Jordan over at DownloadSquad has a post about how to repair Windows XP with only eight commands. Thankfully it's been quite some time since I've been in a position of having to fire up the Windows Recovery Console, but unfortunately problems do hit from time to time and it's worthwhile to be prepared. As Jordan recommends, it's a good idea to read the entire article before attempting the procedure it describes, as there are a few instances where a wrong step could mean catastrophe. But since the process is intended to bring you back from the edge, it's a risk worth taking - and if you're careful about it, it's no risk at all.

Although Microsoft Outlook has come a long way in the past ten years (wow, has it been that long?), there are still times when we get bit by an annoying behavior that requires a creative solution. Sometimes the solution is to go back and find a tool that we haven't had to use in ages. 

But first I should mention that ever since Google Calendar came out, I've been living a bit of a dual life. I still attempt to maintain my Outlook calendar to keep my Pocket PC up to date, but I've converted to using Google Calendar as my default - which means that when I forget to enter a date in one of my calendars, it's almost always Outlook that gets forgotten.

Today I realized that I had so many missing appointments that it was time to do something about it. So I exported my Google Calendar and imported it into Outlook, and in the process introduced hundreds of duplicate entries in my Outlook calendar. Removing a few duplicates manually is no big deal, but removing literally hundreds did not sound like much fun. A quick search on Slipstick found the old favorite, Outlook Duplicates Remover (scroll down a bit to find it). It's a utility built for previous versions of Outlook where duplicate items could become a problem due to synchronizing Pocket PCs via ActiveSync. Although development of the utility has stopped, it worked great on my Outlook 2003 setup. It boasts a number of options for configuring what should or shouldn't be considered a duplicate, for email, tasks, appointments, contacts and notes. 

Note that there is no preliminary preview phase when using this utility; it cuts straight to the removal of items, so make sure you're comfortable with the filter you've set, and also make sure you've backed up your PST file.