Resending a Calendar Invite in Microsoft Outlook

I find that you learn the most about something when you try to use it for something new. Last week I sent out a Microsoft Outlook invitation to a bunch of people across different parts of Sony. One person declined the invitation due to a schedule conflict. He then asked if we could reschedule for a different time. I responded that with so many people on the meeting invitation I had to select a time where I knew most people could attend. He then worked on changing his schedule so he could be a part of the meeting. Now I needed to re-invite him to the meeting.

It is very easy to add someone to an existing meeting but I have never had to add someone to an Outlook calendar invite who previously declined the meeting. Sure I could cancel the meeting and send a new invitation to everyone on my list. That seemed like a lot of work that might annoy everyone who responded that they could attend the meeting. So I looked up the proper steps according to Microsoft and it turned out to be rather simple.

The first thing to do is open the calendar invite and remove the person that originally declined the invitation. Outlook will send out an update to just that one person saying they have been canceled from the meeting when you save the updated invitation. Then add them back to the meeting and it will send out a new notification to just that one person asking them to accept or decline the invitation. Nobody else will get notified of the changes, which is exactly what I wanted for such a large number of people attending the meeting.

I use Outlook constantly but occasionally get to try things that are outside what I have done before. This trick is probably very intuitive if you stop and think about the steps to follow. I appreciated being able to look up the solution and get the software to do what I wanted. Hopefully this trick helps you too.

Windows vs. Mac for Reliability

Today I headed to work in my home office and tried to bring my Windows laptop out of sleep. I got a pretty little screen with a frozen cursor. I only had a few minutes until my next meeting and so I joined the meeting from my phone while I tried to figure out how to wake the laptop up. Ultimately I had to hold the power button for 10 seconds. The machine seemed to power cycle and then asked me if I wanted to troubleshoot the issue or just turn the laptop off. I chose the latter and then turned it back on. This is a weekly process and it has me somewhat frustrated.

I have 2 computers on my desk at home. The first is my personal Mac that I use to read personal e-mail, create YouTube videos, and manage my personal calendar. The second is my work laptop running Microsoft Windows 10. I use it for a lot of browser-based applications like Jira and Confluence. I also have Outlook installed for my work e-mail.

I have to reboot my Windows laptop about once a week, as I stated above. I checked how long my Mac has been running without being shut down and it has only been up for 4 days. That is because I had an operating system update over the weekend and that required a system reboot. The previous reboot for my Mac was the last software update about a month before.

When my laptop wouldn't wake up this morning and I had to join my meeting from my smartphone, I got really frustrated. My Mac never seems to need rebooting compared to my Windows laptop. Now I will admit that I am a bigger fan of the MacOS but I had hoped that Windows had become more reliable in the past half-decade. I would say that it has but is still nowhere near the MacOS is for reliability.

If you are someone that turns off your machine nightly, then Windows may work fine for you. If you are like me and just put your machine to sleep and keep it running non-stop, I would suggest running either Linux or MacOS.

My New Work Laptop

I have been at my current company for 2 months now and that has given me plenty of time to run my new work-provided laptop through its paces. It is a Dell Latitude 5320 and nothing special. It has an Intel i5 processor with 16GB of RAM and a 256GB hard drive. A simple description would be that it works for my daily activities as the director of software engineering.

Earlier in my career I did a lot of software development and this machine would not be nearly powerful enough. Now I do a lot of management tasks and that doesn't require a powerful machine. Truth be told, I could probably get by with a powerful Chromebook but I do like having a full-functioning computer. I do a lot of Microsoft Teams meetings and I use the camera a lot. I also use the computer for e-mail and I like having a full Microsoft Outlook client on my machine. That gives me the option to compose responses to e-mail while I am not connected to the Internet even though I have never had the need to do so.

That last sentence is very common when we think about what we want in a computer. While we may never use a feature, we want that option. Unfortunately it leads to wanting a machine that is more expensive than what we really need. Understanding that and being able to recognize it can ultimately save some serious money.

Another shift that has happened in the last few years is the idea of creating a document and storing it on your own computer. Now I am more apt to store a document on Google Drive or Microsoft's OneDrive as it is significantly easier to share. A document can be either a spreadsheet, word processing document, or presentation file. As they are stored somewhere other than my local machine, I don't need a large hard drive. If I did, I could always add an external drive and I have several laying around my office.

Honestly I never would have thought such a low-end laptop would work for me but I have to admit that it is. Should I need something a little more powerful, I can always go to our IT department and request it. For now that isn't necessary.

Annoying Software Updates

This morning I was minding my own business and going through e-mail when the Microsoft Office Auto Update program decided to take over my computer. I was typing mid-sentence when a dialog box appeared on my screen and stole the focus from a very important e-mail I was composing. I was slightly annoyed but decided that it was probably a good idea to get the update and let it continue. That was a mistake. The installation program decided that it didn't want any other programs running while it updated the Microsoft Office software. Now I can understand the need to shut down other Office programs like Outlook and Word, but why did it need to shut down my non-Microsoft Browser?

At this point I did what I should have done when the auto update program first appeared, I put it in the background and ignored it until I finished what I was working on. I sent my e-mail and then allowed the update to take place while I went and got a drink of water. When I got back, my computer was ready to use again.

I don't know who writes these auto update programs, but I am sure they lack any form of social skills. You know the type. Those people that interrupt important conversations with mundane and routine comments that should be kept quite until the grown-ups are done talking. I wonder if they started their careers as telemarketers calling people during dinner?