Tag Archives: MS Outlook

How Microsoft Set Users Up for Failure with Outlook and OneDrive

Getting a phone call from a client that Outlook was not working seemed like any other support call. I reviewed their setup, checked settings, and everything looked exactly as it had for years. Nothing had changed. After some digging, I decided to move their Outlook pst files out of the Synchronized OneDrive Documents folder into a local folder. They kept insisting I shouldn’t because it had always worked fine, for years now. But as soon as I did, Outlook started working again. That was the moment it became clear that the problem was not Outlook itself, but where Microsoft now chooses to store its data by default.

Historically, Microsoft Outlook stored PST files inside the AppData folder. Most users never saw that location, and that was probably a good thing. It was local, it was not synchronized to the cloud, and it stayed out of the way of background services.

In more recent years, Microsoft changed the default. New PST files were placed in “Documents\Outlook Files”. On the surface, this looked like a usability improvement. The files were easier to find and easier to back up. It felt cleaner and more transparent.

At roughly the same time, Microsoft began aggressively promoting OneDrive integration in Windows. In Windows 11, signing in with a Microsoft account strongly encourages enabling OneDrive folder synchronization. Documents, Desktop, and Pictures are commonly redirected into OneDrive. Many updates once again try to force upon users data synchronization to the cloud via OneDrive as I’ve had a number of clients suddenly have their data synchronized to the cloud after an update even though previously this was not the case!

That is where the design conflict appears.
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Get a Directory Listing Using VBA

Mastering Directory Listings in VBA: Exploring Folders and Subfolders with the Dir Function and FSO

Automating directory listings in VBA is a common requirement for Excel, Access, and other Microsoft Office solutions. Whether you need to list folders, enumerate subdirectories, or recursively scan an entire directory tree, VBA provides multiple ways to interact with the Windows file system each with distinct strengths and limitations.

In this article, you’ll learn how to generate directory listings in VBA using several proven techniques, including the built-in Dir function, the FileSystemObject (FSO) model, Shell.Application, WMI, and even PowerShell integration. We’ll explore when each approach is appropriate, how to handle recursive folder traversal safely, and why certain methods, especially Dir!, fail in nested scenarios.

If you’ve ever searched for “VBA list folders and subfolders”, “VBA recursive directory listing”, or “Dir vs FileSystemObject in VBA”, this guide walks through real-world, production-ready examples you can drop directly into your projects. By the end, you’ll know exactly which technique to use for simple folder scans, deep recursive listings, or advanced system-level automation.

Methods covered in this guide include:

  • Dir function (non-recursive directory listings)
  • FileSystemObject (FSO) for recursive folder traversal
  • Shell.Application for Windows-based folder enumeration
  • WMI for system-level and remote directory queries
  • PowerShell integration from VBA

 
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How to Automatically Add a BCC in Outlook for Specific Recipients or Domains

Ever wish you could automatically add a blind carbon copy (BCC, or CC, or even TO) to your outgoing emails without having to remember each time? If you often send important messages to certain clients, colleagues, or domains, setting up an automatic BCC rule in Outlook using VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) can save you time and ensure consistency.

In this guide, I’ll show you how to configure Outlook to automatically add a BCC address when sending emails to:

  • A specific recipient
  • Any recipient from a specific domain

Why Automate BCC in Outlook?

Some common use cases for automatically adding a BCC include:

  • Archiving all communication to a designated mailbox
  • Ensuring a supervisor or team inbox is always copied when emailing certain clients
  • Tracking outbound communication to specific domains (like partners or contractors)
  • Enforcing compliance processes within an organization

Instead of manually remembering to add the BCC, you can let Outlook do it for you!
 
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Microsoft Answers Is Being Retired

Did you see the new heading banner that appears when you go and access the (Microsoft) Access (Database) forum on Microsoft Answers?

Microsoft 365 and Office forum Moving to Microsoft Q&A

We are excited to announce that soon, the Microsoft 365 and Office forum will be available exclusively Microsoft Q&A. This change will help us provide a more streamlined and efficient experience for all your questions and discussions.

Starting July 16, you will no longer be able to create new questions here in the Microsoft Support Community. However, you can continue to participate in ongoing discussions and create new questions on Microsoft Q&A. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

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How-to Extract All The URLs From a String

I was helping out in a forum discussion in which a developer was asking for assistance in getting a listing of URLs found within a string of text and thought I’d share here the solution(s) I came up with as I’m sure he’s not the first, nor the last to need to do this type of thing.
 
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Extracting the Decimal Part of a Number Using VBA

In a previous post I demonstrated several ways we could extract the whole number from a decimal value:

Extracting the Whole Number From a Decimal in VBA
Sometimes we wish to extract the whole number from a decimal value. So say you are doing an arythmatic like: 43/5 Which returns a value of: 8.6 and you wish to solely extract the whole number, thus you wish to get: 8 Here are a few techniques you can employ in VBA.  

Today, I thought we should examine the flip side of that same issue and see how we can retrieve just the decimal portion of a number (or mathematical operation) using VBA.

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Auto Orienting Images via VBA

Have you ever loaded an image into say an Access Image control, or ‘legacy’ Web Browser control, only to have the image display flipped and/or rotated like:

when if you open it in most image software, preview it in explorer, open it in most modern day web browsers it displays just fine like:

and wondered what was going on exactly.

This happens because of something called the Exif Orientation tag, which is a piece of metadata stored inside many JPEG images by cameras.

Basically, when you take a photo, your camera records how you were holding the device (upright, sideways, upside down, etc.) and saves this information in the Exif Orientation tag (this is hidden information that is stored with the image). Instead of actually rotating the pixels in the image file, the camera just notes the orientation in the metadata. Some programs, like Windows Explorer, read this tag and automatically display the image in the correct orientation. Other programs might ignore the Exif Orientation tag and show the image as it is physically stored, which can result in the image appearing sideways or upside down
 
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The Best Approach To Reading Files In VBA

Years ago, I develop a simple function to read a ‘text’ file using VBA so I could pass the ‘text’ file’s content to a VBA variable to then be able to work with.  You can consult that article by referring to:

VBA - Read File into Memory
The following VBA function enables you to read files, for instance a text file, into memory (pass the read file’s content to a variable for instance) to further use within your application. Instead of reading each line, one by one, the following approach reads the entire file in one go. So this should be faster than other methods. …

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More recently, having over the years used a variety of different ways to read files, I was curious if one approach was better (from a performance standpoint)?
 
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