First of all I must show off a little. I’m free again! Yeah, I’ve ditched my O365 subscription and moved to outlook.com. I’ve decided that paying 6$ for mailbox when you’re not using it for business is simply a waste. So far I’m happy, there are some things I’m missing. But there also are things which are better, like:
Categories - yeah they’re working far better in free version IM - as I’ve written before Lync is not very usable if most of your contacts is not using it; IM in outlook.
If you’re receiving error 0x8024402c in Windows Update then simply turn off any proxy you have set up in Internet Explorer. On the Internet you’ll find many advices, but it’s as simple as that. Unless you have some other network problems, but you would notice them rather quickly, it’s for sure not working proxy. It really sucks that this browser sets settings for the entire system not only for itself.
I’ve bought Office 365 Small Business Premium license as soon as it was possible, so on March 16th. And I simply love it. Let me just mention that transfer was really smooth. I haven’t done a thing. Then I’ve just bought new license, switched it for my account and cancelled my old plan. So easy. I had to reconfigure nothing. Well, I’ve uninstalled Office 2013 from my computer and installed it from scratch as I was using preview version of Home Suite, so wasn’t sure if transfer would be possible and clean.
I’m using Outlook and Exchange both at work and privately. And I love them. I like how rules are working in Exchange and the way it syncs. I like Outlook vast functionality. Maybe I’m strange, but I don’t really like Gmail’s WebUI, it just isn’t for me. Even though it has advantages, like ability to view images. I can’t imagine me using email through the browser without OWA. I also like Outlook categories more than Gmail’s labels.
Microsoft is retiring Messengerwhich would be replaced by Skype. I have nothing against, one client less to stay in touch with everybody. But I wonder if then Lync would be able to connect with Skype users. Right now Lync has ability to connect with Messenger users which are outside of our organization. Sometimes it doesn’t work as I’ve described here, but in general it’s nice functionality. If Lync would be able to communicate with Skype then I would definitely be happy.
I’m happy user of Windows 8, really. It’s nice OS, definitely worth 30 Euro I’ve paid for it. It has this nice feature that you can put one Windows App (yeah, it must be app of new type) on 1/4 of the screen and second one (any app this time) on the rest. So you can surf the web and chat without switching between windows. Works nice, feels nice, love it.
I’m subscriber to O365 for quite some time and Lync wasn’t fully functional (ability to chat with people outside of my domain) for me even once. Solutions I was able to find in Google were all the same, turn off External communications then turn it on again (and it doesn’t work, I’ve tried many times).
Today after some investigation I’ve finally found out where the problem is. It’s wrongly set SRV record.
Today I’ve experienced, again, the problem with Excel that it was calculating formulas only after clicking save, not while entering data. As it was pretty annoying I’ve googled the solution, it was for some ancient version of Excel, but I was able to adjust it to 2010 version. Here you go:
Go to **Formulas **-> Calculation Options. Set it to Automatic. It switches to manual if you open Excel file where somebody set it like that.
In Office 365, like in any other hosted exchange service, you can create multiple aliases for your account. You just need to (while logged into OWA, you must have admin rights):
Go to Options -> See All Options… Choose Manage My Organization. In Mailboxes section of Users & Groups select your mailbox and click Details. Expand E-Mail Options, click Add, enter your new name for email address, choose domain (if you have more than one), click OK.
As LifeHackerhasn’t published my comment, I’m still waiting for verification email to arrive, I’ve decided to write this post. I must admit that I’m a little angry after reading article comparing Office 365 with Google Apps. Actually only one paragraph made me mad, so I would quote it here entirely before I would get to the point:
User Experience
Google Apps v. Office 365 Feature Showdown: Which Should You Use?