Yes, I know there are ways for us techies to get around the reboot scenario. You can search and delete the .LCK file and then go into Task Manager and kill every task associated with Notes, but unless you're far geekier than me, you won't be able to remember every single task that Notes owns. This is especially true if you're running the Notes client, Domino Designer, and the admin client all at once (as I frequently do).

So, what are we to do? Should we just tuck our tail between our legs, curse at the computer gods for destroying our hard work, and then reboot anyway? To that I say an emphatic, "No gosh darn way!" I say we should zap notes, or at least call a medic.

Give a hoot, don't reboot.

Okay, now that I have my puns out of the way, I'll tell you what I mean. You no longer have to reboot or search the task list on your computer when attempting to recover from a Notes problem. You can use two pieces of software that will do the dirty work for you, IBM Global Service's ZapNotes or Cassetica's NotesMedic.

Zapping Notes into shape
ZapNotes, shown in Figure A, is a program by Chris Curtis, a member of the IBM Global Services Architecture and Infrastructure team.

FIGURE A

Here's the handy About ZapNotes screen. Click picture for a larger image.

Its one and only reason for being is to allow you to start Notes after a crash without having to reboot your computer. IBM Global Services supports a huge amount of Notes users, and I'm sure this utility alone has saved countless hours of work time in their user and support community.

Now I know you would gladly pay several hundred dollars for this kind of functionality, but there's no need. The reason? Well, ZapNotes is a utility freely available on Notes.net (at http://www.notes.net) in the Sandbox application area. Go to the Sandbox (the full URL is in our product availability section at the end of this article), search for ZapNotes, and you'll find the application.

Once you've downloaded and unzipped ZapNotes, the first thing to do is to install. The process is simple and painless, as seen in Figure B.

FIGURE B

Hit a button, and you're installing ZapNotes. Click picture for a larger image.

Now that you have ZapNotes installed, all you need to do is wait for Notes to crash. Then the fun can begin! After a crash, the first thing you'll want to do is select the ZapNotes icon from your Start menu. Next, you'll be greeted by the colorful screen shown in Figure C.