The day job, like most corporates, is a wall-to-wall Microsoft shop as far as the desktops are concerned. We’re in the middle of a protracted, expensive, and time-consuming migration from the vintage NT operating system to XP. However, as we’re moving from one Microsoft platform to another, surely everything will be seamless and compatible?

Not quite. This gem came out as a global email:

Important information for XP Users Logging on to an NT Machine

Your XP account allows you to logon to NT Workstations. However, there are some things you should be aware of that will help prevent any issue when logging back onto XP.

Outlook 97 may not start on NT 4.0 if you have logged on to XP and used Outlook 2003

If Outlook 97 fails to start (Dr Watsons), then start it with /Clean Views. To do this, enter the following in the Start/Run menu option:

“C:\program files\microsoft office\office\outlook.exe” /cleanviews

Your recurring appointments may become corrupt

Do not edit, change or accept recurring appointments when logged onto Windows NT/Outlook 97. If you do, they may corrupt irrecoverably.

So Microsoft clearly got that one right then. I particularly liked the idea that the poor user has to run a command-line program to fix the bug. I thought only Linux users had to do that sort of horrid hack? I also like the idea that the solution to being unable to access your email may be found in … an email sent out previously.

So when you hear that sticking with Microsoft is the easy option – caveat emptor.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 31st, 2006 at 8:56 pm and is filed under Open-source, The day job. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.