressure on our reputation. With most of our clients, we operate on an open margin of 15% - publishing our cost prices for total transparency.

Anyway – the reason why it’s coming to a head is that Microsoft’s Gold Partners are now required to commit to a sales target. I can see the benefit to Microsoft, but I’m really not sure that’s the best thing for my clients. In fact, I’m really sure that it’s not the best thing for my clients. The last thing I’d expect my colleagues to be thinking when working with our clients is “I need to make my Microsoft target - what can I sell in here?”

So I’m on the horns of a dilemma – sacrifice our bona fides with our clients on the altar of our relationship with a key partner? Or stand firm against the behemoth in defence of our freedom to determine our clients’ best interests?

I need to study much more closely the benefits that we get as a Gold Partner. For years it’s been a no-brainer: jump through the proscribed technical hoops and then be able to lean on Microsoft whenever a client’s need requires it. Now it’s not quite so simple… and I need to come to a decision quite quickly!

Watch this space!

The joy was, though, that throughout the journey I was able to work and rest and relax and reflect on eMails rather than simply react – and generally do a whole load of things that you simply can’t do when driving. In fact, I’m writing this blog post while sitting on the train on the return journey – just pulling into Haddenham & Thame Parkway - what a magnificent name for a train station! There’s about 45 minutes to go before we get to Marylebone.

Well done Chiltern Railways!

Just one little thing though – why can’t this have been the walk-up fare? Surely you can vary the pricing on trains according to demand. Both trains were nearly empty – and yet the moment the clock turned midnight, all the advance fares disappear and it’s walk up or move on. Or – more to the point – pay the full fare or take the car.

Sometimes you simply can’t plan your travel as well as the train companies would like you to. Please don’t force me back to the car!

No doubt our engineers will be blogging what they’ve been doing over the past few weeks, but the view from the top is that – for the first time - I can simply outline the engineering strategy and then get on with my day. Colleagues work out how to implement it, and then go ahead and do it. Yes, I still have some input at the tactical level, and I still need to approve all the change requests (especially the timing!), but it’s such a liberating feeling!

For the first time in the 20 years since I founded Electronic Workplace, it feels like I’m able to plough the fields without needing to return to them immediately to sow the seeds. Yes I still need to lend a hand when requested, but most of the implementation is now in the hands of really capable and trusted colleagues. Indeed, if I were to be more involved, I’ll probably slow things up and complicate matters.

So I’m happy to pull back and concentrate my efforts on what I’m best able to do for the firm. Helping define the sales and marketing strategy, assisting both efforts and ensuring that our overall performance is in line with our plans and strategy. And, of course, keeping score! On the company as a whole and individual areas of delivery.

Now that we have an effective delivery engine in place, it really feels like we’ve added several orders of magnitude to our resources. I’m looking forward to my new life!

OS: Windows Server 2008 Virtual Machine

Have you ever rebooted or shutdown a virtual machine and it failed to boot back up?

Makes it even worse if its a production server!!

So lets look at what options we have.

1. Windows startup repair disk?

2. Inspect the disk using DISKPART?

Lets take a more closer look at the error message…

“File: \Windows\system32\winload.exe. Status: 0xc000000e”

Notice that it does not specify a drive letter -  indicating that the boot drive is inaccessible.. ops..

If you try booting from the DVD Drive and run a “Repair Startup”, the repair disk will fail to find the OS therefor,

diskpart will be no use, as the disk in inaccessible.

This only happens if the boot drive has been converted to a dynamically expanding disk on the OS level… Not really an issue unless the boot sector gets corrupted!!

So the first step is to convert this disk back to a basic disk, this will allow us to access  it via DISKPART or run a Startup Repair.

To do this please do the follow:

1. Backup the VHD thats failing to boot (Make sure you do!)

2. Attach the VHD as a second drive to another virtual machine

3. Once the machine is on, verify you can access the drive you just attached, browse the files to double check.

4. Use a program to convert the disk back to a “Basic Disk” i.e. Disk Probe, EaseUS Partition Master

Note:

Do not use Disk Probe unless you know how to use it, you dont want to start messing with hexadecimal data!

The easiest option is to use EaseUS, very simple.

5. Reboot, see if the disk is still accessible

6. Re-attach the VHD back to the original VM

7. You will still have the same error message as the boot sector is still corrupted

8. Insert the correct Windows repair disk, the OS will now have been recoginised and just a simple click of “Repair startup” will fix the issue.

9. The machine will reboot and Windows should start back up.

Cannot open attachment “pathtovhd” Error. The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable.

So what happens when you can’t attach a VHD to a virtual machine?

1. Try edit the disk using Hyper-V built in tools?

2. Revert to latest working backup?

Im afraid not, if you have the error below;

“Cannot open attachment “pathtovhd” Error. The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable.”

Then you will not be able to edit the VHD as Hyper-V will generate a similar error to the one above.

There is one way we can edit the VHD or at least examine the VHD to see what kind of disk it actually is.

http://vmtoolkit.com/

1. Download VHD Resizer

2. Install

3. Launch the application

4. Browse to the VHD file that has been identified as corrupted.

Once you get to this stage you will be given some options. In most cases the actual corrupted VHD is a dynamically expanding disk.

5. Specify a new destination and select “Fixed” disk, specify a new size (try to make it a bit bigger than it already is)

This process could take a while, however once completed you will able to attach the VHD to your virtual machine. The benefits of

using VHD Resizer is that, it makes a copy of the VHD instead of editing the corrupted VHD directly.

Regardless of the countless arguments that just about anyone can deploy to show the folly of this perspective, we were given one month’s notice of the cancellation of our contract when we decided that we couldn’t guarantee the quality of our service if we had to mobilise global delivery within three months.

Since then, I’ve had a very clear rule – no one client will represent more than 10% of our turnover, or 25% of our net profit. In fact, I get nervous if it’s an industry sector that represents that, let alone an individual client. So – what happens when a big new opportunity wants to turn into a client? Turn the business away? Clearly not! But – as happened last Autumn when a big financial services client in the City of London signed an IT outsourcing contract with us, we estimated the contribution from this contract would add around 50% to our net profit – so it would represent some 35% of it.

We had to work out how to reduce our exposure. Put simply, we decided that every single penny of extra profit – after accounting for additional costs and tax etc – would be added to our marketing budget. Essentially, this doubled the marketing budget for 2011. So – we’d make no money from the contract while it represented too high an exposure.

It’s been an uphill task to be honest – growing profitability by 25% by adding clients, rather than shedding staff – in the teeth of a nasty recession – isn’t easy. But it’s also not rocket science – intelligently deployed sales and marketing resources do actually work! How many businesspeople have you heard cut back on sales and marketing effort then listen to them complain about lack of business! And they blame it on economic conditions!

Throughout 2011, we’ve added new clients steadily. Not easily, but steadily nonetheless. And our paranoia on client service has meant that we haven’t lost any. Through the end of July, the target was in sight and – well – we signed an outsourcing contract with a fast growing courier company earlier this week. That contract takes us over the line – no longer does any one client represent more than 10% of our turnover or more than 25% of our net profit! Yay!

Where do we go now? Well – financial services as an industry – still represents around 40% of our turnover. That’s uncomfortable. So I’ve kept the marketing budget at its current level. We’ve delivered a 25% increase in sales in 10 months. Our pipeline suggests that we can maintain that pace for the next couple of months. I hope to keep filling the top of that hopper.

How many small businesses do you know that have such a massive exposure to a single client? How have you / they dealt with it? Has it been dealt with, or have heads simply been buried in the sand on this?