Microsoft Authenticator App for Android: How to Disable Passwordless Sign-in or Change the Default Phone Where Sign-in Notifications Are Sent

As of October 2023 the current version of the Microsoft Authenticator app for Android does not offer a simple way to disable Passwordless sign-in once you enable it on a phone. The only way to disable this is to completely uninstall the app from your Android phone and then reinstall the app again. After the app is re-installed the passwordless sign-in option will be disabled and you’ll once again see the option to enable it if you want to.

If you have the Microsoft Authenticator app for Android installed on multiple phones you may have the problem that whenever you sign into a Microsoft app or service the sign-in notification is always sent to the Microsoft Authenticator app on your old phone or the first phone you enabled passwordless sign-ins with. As of October 2023 the only way it appears you can have these notifications sent to your newer phone is to totally uninstall the Microsoft Authenticator app from all phones but leave the app installed on just the phone you want to receive these sign-in notifications to. Once you do this confirm when you try to sign into a Microsoft service you get the sign-in notification to the phone you want it to go to. Once you confirm this you can re-install the Microsoft Authenticator app onto your other phones but don’t enable the passwordless sign-in option on these phones. Even if you do, the notifications should still only be sent to your new phone. It appears the passwordless sign-in notifications can only work with one phone and it only works with the first/only phone you set it up on.

Outlook 2016 Error – A required action was not successful because of an unspecified error

When trying to digitally sign an email message in Outlook 2016 for Windows running in Windows 10 you may get this error:

Error - A required action was not successful because of an unspecified error
“A required action was not successful because of an unspecified error”

Encrypting emails works fine, it is only when you try to JUST sign an email you get this error. This error appears to only occur with Outlook x64 (64-bit). When you search the internet on the errorĀ “A required action was not successful because of an unspecified error” in relation to Outlook for Windows the most common solution you come across is to run the command “sfc /scannow” in an elevated command prompt. This didn’t work for me when I tried it on Windows 10 Enterprise (Current Branch) with Outlook 2016 for Windows. The solution that worked for me was in this forum post. The solution in that post was to enable the email security option “Request S/MIME receipt for all S/MIME signed messages”. Once I did that I was able to sign emails successfully without getting any errors. Sending emails to non-exchange email users with this option enabled doesn’t appear to have any adverse effects.

How to Add a Checkbox and Other Form Controls to an Excel 2007 Spreadsheet

Excel 2007 changed the menu system. You can only add form controls by using the “Developer” tab in the menu ribbon. By default the “Developer” tab is disabled. To enable the developer tab do the following:

  1. Click the circular Microsoft Office icon in the upper left corner of the Excel program
  2. Click the “Excel Options” button
  3. Select the left menu option “Popular”
  4. Check the option “Show the developer tab in the ribbon”
  5. Now the developer tab will appear on the ribbon. You can select the tab and press the “Insert” button to display check boxes and other form controls which can now be inserted into the spreadsheet.

Open Command Prompt Here Feature in Vista

There is a very handy PowerToy for Windows which allows you to right-click any directory in the File Explorer and an option to “Open Command Window Here” would show up in the contextual menu. This option would allow you to open up a command prompt window with the directory already set to the directory you right-clicked on.

This feature is built into Windows Vista and can be activated by right-clicking on a directory name while holding down the shift key. When you do this, the contextual menu option “Open Command Window Here” will appear.