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TECHNOTES
News
From Your IT Department
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In
Today's Issue:
VIRUS
ALERT
Check
here for info on the latest viruses we have run into with
other clients. Remember, a server based anti-viral program
is the best defense for stopping viruses!
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OFFICE
TIP
Have
you ever wondered about all the advanced features and capabilities
of Office? This section is to help enlighten you to the
productivity enhancing features of the Office suite, especially
the communication tool Outlook. Check here for updated info
every month.
On a
network with MS Outlook you can assign tasks to other people
which will insert the task onto their personal task list
and link with your task in your personal task list. Then
it will keep you up to date on that task and even give you
a status report when they complete it.
It's
easy to setup:
These
instructions are for Outlook XP. Earlier versions follow
a different procedures path.
- To
create a new
task, on the File
menu, point to New, and
then click Task Request.
To assign an existing task, in the
task list, open the task you want to assign, and
click Assign Task.
- In
the
To box, enter the name
of the person you want to assign the task to. To select
the name from a list, click the To
button.
- For
a new task, in the Subject
box, type a task name. (In an existing task, the
Subject box is already filled in.)
- Select
the due date and status options you want.
- Select
or clear the Keep
an updated copy of this task on my task list check
box and the Send
me a status report when this task is complete check
box.
- If
you want the task to repeat, click the
Actions menu, click Recurrence,
select the options you want, and then click OK.
For Help on an option, click the question mark , and
then click the option.
- In
the body of the task, type instructions or information
about the task.
- Click
Send.
Note
If you assign a
recurring task, a copy of the task will remain in
your task list, but it won't be updated. If you selected
the Send
me a status report when this task is complete check
box, you will receive a status report for each completed
occurrence of the task.
Reassign
a task after the recipient declines your request
- In
your
task list, open the declined
task.
- On
the Actions menu, click
Assign Task.
- In
the
To box, enter the name
of the person you want to assign the task to.
- Click
Send .
Reassign
a task that someone assigned to you
- Open
the message that contains the
task request.
- On
the Actions menu, click
Assign Task.
- In
the
To box, enter the name
of the person you want to assign the
task to.
- Select
or clear the Keep
an updated copy of this task on my task list check
box and the Send
me a status report when this task is complete check
box.
- Click
Send .
- submitted
by Dan Brenner
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LESSONS
LEARNED (real life stories)
Don't
let this happen to you! A major distributor located
in San Diego called one day to say that they think they
have a virus on their network. They had Norton's anti-virus
program installed on some of the workstations, but nothing
protecting the network as a complete system. One of the
86 employees opened an email that was sent to all the other
employees and many of the clients. Our engineering staff
attacked the problem right away. They found that a visual
basic virus attacked the network and all the client's graphic
files were corrupted. The engineering staff installed an
anti virus package at the NT server that checked all incoming
email and even checked websites visited by anyone on the
entire network. This was to stop any further virus's before
they got in. The company's network was down two days while
the damaged files were slowly found and restored off a backup
DAT drive. The management figured it not only cost them
to eradicate the virus but they lost money for the two days
the network was down. All this due to a virus attack that
could of been prevented had a network anti-virus package
been installed. An anti-virus program installed at each
workstation is not only expensive but doesn't protect the
network and server. Don't let this happen to you! Let this
be a lesson learned through someone's else's failures -
written by Dan Brenner.
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TECH
NOTES (network administration)
It
is important to properly maintain your equipment to avoid
failures and to catch anything starting to fail before that
failure causes loss of data. One way to help avoid problems
is to run SCANDISK every month at least. Log any errors
that come up so that you can spot trends beginning. Make
sure that the automatically fix option is not checked. Many
of our clients who experience hard drive failures have been
running scandisk with the automatically fix failures checked
and therefore were unaware of the problems brewing. When
their drive finally crashes and we check it out, we find
in too many occurrences that scandisk was failing for a
while, sometimes months, before the drive actually crashed
and all data was lost. - written by
Dan Brenner
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FOR
THE TECHNICALLY INCLINED
This section will provide latest technical description of
a technical problem we have run into over the last month
for those people who like fixing things themselves.....
SUMMARY
Occasionally
a problem occurs with Office Setup, and an error message
may or may not appear. In either case, you may need to use
an installation log file as one of your tools to determine
the issue.
This article discusses a technique for interpreting the
information in Office installation log files.
MORE INFORMATION
How
to Create a Log File
Office
XP Setup automatically creates log files in your \Temp folder.
The log files have names similar to the following:
Log file for Log file name
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Setup.exe Office XP <edition> Setup(####).txt
Windows Installer
(System Files Update) Office XP <edition> Setup(####)_Task(0001).txt
Windows Installer
(Office installation) Office XP <edition> Setup(####)_Task(0002).txt
where
<edition> is the edition of Office that you are installing.
For example, these files may be:
Office
XP Professional Setup(0001).txt
Office XP Professional Setup(0001)_Task(0001).txt
Office XP Professional Setup(0001)_Task(0002).txt
The
#### characters in the log file names are numbers beginning
with 0001. They increment by 1 each time that you run Setup.
Therefore, the log file with the highest number is the log
file for the most recent time that you ran Setup.
NOTE: You may have only a Windows Installer log file
for the Office installation and not for the System Files
Update installation. On most versions of Microsoft Windows,
the System Files Update installation is not required, so
no log file is created for it. In this situation, the Windows
Installer log file for the Office installation will have
Task(0001) appended to the log file instead of Task(0002).
Depending on the problem that you are experiencing, you
may need to view the Setup log file or the Windows Installer
log file for either the System Files Update or the Office
installation.
Setup
Log Files
The
log file for Setup.exe is very short compared with the Windows
Installer log file. This is because the number of tasks
that Setup.exe performs is limited to items like the following:
- Reading
the Setup.ini file.
- Parsing
the command line for properties and switches that need
to be passed to the Windows Installer. A common mistake
is to include the following on a command line:
Transform=path\transform
file name.mst
Using
this on the command line does not produce an error during
the installation, but the transform will not be applied
to the installation. The correct command line should
be:
Transforms=path\transform
file name.mst
The
Setup.exe log file contains the command line that you
specified for the installation, so you must check the
log file for typographical errors such as the one shown
in the preceding example (the letter "s" is
missing from the end of "Transform" in the
first command line).
- Verifying
that the correct operating system and service pack are
being used.
- Checking
the version of the Msi.dll file.
- Starting
Instmsi(w).exe to install the Windows Installer, if necessary.
- Checking
for installed beta versions of Office XP.
- Checking
the version of the Tahoma and TahomaBD fonts.
- Determining
whether the System Files Update installation needs to
be run before the Office installation. If yes, the necessary
command line to install the System Files Update is passed
to the Windows Installer.
One
job of Setup.exe is to install the Windows Installer. If
this process fails, Setup.exe cannot pass control to Msiexec.exe,
the main Windows Installer executable. The following are
some of the error messages that may appear during Setup
when there is a problem installing the Windows Installer:
Installing this product requires the Windows Installer.
An error occurred when installing or upgrading the Windows
Installer on your system.
You may try manually updating the Windows Installer by
double-clicking Instmsi(w).exe, and then re-running setup
for this product.
In this
case, you should look at the Setup log first (Office XP
edition Setup(####).txt). If you receive this error
message, you may see text similar to the following in the
Setup log:
Loading MSI Library....
D:\WINNT\System32\MSI.DLL
.. The Windows Installer is not present.
Reading settings file
\\server\share\XP_Admin\FILES\SETUP\SETUP.INI
Located: \\server\share\XP_Admin\PROPLUS.MSI
Package to install: \\server\share\XP_Admin\PROPLUS.MSI
Checking for Windows Installer....
D:\WINNT\System32\MSI.DLL
.. The Windows Installer is not present.
Tahoma (TrueType) listed in \\server\share\XP_Admin\FILES\SETUP\SETUP.INI
is Version 2.30
Tahoma (TrueType) is already on the system, no need to install newer font
Tahoma Bold (TrueType) listed in
\\server\share\XP_Admin\FILES\SETUP\SETUP.INI is Version 2.30
Tahoma Bold (TrueType) is already on the system, no need to install newer
font
File "...INSTMSIW.EXE" could not be located
Installing this product requires the Windows Installer. An error occurred
when installing or upgrading the Windows Installer on your system. You may
try manually updating the Windows Installer by double-clicking
InstMsiW.EXE, and then re-running setup for this product.
Install or upgrade of Windows Installer failed.
This
action failed to locate Instmsiw.exe on the Office source
location. There may be network problems or problems reading
your computer's CD-ROM drive, or Instmsiw.exe may be missing
or damaged.
If you suspect problems with the command-line properties
and switches that you are using, these items are also listed
in the Setup log file. For example, if you use the following
command line to run Setup:
f:\Setup.exe
companyname="my company" /qb
the
following text is included in the Setup log:
Launch Setup
4/27/01 1:49:46 PM
companyname="my company" /qb
Detected Windows Info:
PlatformId = 2
MajorVersion = 4
MinorVersion = 0
Setup path: \\server\share\XP_Admin\SETUP.EXE
Adding property...companyname="my company"
Recognized command line switch: /qb
-and-
Office-specific properties added: companyname="my company"
General properties added: LAUNCHEDFROMSETUP=1 SETUPEXEPATH=\\server\share\XP_Admin\
Writing Task:
D:\WINNT\System32\msiexec.exe
/I \\server\share\XP_Admin\PROPLUS.MSI
METRICSSOURCE="\\server\share\XP_Admin companyname=""my company"" /qb"
companyname="my company" LAUNCHEDFROMSETUP=1
SETUPEXEPATH=\\server\share\XP_Admin\ /qb
NOTE:
Setup.exe does not actually use these command-line switches
and properties; it just passes them to Msiexec.exe (the
Windows Installer).
If the log file for Setup.exe ends in text similar to the
following (return code: 1603)
4/20/01 3:34:27 PM Chained install return code: 1603
Shutting down chained setup processing.
Set Verbose logging for subsequent setup.
***** Setup exits
4/20/01 3:34:27 PM
(return = 1603)
there
was a problem with the Windows Installer portion of the
installation. In this case, you must review the Windows
Installer log files for the System Files Update or the Office
installation, or both. Stay tuned for more on setup problems
- submitted
by Dan Brenner
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You For Being A Contract Client! We are always here to help
you in any way we can. We are YOUR Information Technology
Department. Help Us Help You! If you are changing your technology
please call us to discuss the details with you, so you can
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