Category: Microsoft

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 error “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.

How to Disable User Access Control (UAC) in Windows Vista

User Access Control (UAC) is the feature of Windows Vista that requires the need to always confirm administrative actions by typing in your password. If you disable this then your account can be configured to run with administrative privileges all the time like you could do in Windows XP. This results in you not having to type in your password all the time to do administrative functions on your computer like installing programs. Here is how to disable UAC:

  1. Launch the MSconfig app by opening up the command prompt and typing: msconfig
  2. Select the Tools tab.
  3. Select the Disable UAC option.
  4. Click the Launch button to execute the command line which will disable UAC.
  5. Reboot the computer to put the changes into effect.

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