Outlook 2010 includes some great, though rather less than obvious, troubleshooting capabilities. You can enable diagnostic logging from within advanced options of Outlook, and hidden within the application’s system tray icon is the option to test email auto-configuration as well as to determine what messages are displayed to the user.

Enabling this logging, and testing connections, are both great ways to diagnose connection issues and to determine whether any connection problems are on the client side, or the server side. If you’d like to learn more, please read on.

Enabling diagnostic logging cranks up the data generated by Outlook to 11, so it is not the sort of thing we want to just do and leave turned on. If you have a client with connection issues, it is the best way to generate detailed logs of what is going on between the client and the server. When this logging is enabled, Outlook will display a message in the title bar, and lots of disk activity will occur.Here’s how to proceed. One last time, remember…don’t do this just for kicks. It will generate potentially large files, and can also create a performance hit on the client. When you need to troubleshoot the client, turn it on. When you are done…turn it off! Here’s how to turn it on. And notice, this does not require any cryptic registry keys!

1. Launch Outlook 2010
2. Click File, Options.
3. Click Advanced.
4. Scroll down to Other, and check the box to enable troubleshooting logging.
5. Restart Outlook.

To turn it off, simply go back and clear the checkbox, then restart Outlook again.

With logging enabled, a pop up will appear in the system tray reminding you that Outlook logging is enabled.

Once enabled, several log files are generated. Most of them are found in c:\users\username\AppData\Local\Temp\Outlook Logging. Logging will include details for MAPI, SMTP, IMAP, and POP3 connections in cleartext. Logs will also be generated for all activities that involve the calendar, however these are stored in a binary format that requires MSFT support to use. If you are troubleshooting Free/Busy issues, you can find those logs in %temp%\OLKAS, which are fortunately in cleartext format.

With logging enabled, you can diagnose individual connection issues, but the client also has a hidden test mechanism built in to it. You can diagnose the AutoConfiguration settings that Outlook will pick up from Exchange Web Services using the Autodiscover URL. Once logging is enabled, here is how to launch the connection testing that is built into Outlook 2010.

1. Hold down the CTRL key and right-click the Outlook icon in the system tray.
2. Click Test E-mail AutoConfiguration…

This will generate a pop up dialog box that can provide insight into connection errors, name resolution errors, certificate issues, and more.

If you are working on a larger issue that affects multiple clients, keep in mind that you can push settings out using a group policy and the Office Customization Tool. The Outlk14.adm file can be used to configure logging with a Group Policy Object that will save you from having to visit individual machines. Apply it to an Organizational Unit, and consider filtering the application of the GPO using a security group to affect just a subset of the user population. Just always keep in mind that this diagnostic logging can impact client performance, so use this with care, and remember to disable logging when you have the information you need.

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Troubleshooting Outlook 2010 connections

With the many email tools that users have available to them they are bound to run into problems and compatibility issues at one time or another. One of the activities that many email users employ is the ability to read their emails from outside clients other than Outlook. But when it comes to synchronizing your outside email accounts while at the same running Outlook then issues can arise.

Some email applications only support POP3 access to their end users email folders. While POP3 access from the outside will allow users the ability to read their email messages in an offline mode from other clients such as Outlook, that capability does not extend to being able to synchronize their external email with Outlook. Thus an end user can spend a lot of time performing a manual synchronization which can be a laborious process.

If employees within your company need to access their email from external sources other than Outlook then they can download their external email into Microsoft Outlook and read their email messages. Likewise, end users can delete those messages while running Outlook but those deleted messages will not show up as deleted within their external email applications.

Users can get around these constraints by running versions of their external email applications that support the IMAP protocol which will allow them to read and delete email messages via Outlook and have those read and delete actions reflected within their external email applications.

This capability can most likely be found and enabled via the POP/IMAP settings of your end users email application.

If however your end users require additional synchronization capabilities then here is a list of tools to help with synchronizing Outlook with external email applications.

1. EnterpriseSync is a multi-mailbox automated tool that enables syncing of public folder items with Blackberries, iPhones and other PDAs. Since the tool requires no installation on client systems and it can run as a service this makes it the ideal tool for administrators to manage groups of users. It has the ability to sync Contacts, Tasks and Calendar Items, filter items to be copied based on the category of the item and copy from up to three central folders into one local folder per item type.
2. PSTsync allows your end users to select only the folders they wish to synchronize. Most all folders can be synchronized such as Contacts, Calendar, Notes, sub-folders and even custom folders.
3. Easy2Sync for Outlook keeps your personal store in sync on multiple computers. The free version of Easy2Sync synchronizes the inbox and outboxes whereas the Home Edition can synchronize all email folders. The Business Edition can synchronize all folder types. Easy2Sync supports Outlook 2010 (32 and 64 bit) and portable USB installations for the synchronization of emails, contacts and calendars.
4. SimpleSYN supports synchronization of Outlook data on multiple computers. All emails, notes, tasks, appointments, contacts, deletions and folders are updated and immediately available on all computers. Each Outlook folder can be setup individually for independent synchronization directions such as one direction for new email only.
5. Add2Outlook is a 2-way Outlook calendar, contact and/or task synchronizer for desktops, laptops and mobile devices. Add2Outlook is a client-side solution which offers 2-way folder replication of new calendar items, contact entries or task entries and 4-way synchronization of edits.
6. Qsynchronization for Outlook  can not only copy items between Outlook folders but it can also be used to synchronize folders between PST files on different machines.
7. CodeTwo Exchange Sync is an application which enables automatic synchronization of data between selected folders on Microsoft Exchange Server. Most all types of data are supported by CodeTwo Exchange Sync such as: email, calendar, contacts, tasks, etc. One of the nice features of CodeTwo is its ability to filter items before performing sync operations.
8. gSyncit is a tool which allows you to sync Outlook with Google Contacts, Calendars, Documents with Microsoft Outlook Calendars, Notes, and Tasks.
9. LG Outlook Sync is a utility to synchronize your MS Outlook data with your LG devices. The current LG Outlook Sync supports:  Verizon – enV Touch(VX11000), enV 3(VX9200), Chocolate Touch (VX8575), VX8370, Accolade (VX5600), Cosmos (VN250). MetroPCS (MN240) and U.S. Cellular (UN610). Currently LG Outlook Sync can synchronize your contact and calendar information only.
10. Sync your Samsung Phone’s Contacts/Calendar with Outlook using BitPim.  BitPim can be used to synchronize your Samsung phone with Outlook.

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10 Tools for Synchronizing Outlook Email

Are your users on Microsoft Outlook and Exchange server  complaining about lethargic performance? Here are some things to troubleshoot when you want to quell the griping.

1. Antiquated Software. Are you still on Exchange 2003? That old 32-bit warhorse will have a tough time meeting the email demands of a modern organization. New 64-bit versions of Exchange–2007 and 2010–support more memory and bigger buffers, as well as other speed enhancements. As a result, they can be from five to 10 times more efficient than 2003 in handling mail. While upgrading to a new version of Exchange isn’t an immediate solution to your problems, it’s something to advocate as a long term solution.
2. Mailbox Limits. Both Exchange 2003 and 2007 have 2GB limits on mailbox sizes. However, Outlook users can  exceed those limits. The rub is, the greater that 2GB limit is exceeded, the bigger the hit the user will see in performance. One way to address that problem is to deploy an archiving solution. It will automatically archive a user’s emails when his or her mailbox approaches or exceeds the 2GB limit.
3. Overstuffed Folders. Too many messages stored in a single folder will impair Outlook’s performance. Microsoft recommends that between 3500 to 5000 messages should be placed in a single folder. An archiving solution can address this folder problem, too, as well as creating more top-level folders or sub-folders in folders with high growth rates such as Inbox, Sent and Calendar.
4. Anti-Virus Software. Local anti-virus software can make Outlook work harder than necessary. Each time a message is opened, its body and any attachments to it are scanned by the anti-virus software. That can result in delays of as much as 20 seconds. An alternative to local virus scans is to scan messages in transit at the Exchange Hub Transport servers. With malware scans performed at the servers, you can disable scanning at the client end of things and boost performance for your users.
   
5. Flakey Indexing. Indexing was introduced into Outlook in 2007. It’s a great feature because it quickens the time it takes to find anything in the program. If the index  is corrupted, however, the function can cripple Outlook. How do you know if the index is corrupt? If Outlook never seems to finish indexing messages, that’s definitely a sign that something is wrong with the feature. The best thing to do then is to delete the index and re-index all your messages. Yes, that’s going to slow things down in Outlook for a while, but faster performance will be the reward at the end of the process.
6. Too Many Rules. Users create rules in Outlook to manipulate messages in the program. Messages from the boss, for instance, might be shipped to an Ignore Until Harassed folder. The amount of space allocated to each folder for rules is 32KB, which will accommodate 40 to 50 rules. As a folder approaches the space ceiling, Outlook starts to slow down. The solution to this problem is simple: use fewer rules in your folders.
7. The Myth of New Hardware. A brand new desktop will run faster than a four-year-old clunker, but you should be careful that new hardware isn’t masking old problems. A user with an old machine and 80,000 messages in his or her inbox may see a performance boost with a new machine, but that doesn’t remove the fact that there were too many messages in the inbox in the first place. What’s more, while the user with the new computer may be whistling along at his or her desk, those 80,000 messages are still taxing Exchange’s performance and in turn, hurting other users on the system.
8. Shared Folders Headache. Outlook 2007 and 2010 turn on by default shared folder caching. That can create performance problems, especially for Outlook’s calendar module. You see, with shared folder caching on, when you open another person’s calendar, the entire calendar is sent to your calendar. What’s more,  when you’re online, Outlook syncs your calendar with all the calendars you’re linked to on your system. That can really slow things down. It can take up to 20 seconds before your calendar is displayed. The simple solution to that problem is to turn off shared folder caching.
9. Wacky MAPI. Most of the devices in Outlook/Exchange environments use MAPI to communicate. That can create bottlenecks for both clients and servers. On a client, for example, you may have Outlook, Microsoft CRM, integrated voice mail and an email archiving application all trying to send and receive information on a single network adapter. On the server side, you have numerous requests being sent  to your server from numerous devices deployed by numerous users. One way to address those problems is to scale your Outlook/Exchange environment on the basis of the number of devices on the network, not the number of users. In addition, efforts should be made to control the number of MAPI devices in use on the system.
10. Disappearing DNS. Although it’s not a common problem, sometimes a user is sent to a phantom server by a corrupt DNS. When Outlook can’t find the phantom server, it has to search for another. That results in delays that users see as slow performance. Running Exchange’s “Best Practice Analyzer” will most often identify those kinds of DNS problems.

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10 reasons why Outlook is running sooooo slowly

In large organizations it can be a very convenient capability to allow some of your co-workers access to your calendar. This feature supports collaboration and helps to avoid over scheduling of meetings and appointments. Along with that capability is another feature that can allow other users access to your mailbox. This other feature is referred to as granting delegation access.

Granting access for other users to access your mailbox understandably involves a very large amount of trust. However the benefits can be worth it if the conditions exist to give someone else access to your email. But disregarding the privacy issues there can also be problems with granting delegation access.

There are two methods used for granting someone else access to your email:

1. Granting Delegate access:  This method is used to grant access to one or more of your Outlook folders. These folders can include: Calendar, Inbox, Notes, Tasks, Contacts and Journal. The users who you grant delegate access to will also have the “Send on behalf of” right explicitly granted to them. The delegated users can access the delegated folders by clicking on “File”, then “Open” and then clicking on “Other Users Folder”. Delegated access can be restricted through additional steps if necessary. Note that a delegate can be given different permissions for different folders. This allows the owner to control access to items in their Exchange mailbox. Usually if access to your calendar or inbox has already been granted without any problems then the “Send on behalf of” capability can also be given at the discretion of the owner of the inbox.
2. Granting specific folder permissions: This method is probably the best one to begin with when giving someone else access to your inbox and other folders. This method provides the same functionality as the Grant Delegate access method but it does not automatically give the “Send on behalf of” right to the specified users who are given permissions to your folders. In addition the “permission granted” users will need to add your mailbox folders to their own Outlook account. Once they have added your folders to their account then they will be able to see only those folders which they have been given permission to view.

Granting access to others to view your mailbox and other folders, and to respond to your email messages received, should be implemented only after one has set up rules and policies to guide the granted delegate in what manner to use your mailbox and what the boundaries are for responding to email messages. Failure to do so can result in leaked email messages and confidential company information.

Communications to mailboxes that are monitored by delegates should be marked as “private” or “confidential” to ensure that only the owner – not the delegate – will view the email communication. And on the receiving end, the owner should instruct the delegate that any email messages marked as “private” or “confidential” are not to be opened. This can help to maintain the integrity of the email communications between the sender and the recipients of mail inboxes managed by delegates.

Sometimes there are more delegates than who are actually listed in the permissions/delegate list. If this is the case then some cleanup may be in order. An administrator should check if the “Default” and “Anonymous” entries exist and, if so, is the “Anonymous” entry set to “none”.

Sometimes during a server migration mailbox folders such as calendars or inboxes that were previously accessed by delegates are no longer viewable by those delegates. One solution is to remove the delegates through the owner’s account and then re-add the same delegate. If the delegate still cannot view the owner’s folders then an administrator should go to the Exchange Advanced tab and click Mailbox Rights for both the owner and the delegate. Then verify that the “Associated External Account” permissions box is unchecked and that SELF has “Full Mailbox Access”. A third solution, to the migration problem, is to wait until the mailbox folders have been completely migrated to the new server and then to check the parameters on the Exchange General tab. Select the Delivery Options and then verify that the delegate is listed in the “Send on behalf of” box. If not then add the delegate.

Lastly, sometimes when a user has been granted delegate access they are unable to use Microsoft Outlook web access (OWA) to modify any of the folders for which they have access. An administrator should ensure that full write access has also been granted through OWA to the mailbox that has been delegated. Configuring the delegate as the owner of the mailbox can solve this problem if using Outlook web access.

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Troubleshooting Delegated Email Issues

Hosted Exchange deployments will grow 4% in next four years.

Within the next four years the installed base of mailboxes for Microsoft Exchange Server is expected to grow at an annual clip of 12 percent, rising from 310 million this year to 470 million in 2014.

That’s the prediction of the Radicati Group, a market research firm based in Palo Alto, Calif, in a recent report released on the worldwide Exchange market.

The researchers looked at both on-premise and hosted deployments. Right now, though, on-premise deployments have the lion’s share of mailboxes around the globe. That won’t change much by mid decade. However, there will be a shift toward the cloud, as the on-premise approach slips from 76 percent of worldwide mailboxes to 72 percent of them.

The report divides the off-premise market into two segments. Hosted Exchange Maiboxes are cloud-based services offered by hosted email providers, including Microsoft with its Business Productivity Online Standard Suite. Managed Exchange Mailboxes are generally offered by large consulting and professional services organizations, such as HP, IBM Global Services and others. The Managed Exchange segment’s mailbox share will remain flat at nine percent through 2014, according to the report. The Hosted segment, though, will grow four percent from 2010 to 2014, to 19 percent from 15 percent.

Stoking the growth of hosted email will be an increased acceptance by organizations of software as a service solutions.

“Much of the new growth will come from the SMB [small business] sector, where customers are migrating away from on-premises solutions or upgrading from more basic hosted solutions based on POP mailboxes,” the report noted. “However, we expect that a substantial number of medium, large and even very large organizations will increasingly adopt a Hosted Exchange solution.”

That growth trend isn’t being ignored by Microsoft, which in recent weeks has been beating its chest about its intentions to be a major player in the nimbus. For example,  CEO Steve Balmer boasted that  Microsoft was “betting the company” on the cloud. About 70 percent of the software maker’s employees are working on cloud projects now, he revealed, and by year’s end that number is expected to reach 90 percent.

“Other companies have defined the cloud in a narrow, one-dimensional way,” he asserted. “Although these companies provide some interesting components, Microsoft is uniquely delivering on a wide range of cloud capabilities that bring increasingly more value to our customers.”

Meanwhile, in an interview with Windows IT Pro, Microsoft Corporate Vice President for Exchange Rajesh Jha was flogging the cloud as a boon for Exchange 2010.

“I feel that the cloud opens new opportunities for Exchange 2010,” he said. “If you think about Exchange market share, we are the leader in enterprise messaging. And in the small business space, I think with Exchange Online offering the full functionality of Exchange 2010,-the best Outlook experience, and consistent, seamless experience whether you’re in Outlook, the browser,-any browser,-any mobile phone,-that’s going to win out, and we will have the opportunity for our customers to actually be purely in the cloud hosted by us.”

“It’s a growth opportunity for Exchange,” he added. “We are very excited about moving to the cloud. There’s some speculation that we are somehow defensive about the cloud.-Far from it! We are very excited about what the cloud offers.”

“Firstly,” he continued, “for our large customers, they get the power of choice-software and service. And for our smaller customers, they might say, ‘Wow, I can get our entire IT infrastructure but get all the richness of Exchange, hosted by Microsoft and keep it ever-green and fresh.’ I think we get an opportunity to add share in the small and medium businesses.”

The Radicati report also predicted that Exchange Server 2010 usage will increase in the next four years, but it will do so slowly. “[U]ptake of Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 will be gradual, mainly due to the current cautious economic situation, as well as general organizational inertia in moving to new systems,” it said.

At the moment, Exchange 2007 is employed in 44 percent of on-premise deployments globally. By 2014, the report predicted that Exchange 2010 will surpass Exchange 2007 and have a hold on 57 percent of the server software’s deployment.

The fortunes of Microsoft Outlook 2007, now the leading email client in the market, will follow those of Exchange 2007, according to the report. “By 2014, the number of Microsoft Outlook 2007 seats will decrease due to the rollout of Microsoft Office 2010, set to be released in mid 2010, as part of the Microsoft Office 2010 productivity suite,” it forecasted.

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Exchange to grow at 12% clip to 2014

More and more companies are allowing employees to work from home via remote offices. Outfitted with high-speed internet, separate phone lines for fax and business calls and office white boards and most office workers are ready to be productive as if they were working in any office environment complete with interruptions – though not the usual kind.

One of the interruptions remote office employees will most often face is that of remote connectivity problems. The problem of a remote connection being down is that it is sometimes hard to pinpoint the exact cause of the remote connectivity issue.

For instance, users have reported remote connectivity problems when running Exchange 2003 on a Windows 2003 Enterprise Server. Remote users will experience “disconnected” status issues when connected remotely and Outlook will be displayed as being in “offline” mode. However, when users are in their company’s office they do not have any problems connecting to their Exchange mailbox while using Outlook 2007. And running in cached exchange mode does not appear to help either.

One of the first steps that an administrator should perform is to verify whether the Virtual Private Network (VPN) is working correctly or whether it is part of the problem. An administrator can bypass the VPN by configuring Outlook to communicate with the Exchange server via Remote Procedure Calls (RPC) over Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP). This will allow the administrator to confirm whether the remote communication problem still exists even when not using a VPN connection. If there is still a remote connection issue, while running RPC over HTTP, then the administrator will know that VPN is not part of the problem.

Running RPC over HTTP is a method used for passing email traffic over the ports normally used for web browsers. Using this method, Outlook MAPI client users are able to access their Exchange server email accounts from remote locations even if the server and the client are on different networks and behind their respective firewalls.

For this to work, administrators will need to setup an RPC proxy server that is used to specify the communication ports for network domain controller, global catalog (GC) servers and the Exchange server that will be used by the client. In addition, the Exchange server(s) must be configured to use RPC over HTTP and user account(s) must also be configured accordingly as well.

Administrators should follow the steps outlined below in order to configure Outlook clients to use RPC over HTTP.

1. Click on the Start button and then right click on the Outlook 2003 icon and then click on Properties.
2. Click the Add button in the Mail dialog box.
3. Type the profile name in the Profile Name text box.
4. Click OK.
5. Select “Add a new email account” option.
6. Click Next.
7. Select the Microsoft Exchange Server option from the Server Type page and click Next.
8. On the Exchange Server Settings page, type the Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) for the Exchange Server in the text box.
9. Type the user account name in the User Name text box.
10. Click the Check Name button to confirm that the Outlook 2003 client machine can communicate with the Exchange Server.
11. Checkmark the “Use local copy of Mailbox” checkbox.
12. Click the More Settings button.
13. Click the Advanced tab and confirm that there is a checkmark in the Use local copy of Mailbox checkbox.
14. Click the Security tab.
15. Checkmark the “Encrypt information” checkbox.
16. Click the Connection tab.
17. Select the Connect using my Local Area Network (LAN) option.
18. Checkmark the “Connect to my Exchange mailbox using HTTP” checkbox.
19. Next, click the Exchange Proxy Settings button.
20. In the Exchange Proxy Settings dialog box, type the FQDN of your Exchange Server in the Use this URL to connect to my proxy server for Exchange text box. (Note: This is the Common Name as listed on the Web site certificate.
21. Checkmark the “Mutually authenticate the session when connecting with SSL” checkbox.
22. Type the FQDN of the Exchange Server (see your Web site certificate) in the Principal name for proxy server text box. (Example: Msstd:FQDN)
23. Checkmark the “Connect using HTTP first, then connect using my Local Area Network (LAN)” checkbox.
24. Select the Basic Authentication option from the “Use this authentication when connecting to my proxy server for Exchange” drop down box.
25. Select the Basic Authentication option.
26. Click OK in the Exchange Proxy Settings dialog box.
27. Click Apply and OK on the Microsoft Exchange Server dialog box.
28. Click Next on the Exchange Server Settings page.
29. Click Finish on the Congratulations! Page.
30. Click OK on the Mail dialog box.

After making all these changes you should then be able to open Outlook and confirm the connection status as “online” to your Exchange Server. If you are able to perform a successful connection here then your problem is not with the Exchange server but somewhere in the VPN connection.

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Troubleshooting Unavailable Exchange Server

It’s important for every environment to run as securely as budgets will allow. And in these times budgets are limited so administrators and IT directors must balance the funds available with the security needs of the organization.

One component of maintaining a secure environment is that of securely sending and receiving email. However problems can occur due to incorrect settings, incompatibilities and sometimes problems with services binding to the wrong Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificates and external URLs – which will be the focus of this article.

When administrators initially set up Exchange server they will be asked to create a self-signed SSL certificate which will be used to identify the internal NETBIOS of the machine that is used to run the server.

An issue that may result from using the self-signed SSL certificate can be observed during the connection process to an outside URL. An SSL error popup message may show up indicating that the external URL site’s https URL is not the correct site address for the SSL Client/Server socket (connection). For instance, the popup window might say something about the “https” URL, such as https://yourserver(dot)yourcompany(dot)com/, not being the correct name for the SSL Client/Server connection.

Remember that Secure Socket Layer (SSL) was originally developed as a way to secure the internet connections between web browsers and web servers. Developed by Netscape in 1994, the Secure Socket Layer can be used in other applications such as Telnet and FTP.

SSL is an excellent security technology with a number of uses. From a user perspective it is most often seen as a front end to the Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) in the form of HTTPS. It can also be used for POP3, SMTP, IMAP, and just about any other well behaved TCP application. It’s very easy for most programmers who are developing network applications from the start to just pull down an SSL implementation and integrate it with their application to provide encryption when communicating across the network via TCP.

And a lot of times, when certificates are needed for Exchange server, some administrators will just use the self-signed certificate that is created during initial setup. An option that administrators should consider is to purchase a certificate from an outside authority, known as a Root Certificate Authority. Certificates can be purchased from such authorities as: Verisign, GlobalSign, Thawte, and others.

But even after installing a valid certificate administrators may find that they are still receiving popup error messages about SSL errors and those error messages still refer to the aforementioned URL as not being a valid name for the SSL Client/Server connection.

It helps to know that all communication in an Exchange server environment is expected to run through SSL encryption. Meaning that communications between Exchange servers is encrypted and that communications between Exchange and Outlook clients is also encrypted. But you may have thought that those communications were supposed to be using RPC and MAPI. That still happens but only for some services.

Other services are using HTTPS. For example when Outlook 2007 is started up it will use an “Autodiscover” service to locate the mailbox for a user on an Exchange server. Normally this service is configured at setup time. The “Autodiscover” service uses SSL encrypted “tunneling” to the Exchange server for its communications.

(Tunneling, or port forwarding, is a way to forward otherwise insecure TCP traffic through SSH. You can secure POP3, SMTP and HTTP connections that would normally be insecure. I have used tunneling when working at remote customer sites and I was behind a firewall but I needed to get access to my own network.)

Getting back to our story, most Client Access Server Role services are bound to the SSL certificate you configured in Internet Information Server for the default website and which are subsequently by Exchange services for the sub sites. In order to correct this situation a reconfiguration will need to be performed that will bind all services to use the newly installed SSL Certificate – pulled down from one of the aforementioned Root Authorities – and to the company’s outside URL web site.

The Exchange information can be changed using cmdlets commands in the Windows PowerShell environment. The Windows PowerShell runtime can invoke these cmdlets from within automation scripts or invoke them through the Windows PowerShell APIs from via software.

The cmdlet that an administrator can invoke is as follows:

Set-WebServicesVirtualDirectory -Identity “(Virtual Directory ID)” -ExternalUrl “Https://(hostname to connect to Exchange server from outside the firewall)/” -InternalUrl “Https://(hostname of Exchange server for connection from inside the firewall)/”

This command will update all of the service addresses such as: OAB, Free/Busy, OOF, GAL.

If you are interested in updating only the Autodiscovery SCP you can use the following CMDLET:

Set-ClientAccessServer -Identity Servername -AutoDiscoverServiceInternalUri https://yourserver(dot)yourcompany(dot)com/

This cmdlet can be used to support the certificate which you purchased earlier and to sidestep Autodiscovery service errors as seen in such Exchange server environments.

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Internal SSL Errors and Outlook

Most organizations use a directory service to find email addresses of users who are not listed in local address books or not listed in corporate directories such as the Global Address List. One of the most often used directory service providers out there is known as a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol server, more commonly described as an LDAP server.

LDAP originally provided access to ISO X.500 directory service. But it has grown to also support various directory services, namespace, access protocol and rules. It also describes their interactions based on the X.500 model.

Clients can access the LDAP server and make requests for information contained in the directory. Email clients would be interested in locating email addresses of people who are not in the local directories. An LDAP server can also be used to answer requests from web browsers, management applications and other such clients. If the LDAP server queried cannot provide the information requested then it can forward the request to another LDAP server.

In the Microsoft world both Exchange Server and Outlook support LDAP. Email clients can submit queries in search of email addresses of users outside their internal directories.

There is an Office Customization Tool (OCT) which will allow an administrator to configure LDAP search actions such that certain searches are disabled or passed through custom filters. A Group Policy setting can also be used to limit LDAP searches. Custom filters can be implemented and provided to end users by changes made to either the Outlook Profile (PRF) file or by making changes in the registry.

One of the error messages that can be produced when working with Outlook and LDAP servers might happen when a user tries to open the Address Book and receives this message: “Can’t contact LDAP Directory server (81)”.

If Outlook has been configured to use Internet directory services (LDAP) and Outlook cannot connect to the LDAP server when Outlook attempts to access that particular address book that the LDAP server is responsible for then the above error will be generated.
 
This error message can be produced with Microsoft Office Outlook 2002, Microsoft Outlook 2003, or Microsoft Office Outlook 2007.

If you are using Microsoft Outlook 2002 or Outlook 2003 and you are not using Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) Internet directory services then you can fix this problem by removing the LDAP address book. Follow the steps listed below:

1. From the Tools menu, click Email Accounts.
2. Under Directory, click View or change existing directories or address books, and then click Next.
3. Under Directories and Address Books box, click the LDAP address book that you want to remove, and then click Remove.
4. Click Finish.
5. Quit, and then restart Outlook.

If you are using Microsoft Outlook 2002 or Outlook 2003 and you are also using Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) Internet directory services then you should verify that the LDAP settings are correct. Follow the steps listed below:

1. From the Tools menu, click Email Accounts.
2. Under Directory, click View or change existing directories or address books, and then click Next.
3. Under Directories and Address Books box, click the LDAP address book that you want to configure, and then click Change.
4. Verify that the settings for the LDAP server are correct. Make changes as necessary.
5. Click Next, and then click Finish.

If you are using Microsoft Outlook 2007 and you are not using Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) Internet directory services then you can fix this problem by removing the LDAP address book. Follow the steps listed below:

1. From the Tools menu, click Account Settings.
2. On the Address Books tab, click the LDAP address book that you want to remove, and then click Remove.
3. Click Close.
4. Exit and restart Outlook.

If you are using Microsoft Outlook 2007 and you are also using Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) Internet directory services then you should verify that the LDAP settings are correct. Follow the steps listed below:

1. From the Tools menu, click Account Settings.
2. On the Address Books tab, click the LDAP address book that you want to configure, and then click Change.
3. Verify that the settings for the LDAP server are correct. Make changes as necessary.
4. Click Next, and then click Close. 

For more information about Lightweight Directory Access Protocol go to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) web site at www.ietf.org

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Troubleshooting Outlook and LDAP Issues

Password problems can be perplexing – sorry I couldn’t resist the tongue twister

Seriously, administrators will have the challenge of correcting password issues under time constraints as business activities and users are all working toward completing projects on time. So having a tool chest of techniques for solving and correcting password issues is a requisite of any good administrator.

One problem that you will encounter from time to time is when passwords are not being kept by Outlook even though they have been specified to be retained. This may happen even if the “Save Password” box has been checked.

Several solutions have been offered on the internet.

Deleting User Account Information

One solution involves deleting the user account information and resetting the password. This method involves making changes to the Registry. As always, anytime you touch the registry you should always back it up first.

There are other times when Outlook doesn’t remember the passwords after the operating system has been reinstalled. The system is configured correctly in that the correct passwords are in the account properties but when the end user attempts to send or receive an email they get the username and password dialog box popup.

Disabling Prompts

Another solution you can try is to disable the prompt that asks to save passwords. You can do so by bringing up the Control Panel by going to the lower left corner of the screen and clicking on the Start button and then click on Control Panel. Once you have the control panel up you should then double click on Internet Options and select the Content tab. Next, click on the AutoComplete button in the Personal Information section. Check the box for “User names and passwords on forms” and uncheck the box for “Prompt me to save passwords”. You should now close Outlook and then restart it and try your password again.

Sometimes you will have a user who is able to receive email without being asked to enter a password but they are unable to send email without getting the password prompt request. The administrator should check the account properties server tab on the outgoing mail server and then, for that end user, uncheck the “My server requires authentication” setting and click OK or hit enter. This should stop the password requests from occurring when sending email.

Creating a New Email Account

Another problem situation can occur if you have any users who are using Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 then you might run into a problem when you go to create a new email account. For instance, when creating a POP3 email account you have the option to specify “Require logon using Secure Password Authentication”. If you do not type in a password and the “Remember password” check box is left unchecked in the Add New Email Account dialog box, then when you go to test your account settings you will be prompted to enter in your credentials. This prompting for credentials will happen every time the user starts Outlook.

What is happening is that Outlook 2007 is not using the logon credentials configured in the Windows operating system.

Microsoft has provided a hotfix package as of April 30, 2009. You can correct the problem by applying the hotfix and set an appropriate value for the AlwaysUseCachedCredsForSPA registry entry. As always, anytime you touch the registry you should always back it up first.

To start the Registry editor go to the bottom left corner of your screen and click Start. Next, click Run and type “regedit” in the Open text field. Click OK or just hit enter. Find the following registry subkey and then click on it:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\InternetMail.

Then, from the Edit menu, move the cursor to New and then click on DWORD Value. You can then type in “AlwaysUseCachedCredsForSPA” and press or hit enter. This procedure will allow you to modify the value for “AlwaysUseCachedCredsForSPA”. Right click on it and then select Modify. Enter a value of “1” in the Value data box and hit enter or click OK. Lastly exit the Registry editor.

As an alternative you can implement a workaround which consists of entering in your credentials when in the “Add New Email Account” dialog box. You can do so by clicking on the “Test Account Settings” and entering in the credentials. Select the “Remember password” check box and type in the password.  This workaround will allow you to not be prompted for the credentials when you test the account settings.

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Troubleshooting Outlook Password Problems

As an administrator you are often called upon to upgrade Office and other Microsoft products for your end users. You also know that getting error messages are part of the process and that very few upgrades are smooth.

One of the error messages you may receive, after upgrading Office XP, is an error message indicating that MAPI was unable to load the information service Pstprx.dll.

This can happen if you were upgrading and you were also using Microsoft Outlook in Internet Mail Only (IMO) mode. If you remove Office XP and then revert back to Microsoft Office and then try your upgrade again you might receive a MAPI error message when you attempt to restart Outlook. Oftentimes this happened with upgrades involving Microsoft Office 2000, Outlook 2000 and Outlook 2002.

The error message says that Outlook can’t open your default email folders and that it cannot find the .dll file for the information service. Hence, MAPI is unable to load the Pstprx.dll information service.

Depending on who you were upgrading the filename for, Pstprx.dll may be either Pstprx.dll or Pstprx32.dll. Upgrades over Outlook 2000 while in corporate or workgroup (CW) mode result in an error message referencing the filename Pstprx.dll. Upgrades over Outlook 2000 in IMO mode result in an error message referencing the filename Pstprx32.dll.

You are getting this error because of the profile that is being used is not the one intended for the upgrade. During the upgrade, the profile gets upgraded and a registry key is set that will not allow the profile to be upgraded again. If you later revert back to Outlook 2000 IMO and choose the current profile as the one to use then that profile will be skipped during the next upgrade process. So you end up with profiles out of sync.

Getting the latest service pack can fix this problem. But if you need a workaround then you have a couple options. Your first option is to manually change the profile. Your second option is to manually create a new profile.

If you want to change the profile:

• Start by first closing Outlook
• Select the Start button and bring up Settings
• Click on the Control Panel icon and then double-click on Mail
• Select Show Profiles which will bring up a box showing the existing profiles set up on the computer. Make sure that the profile you need is listed. If Outlook is using the Microsoft Outlook Internet Settings profile then you should select the second profile as the first one is most likely damaged
• Click Always use this profile, and then click on the second profile that is shown
• Hit enter or click the OK button.

The second option you have is to create a new mail profile.

• Go to the control panel
• Double-click Mail, show profiles and then click Add and name your new profile
• Click OK or hit enter. You might also want to remove all the profiles that are listed – that you don’t need – before adding a new profile just to ensure you are starting with a clean slate. Also, add a new email account and fill in the necessary information
• Click Finish and select the profile that you just created if the Always use this profile box is selected. If you skipped adding a new email account then the next time you reopen Outlook it will prompt you to create a new Mail Profile.

It’s possible that you may also have to click the Prompt for Profile option after you’ve created a new profile.

This procedure should solve your problem. If it doesn’t solve your problem then you should check your registry key to see if it is correct.

Hit Start, run and then type in regedit. Look for the following registry key: Hkey_local_machine/software/micrososft_office/9.0/outlook/setup

Next, right click on mailsupport to verify that is shows internetmail-0 or workgroup 1.

Do not change any of the registry keys unless you are certain of your changes. And always backup your registry before making any changes. 

Another situation can occur that can cause you to get the error message ‘MAPI was unable to load the information service PSTPRX.DLL’ and that is when Outlook is not specified as your default mail client.

If this happens you can fix this problem by running the Fixmapi.exe utility program. Close Outlook and any other email related programs. Hit the Start button and select Run. You can try typing in Fixmapi.exe. You might need to first find it using the Browser button. After you have found its location you can then execute it by simply double-clicking on it.

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How to fix loading of Information Service Pstprx.dll

The problem of how to grant services to end users of Microsoft Outlook is solved through the use of Messaging API (MAPI) profiles.

MAPI profiles are how administrators configure user accounts to describe their service options such as their mailbox and directories that are available to the end user. The profiles can be used to define and describe the location of an end user’s offline folder store (OST) and personal folder store (PST).

MAPI profiles contain registry settings and can be edited using “regedit”. Always backup your registry before making any changes. Most of the registry settings can be found in the Microsoft Knowledge Base.

Microsoft offers two tools – PROFGEN and NEWPROF – to help administrators with the administration and maintenance of user account profiles. These tools can be used to edit the contents of the MAPI profiles and can help with diagnosing problems associated with MAPI profiles. Other tools are available.

Another tool you can use to modify profile settings is the NewProf.exe utility that is included with Outlook. You can get more information about how to use this utility by reviewing the following site in the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN):
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms527375.aspx

(The above link has been retired. Please use the following link for more information about how to use the NewProf.exe utility.)

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/145905 

You can also review the article number, 145905, in the Microsoft Knowledge Base for more information about the Newprof.exe command line options.

Also, article number 148664  provides a description of the Profile Descriptor File.

You can also find sample code for the Profman2.exe (MAPI Profile Manager) in article number 228736.

Some registry settings you will come across include:

NoOutlookFormatDesigner = 0 means prevent use of the Outlook forms designer

DisablePst = 0 means prevent user from opening PST files

DisableHTTP = 0 means prevent user from adding HTTP account to Outlook

There are many more registry settings that are included in MAPI profiles so the task of updating one or two profiles is fairly easy. But as an administrator, you are called on to support hundreds of users. You should first try the Microsoft tools – PROFGEN and NEWPROF – to help you with the maintenance of the MAPI profiles.

These tools can help with migrations and with saving multiple profiles. Familiarize yourself with these tools and then later try the many other tools available from the many third party vendors that are out there.

The Office Custom Install Wizard is part of a suite of tools provided by Outlook 2003 that replaces PROFGEN and NEWPROF. It can be used to make life easier for you by automating your installations and deployments.

You can also use Microsoft’s Outlook Resource Kit (ORK) to help you support your end user accounts. The Outlook Resource Kit is available for downloading to your server and clients from the Microsoft support site. ORK can be used to modify and edit your many client settings that can then be applied through group policies.

MAPI profiles can be created on Microsoft Exchange Server without the need for a MAPI client to be installed such as Microsoft Outlook or Exchange Client. There are administrators out there who are under the impression that a MAPI profile cannot be created unless just the opposite is true – they are mistaken.

That being said, it is not recommended that a MAPI client (e.g., Microsoft Outlook) be installed on production servers. One condition exists before a MAPI profile can be created: a MAPI subsystem must be installed.

A variety of ways exist that can help you to create MAPI profiles. But you need to pay special attention to the server settings of the Mapisvc.inf file. You can find this information in the Microsoft article, number 294470, in the Microsoft Knowledge Base which describes how to add entries to the Mapisvc.inf file related to Exchange services.
 
Here are some steps to help you create a new Outlook MAPI profile that will allow you to connect to your Exchange mailboxes using Outlook 2003 on Windows machines.

You first need to launch the Mail configuration tool for Microsoft Outlook. Go to Start and select the Control Panel settings icon for Mail. Click on the Show Profiles button. You may need to click Start, then Control Panel, then Other and then Mail.

You then hit the Add button to create a new mail profile. This will ask you to type a unique name into the Profile Name field for the new mail profile. Click OK or hit enter. You will then add a new email account on the Email Accounts screen and click Next. You will see a variety of servers to choose from which include: Microsoft Exchange Server, POP3, IMAP, HTTP and Additional Server Types. Select Microsoft Exchange Server and then click Next.  Enter the domain name address of your email server such as machinename(dot)domainname.

Next enter you username and password. On the Security tab you should check the “Encrypt data between Microsoft Office Outlook and Microsoft Exchange Server” box if it is not already checked. Click OK and then click Next. Click Finish.

Also, make sure you configure Outlook to always use this new profile whenever Outlook is started up. Select the new profile you just created and make sure the “Always use this profile” box is checked. Finish by clicking OK or hit enter.

And that’s it. You’re done.

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Creating MAPI Profiles

I’m sure your users have encountered many times not being able to start their email programs. It can be very frustrating especially when you, as an administrator, are not in full control of software that gets installed onto end users computers.

Sometimes, after starting Microsoft Office Outlook, they get an error message that tells them that their MAPI32.DLL file is corrupt. The error message will also indicate that the DLL file is possible the wrong version. How can this happen?

Usually this happens after other message software has been installed. The error message will go on to suggest that Outlook itself be removed. This is when having well-known company policies in place can prevent such unwanted installs from occurring. Also setting up user accounts with limited privileges can stop end users from installing additional, unapproved software – such as beta software – onto company computers.

Now that you have a problem lets talk about how to fix it.

Let’s assume that the Beta 2 version of Outlook has been installed. If the end user tried it for a while and then uninstalled it they would probably run into problems so they called you, the administrator. The technical cause of the problem is that the MSMAPI32.DLL file was not removed from the folder:
C:\Program Files\Common Files\System\Msmapi\LocaleID

The LocaleID refers to the language of the locality. If using English – such as in the United States – then LocaleID is equal to 1033. Lookup the following website for more information about LocaleID’s: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/0h88fahh.aspx

Anyway, assuming LocaleID is 1033, you should open up the folder
C:\Program Files\Common Files\System\Msmapi\1033 and then right click on the MSMAPI32.DLL file and select rename. Next, you can type in MSMAPI32.OLD or MSMAPI32.something and then press ENTER. This procedure will rename the file. After that just restart Outlook and the program will be repaired.

In a related problem there’s a situation which can occur that can cause an incorrect version of Outlook to start up. This can happen if your end user decides that they want to run another version of Office on a computer with an existing version of Office installed. The end user selects an option to keep the earlier version of Office. What they end up with is that Outlook 2007 gets installed even though they wanted to keep the current version of Office suite installed. They won’t realize they have a problem until they fire up Outlook. That’s when they realize that their previous version of Outlook is no longer available to them – in fact, it’s been removed. So they call you, the administrator, to go back and help them get their previous version of Outlook up and running.
The reason why this happened is because you can’t have two versions of Outlook on the same computer. To fix this problem you’ve got a couple different options. One is you can keep the earlier version of Outlook. But you’re going to have to check with the end user if they did not installed the original non-trial release version of 2007 Office suite. If they didn’t do this then when they startup Office suite you can click on the Customize option and then on the Upgrade tab select the “Keep all previous versions.” Next click the Installation Options tab and then click the Microsoft Office Outlook icon. Select Not Available and then click Continue.
 
On the Upgrade tab of the Setup program your end user should have gotten a message warning them that “Before you install Microsoft Office Outlook 2007, you must remove any earlier version of Outlook. Two versions of Outlook cannot coexist on the same computer. If you want to keep an earlier version of Outlook, you must explicitly choose on the Installation Options tab to not install Microsoft Office Outlook 2007” when they tried to upgrade their Office suite version.

This may have been misleading to the end user because they didn’t have to remove the earlier version of Outlook before they installed Outlook 2007. Outlook is removed automatically when Outlook 2007 is installed.

If the end user wanted to keep the earlier version of Outlook after they installed the non-trial release version of a 2007 Office suite then there are some additional steps to follow which I will cover in a subsequent article.

Your end user might also have installed and then uninstalled Outlook 2007 onto a system that already had Outlook 2003 installed. If they did that then they probably received an error message when they tried to start Outlook 2003 that said their MAPI32.DLL file was either corrupt or the wrong version. They (you) will be asked to reinstall Outlook.

You can find out more information about this error message and how to resolve this problem by going to the article, 926196, in the Microsoft Knowledge Base.

Additionally, to find more information about what happens when a trial version of a 2007 Office suite is installed when another version of Office already exists check out the article, 930559, in the Microsoft Knowledge Base.

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Troubleshooting Error Code 926196

Sending, receiving and opening up documents as email attachments is as common as opening and closing doors on a daily basis. But sometimes documents do not open up and can cause much frustration to someone who is expecting an important document so that they can proceed with their business of the day.

If you are having problems opening file attachments then you might be in need of a converter or viewer. Microsoft has many converters and viewers to help you with opening up a variety of documents attached to emails.

There are even Microsoft-supplied import/export converters which support the ability to open non-Outlook mail. Converters allow you to open up documents created by other programs and to save Outlook files in other file formats.  Converters exist to allow you to open up such files from common time and information management programs.

Microsoft has a Network Conversion Utility that allows you to search Outlook email items for email addresses in the MSNINET (Microsoft Network-only) format. The utility can convert these addresses into an Internet domain name format which can speed up delivery.

If you are  having a problem opening a Microsoft Office file or importing information from another product into your Office program then you may be in need of a converter or  viewer.

The most obvious solution is that you do not have Microsoft Office. Another possibility is that you have a version incompatibility issue – your version of Office is older than the version used to create the document you received. Or vice-versa. Maybe the recipent of the document you sent has an older version of software than that which you used to create the document. Versioning problems and incompatibility issues are very commonplace in the world of software.

A quick solution is to ask the sender what version of software they were using when they created your email attachment. Then you can determine if they need to upgrade their software or if they have a copy of a version compatible with the software you use to open their email attachment.

If the sender or the receiver do not have compatible versions they can go to a Microsoft site that has online file converters and viewers available.

Many file converters and viewers are available at the Office section of the Microsoft site:  http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/downloads/HA010449811033.aspx

Such viewers and converters are available for the following products:

• Access viewers – Access 97, Access 2000 and Access 2002
• Excel converters and viewers – Excel 2003 viewers, Excel 2000 converters and viewers and Excel 97 converters
• Outlook converters and viewers – Outlook 2000 converters and Outlook 97/98 converters
• Word converters and viewers – Word 2003 viewers, Word 2002 converters, Word 2000 viewers and converters, and Word 97 viewers and converters
• PowerPoint converters and viewers – PowerPoint 2003 viewers, PowerPoint 2002 viewers, PowerPoint 2000 converters and viewers, and PowerPoint 97 converters and viewers
• Microsoft Project converters – Microsoft Project 2000 converters
• Visio converters and viewers – Visio 2003 viewers, Visio 2002 viewers and Visio 2000 converters
• Converters and viewers for Macintosh users – Mactopia downloads

After you have found the correct converter or viewer for the file you are having trouble with you can then download it.

Let’s say you need an Outlook 97/98 converter. Scroll down the page until you find the link “Outlook 97/98 converters”. This will bring up a web page with converters available for download which will allow you to open documents created by other programs and to save Outlook 97/98 files in other file formats. The converters listed include:

• Outlook 97 Converter: Import/Export Converters
• Outlook 97 Converter: Import/Export Converters for NT
• Outlook Microsoft Network E-Mail Conversion Utility

Below each link there is a description of the converter’s functionality. You can find the system requirements, instructions and related resources for each converter on their respective web pages once you have clicked on the link to the converter you need.

After downloading and installing the Microsoft file converter/viewer you will then be able to open the file that you received or are trying to convert.
Converters for Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) devices are not available from Microsoft but may be available from other companies. You should check with your appropriate vendor for additional converters or viewers for your respective devices.

Converters for Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) devices are not available from Microsoft but may be available from other companies. You should check with your appropriate vendor for additional converters or viewers for your respective devices.

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A Guide to Converters and Viewers for Email Attachments

 It is possible to receive the error, 938816, when one of two conditions exist:

1. You are attempting to create a new MAPI form or you’ve tried to open some custom forms in Outlook 2003.
2. You notice changes in how your application runs after you’ve installed post-Office 2003 Service Pack 3 updates.

The unwanted behaviors that you will see in Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 can include any of the following effects:

• You are receiving messages asking you to contact the administrator after you’ve created a new MAPI form in Outlook 2003.
• Or you are getting a message that informs you that a form could not be displayed and that you should again contact your administrator. This can occur if you are for instance attempting to open a custom form.
• Or, after receiving a custom form as an email item you try to open it and get a message stating that the form cannot be opened or displayed. You are again asked to contact your administrator.

To fix these error conditions you should go to the Microsoft Support web site and search for the file:  EnableMAPIFormsInOutlook.msi. Select the file and then click Run in the File Download dialog box. The Fix it wizard will walk you through the steps to correct this error.

I’d also recommend that you save the fix file to your local hard drive or some other media such as a writeable CDROM so that you have a local copy. You can also save the file if you are not on the computer that is having the problem.

There is another way for you to fix the problem yourself without using the wizard. However, these steps involve touching the registry and any time you touch (modify) the registry you can inadvertently cause serious damage to your system. So I strongly advise that you backup your registry before performing this task. If you have any problems after modifying the registry then you will have a backup copy that your can restore to get your system back into a known working state. Please review article number 322756 in the Microsoft Knowledge Base for instructions on how to backup and restore the registry.

Now, if you still want to fix these issues manually then you need to enable MAPI forms. Here are step-by-step instructions on how you can enable MAPI forms by performing the following steps.

• First go down to the lower left corner of your screen and click the Start button.
• Then to your right on the pop-up screen click Run and then type “regedit” without the quotes.
• Next click OK or just hit the Enter button on your keyboard. This will bring up your Registry Editor.
• At this point you want to locate and then click the following registry subkey:
  HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Forms\
• Next, double-click the EnableMapiForms registry entry and type 1 in the Value data text box.
• Hit Enter or just click OK.

The registry path might not exist. That’s okay. What you can do is to create a new dWord-Value registry entry and name it EnableMapiForms. Give it the value of 1.

I mentioned earlier that you can also experience changes in how your application runs after you’ve installed post-Office 2003 Service Pack 3 updates. Some of these updates include installing an update to the Mso.dll file.

You will notice that you now have the ability to configure Office 2003 such that you can enable or to deny specific COM components. You can find more information about this change in article number 938815 in the Microsoft Knowledge Base.

Another change you might notice is that some COM components are not functioning as expected. This may be the case if they have unusual characteristics.

For instance you might experience reduced functionality of an add-in or an ActiveX control. Or the COM component is seemingly blocked. These limitations will be noticeable after you install Office 2003 Service Pack 3. You can find more information about these changes in article number 938814 in the Microsoft Knowledge Base.

You might have issues or problems when you run the Microsoft Office Document Imaging program after you install Office 2003 Service Pack 3. There were changes made to the behavior of Microsoft Office Document Imaging. You can find out more information about the changes by reviewing article number 938813 in the Microsoft Knowledge Base.

Other problems you might notice is that you have lost versioning capabilities on some documents such as Office files that are saved in certain formats. You can get more information about which files don’t have versioning by reviewing article number 938807 in the Microsoft Knowledge Base.

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Troubleshooting Outlook Error 938816

When you encounter the Outlook error 287570 you may be in a situation where one of the following has occurred:

1. You Receive an Error Message About a Recently Installed Program When You Start Outlook 2002.
2. If you start Exchange System Manager and then click the Client permissions tab of a public folder, you may receive one of the following error messages:

• The information store could not be opened. The logon to the Microsoft Exchange server computer failed.
• A recently installed program may cause Microsoft Office or other e-mail-enabled programs to function improperly. Outlook can resolve this conflict without affecting the program that originally caused the problem. Do you want Outlook to resolve this problem?
• Outlook was unable to resolve the conflict between a recently installed program and Microsoft Office or other e-mail-enabled programs. Outlook needs to modify a system component that another program is currently using. To fix this problem, please restart Windows.

3. After you upgrade from Microsoft Outlook 98 to Microsoft Office XP or Outlook 2002, the Outlook 98 Security Patch is not removed and still appears in the Windows list of currently installed programs.

When you receive an error message about a recently installed program when you start Outlook 2002 the message will look something like this:

• A recently installed program may cause Microsoft Office or other e-mail-enabled programs to function improperly. Outlook can resolve this conflict without affecting the program that originally caused the problem. Do you want Outlook to resolve this problem?

This behavior may occur if there is a file conflict with the Mail Application Program Interface (MAPI) core file on your computer. The file in conflict is the Mapi32.dll file.

On Microsoft Windows 95, Microsoft Windows 98, or Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Me) the file is at the following location:  C:\Windows\System

On Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 or Microsoft Windows 2000, the Mapi32.dll file is at the following location:  C:\Windows\System32

Clicking either Yes or No in the error message will allow you to resolve this error.

If you click Yes in the error message, the Fixmapi.exe utility starts and tries to fix the MAPI file conflict by installing the correct version.

If a currently running program is using the Mapi32.dll file, the Fixmapi.exe utility may not fix the file conflict. In this case, the following dialog box is displayed:

• Outlook was unable to resolve the conflict between a recently installed program and Microsoft Office or other e-mail-enabled programs. Outlook needs to modify a system component that another program is currently using. To fix this problem, please restart Windows. 

If you click OK, Microsoft Windows does not restart. However, an entry for the Fixmapi.exe utility is placed in the RunOnce registry key. When you restart Windows, the Fixmapi.exe utility tries to correct the Mapi32.dll file conflict.

If you click No in the error message, a change is not made to the core MAPI file. And  because Outlook uses the Mapi32.dll file in the C:\Program Files\Common Files\SYSTEM\Mapi\1033 file, clicking No does not affect the operation of the program.

You may have to quit all programs, run the Fixmapi.exe utility by itself, shut down your computer completely, and then restart it.

If the Fixmapi.exe utility does not work, follow these steps:

1. Quit all programs.
2. Rename the Mapi32.dll file in C:\Windows\System (on Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000, rename the file in C:\<windir>\system32) to Mapi32.old.
3. Locate the Fixmapi.exe file in C:\Windows\System, and then double-click Fixmapi.exe to run the program.
4. Restart your computer.

Additionally, it should be noted that the Microsoft Windows Messaging Subsystem (WMS) installs the core MAPI files in the C:\Windows\System folder, and earlier versions of Outlook access the files from that location. In Outlook 2002, the key MAPI files are stored in a common location.

Simple MAPI programs, such as Microsoft Outlook Express, Eudora, Netscape, and other third-party programs install and access the Mapi32.dll file from C:\Windows\System(32). Programs that support simple MAPI allow you to send documents by clicking Send To on the File menu.

This issue can affect applications such as the Exchange System Manager (ESM), even if the Exchange Server is not on the same computer as the Exchange System Manager. The problem will occur after you run FixMAPI. If you elect to replace the MAPI file with the Outlook MAPI file, ESM may not work anymore.

Additionally, if you choose not to replace the file, Outlook may not work properly. This error occurs each time you start Outlook until you replace the file with the Outlook MAPI file, thereby breaking the ESM. This is why Microsoft recommends that you do not have Outlook 2000 or earlier on the same computer as the ESM or Exchange server. To avoid this scenario, use Outlook Web Access or a Terminal Server session to access e-mail.

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Troubleshooting Outlook Error 287570

If you use Microsoft Outlook then you will run into many email MAPI related errors over time. A couple of the errors you may encounter include:

• Receiving an error message if a file conflicts with the MAPI file on your computer when you start Outlook 2007 or Outlook 2003.
• Cannot start Microsoft Outlook. Mapi32.dll is corrupt or the wrong version.

When you start Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 or Microsoft Office Outlook 2003, you may receive the following error message:

“A recently installed program may cause Microsoft Office or other e-mail-enabled programs to function improperly. Outlook can resolve this conflict without affecting the program that originally caused the problem. Do you want Outlook to resolve this problem?”

This issue may occur if there is a file conflict with the MAPI file on your computer.

To resolve this issue, rename the Mapi32.dll file, and then start the Fixmapi.exe program:

1. Click Start, and then click Search.
2. Click All files and folders.
3. In the All or part of the file name box, type mapi32.dll, and then click Search.
4. When the search process is complete, right-click the Mapi32.dll file, and then click Rename.
5. Type Mapi32.old, and then press ENTER.
6. Click Start a new search, and then click All files and folders.
7. In the All or part of the file name box, type fixmapi.exe, and then click Search.
8. When the search process is complete, double-click Fixmapi.exe to start the repair process.
9. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the repair process.

The Microsoft Windows Messaging Subsystem (WMS) installs the core MAPI files in the C:\Windows\System folder, and earlier versions of Outlook access the files from that location. Simple MAPI programs, such as Microsoft Outlook Express, Eudora, Netscape, and other third-party programs install and access the Mapi32.dll file. You can use programs that support simple MAPI to send documents by clicking Send To on the File menu.

Note that this issue may affect programs such as the Exchange System Manager, even if the Exchange Server is not on the same computer as the Exchange System Manager. The issue occurs after you run the Fixmapi.exe program.

If you replace the MAPI file with the Outlook MAPI file, Exchange System Manager may not work anymore. Also, if you do not replace the file, Outlook may not work correctly. This error occurs each time you start Outlook until you replace the file with the Outlook MAPI file, but this action breaks Exchange System Manager.

Because of this, Microsoft recommends that you do not have Outlook 2000 or earlier on the same computer as Exchange System Manager or Exchange server. To avoid this scenario, use Outlook Web Access or a Terminal Server session to access e-mail messages.

The Fixmapi.exe tool is included with Internet Explorer 5 to detect and aid in resolving conflicts with Messaging Application Programming Interface (MAPI) files that may affect your ability to send and receive mail and faxes from other programs.

During the installation of Internet Explorer 5, the Fixmapi.exe file is copied to the Windows\System folder. Fixmapi.exe checks the version of a library file named Mapi32.dll and automatically restores a more recent version of Mapi32.dll if necessary.

The version of Fixmapi.exe included with Internet Explorer 5 does not display any status information while the tool is being run. The current version of the Mapi32.dll file is replaced if the current file is older than the updated version included with Internet Explorer 5.

Fixmapi.exe does not replace the current Mapi32.dll file if the file is marked as read-only. To check the Mapi32.dll file:

• Click Start
• Point to Find
• Click Files or Folders
• Type mapi32.dll in the Named box
• Click Find Now
• When the Mapi32.dll file is located, right-click the file
• Click Properties.

Check to see if the Read-Only check box is selected. If it is, you may want to clear the check box and then click OK so that Fixmapi.exe can replace the Mapi32.dll file if necessary.

Note that if you are running Microsoft Outlook 97 or Microsoft Outlook 98, running Fixmapi.exe replaces the Mapi32.dll file with a version that renders Outlook 97 or Outlook 98 unable to start. When you try to start Outlook, you receive the following error message:

“Cannot start Microsoft Outlook. Mapi32.dll is corrupt or the wrong version. This could have been caused by installing other messaging software. Please reinstall Outlook.”

If this error message appears, please see article, 193681, in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:  OL98: (CW) ErrMsg: Cannot Start Microsoft Outlook.

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Troubleshooting MAPI errors while running Outlook

Sometimes you receive error messages when using Microsoft Outlook in conjunction with Microsoft Word. You might be trying to send a Word document as an email attachment. The problem could be with how Word starts up, the command line startup and/or with the startup switches. The result is that you will receive MAPI errors.

If you’re trying to send a Word document as an email attachment you may receive an error message such as: “Word couldn’t send mail because of MAPI error: ‘Unspecified error’”.

This problem can occur if the following conditions are all true:

• You started Microsoft Word 2000 and your MAPI e-mail program (for example, Microsoft Outlook 2000).
• In Microsoft Word, you chose to send the current document as an attachment (on the File menu, point to Send To, and then click Mail Recipient (as Attachment)), but you did not send the message.
• You quit and logged off of your MAPI e-mail program. For example, in Microsoft Outlook 2000, on the File menu, you clicked Exit and Log Off.
• In Word, you again chose to send the current document as an attachment.

What happened is that since the current MAPI session was closed, Word can no longer connect to that MAPI session.

You can use one of the following methods to resolve this problem.

Method 1:  Restart your MAPI E-mail Application.
You can restart your MAPI e-mail application and then send your document from Word.

Method 2:  Save and Close Document and Word, and Then Restart Word.
You can save and close your document and then quit and restart Word. Word then establishes a new MAPI session, allowing you to send your document.

There is another situation when you might receive error messages while trying to send Word documents attached to emails. When you use the Send To command (on the File menu) in Microsoft Word 2000 to send a Word document as an e-mail attachment, and Microsoft Outlook is your default e-mail client, you may receive an error message similar to one of the following:

OUTLOOK Error: ‘The Operation Failed due to network or other communications problem. Check your connection and try again.’

OUTLOOK Error: ‘The Messaging interface has returned an unknown error. If the problem persists restart Outlook.’

WORD Error: ‘Word couldn’t send mail because of MAPI error: Unspecified error.’

However, when you use the /a switch to start Word, these error messages do not occur.

These error messages suggest that the Microsoft Office registry key is corrupted.

To work around this issue, change the mail format in Microsoft Outlook to HTML. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Start Outlook, and then click Options on the Tools menu.
2. On the Mail Format tab, click HTML in the Send in this message format box, and then click OK.
3. Quit Outlook.

You can also resolve this issue if you delete the Office registry key and then repair your Office 2000 installation. To do this, follow the steps outlined below.
 
NOTE: Because there are several versions of Microsoft Windows, the following steps may be different on your computer. If they are, see your product documentation to complete these steps.

1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. In the Run dialog box, type regedit, and then click OK.
3. In Registry Editor, navigate to the following registry key:
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office
4. On the Registry menu, click Export Registry File.
5. In the Export Registry File dialog box, select Desktop in the Save in box, and then type OfficeKeyOld in the File name box. Under Export range, click Selected branch, and then click Save.
6. On the Edit menu, click Delete. Click Yes to confirm the deletion.
7. On the Registry menu, click Exit.
8. Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel. NOTE: In Microsoft Windows XP, click Control Panel directly on the Start menu.
9. Double-click Add/Remove Programs.
10. In the list of currently installed programs, click Microsoft Office 2000, and then click Add/Remove.
11. In the Office Maintenance Mode Wizard, click Repair Office, click Repair errors in my Office installation, and then click Finish.

Please note that this section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. More information about how to back up and restore the registry can be found in the article, 322756, in the Microsoft Knowledge Base.

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Troubleshooting Outlook email errors involving Word documents.

Microsoft was the subject of complaints, and a massive Twitter campaign, complaining that Outlook displays HTML emails poorly. The complaint is based in how Outlook uses the Microsoft Word rendering engine to display HTML content, with the end-result sometimes being disorganized. Previously, Outlook 2000 relied on Internet Explorer to display HTML.

The campaign, based on the web site www.fixoutlook.org, sent tens of thousand of tweets on the subject. After 24,000 tweets in the first day, volume is down to about a thousand a day now.

Microsoft has no plans to change its strategy, and has said that it will continue using Word for rendering HTML in Outlook 2010. Those who are protesting the move do have a point, in that some of the more complex HTML layouts don’t work well (such as tables or background images), although for most routine HTML emails, there’s very little difference.

There is also a security consideration at work here, and using Word to render HTML does deliver a security advantage that can’t be disputed. Web browsers execute all the HTML code, but Word is not able to run active content, which is a factor in favor of keeping the Word rendering engine with Outlook–giving Outlook users an extra edge in the fight against malware attacks. The added risk may in fact be small, but in ensuring email security, there’s really no one approach. A multi-layered approach to email security is the most advantageous, and this means using multiple precautions.

Standard HTML email is prevalent, and it’s favored by almost anybody sending any type of commercial email, but there’s an inherent risk in that it’s just easier to mask something malicious, send a piece of malware with the email, or include image-based web beacons.

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How HTML is rendered in email can make a difference

Google released a synchronization tool this week that allows Microsoft Outlook to front-end Gmail. The synchronization tool, which is available to users of Google Apps Premier, lets users keep their Outlook client and retain the familiar interface, while still using Gmail on the back end, and opening up the possibility of scrapping Exchange altogether. Cool piece of technology? Definitely. Good idea for the enterprise? That’s the million-dollar question, and the answer isn’t quite so clear.

On the surface, it seems like a useful piece of technology, but for corporate email, it may not be conducive to a secure environment. I’ve often noted that cloud-based email, especially the free varieties, are inherently insecure, and make it far too easy to bypass corporate email security policies. Deploying a tool to blend Outlook/Exchange and Gmail would tend to legitimize use of free public webmail systems in a corporate environment, at least in the eyes of users.

Google is of course, trying to take market share away from Microsoft and position the Apps Sync as a game-changer. However, security concerns and compliance issues will keep a lot of enterprises from going the Google route, if for no other reason, than to maintain control over where the emails and attachments are archived. Store and archive email in the cloud? Still not good enough–and compliance and privacy issues relating to cloud email storage are enormous.

Bottom line, Gmail is fine and quite useful for personal use and personal email accounts, but still needs to be kept separate from the corporate environment.

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Google syncs Gmail with Outlook

Many times when using Outlook you will encounter synchronization errors. Here’s another synchronization error to watch out for. The 0×8004010f error code is a generic reference for MAPI errors. You can see it for many problems related to using Outlook and it will often show up during rebuilds of the Offline Address List.

You can use the Microsoft Exchange Server Error Code lookup tool, “err.exe”, to view the error this way:

C:\WXP\system32>err 0×8004010f
# for hex 0×8004010f / decimal -2147221233
ecNotFound ec.h
ecAttachNotFound ec.h
ecUnknownRecip ec.h
ecPropNotExistent ec.h
MAPI_E_NOT_FOUND mapicode.h
# 5 matches found for “0×8004010f”

The sync log will show the Outlook error like this:

Synchronizing Mailbox <name>
Done
Microsoft Exchange offline address book
0×8004010f

Outlook clients can get the 0×8004010f error code for a variety of reasons. Most often this will occur when downloading or generating the offline address book. Some of these reasons are listed below.

Sometimes an administrator will attempt to download the offline address book in Microsoft Outlook or Exchange Server but the download fails or the list is not generated successfully in the case of an attempt to generate the list. The synchronization log will show events such as:

Synchronizing Mailbox <name>
Done
Microsoft Exchange offline address book
0X80004005

Synchronizing Mailbox <name>
Done
Microsoft Exchange offline address book
0×8004010f

When you try to generate an offline address list on the default Offline Address Lists folder in Exchange 2000 or 2003 Server, the list may not be generated successfully. The following events are logged in the application event log:

Event Type: Warning
Event Source: MSExchangeSA
Event Category: OAL Generator
Event ID: 9109
Date: <date>
Time: <time>
User: N/A
Computer: <server name>
Description:
OALGen encountered an error [0x8004010f]. This may be normal operation. Check other logged events to see if this is a serious error.
For more information, click http://search.support.microsoft.com/search/?adv=1.

Event Type: Warning
Event Source: MSExchangeSA
Event Category: OAL Generator
Event ID: 9116
Date: <date>
Time: <time>
User: N/A
Computer: <server name>
Description:
OALGen encountered an error while generating the changes.oab file for differential downloads. Clients will not be able to incrementally update to the new version of the OAL. This is normal if this is the first time this OAL has been generated. There is no previous version for clients to start with. Check other logged events to see if this is a serious error. (\Global Address List) For more information, click http://search.support.microsoft.com/search/?adv=1.

You may also see the following events:
Event Type: Warning
Event Source: MSExchangeSA
Event Category: OAL Generator
Event ID: 9109
Date: <date>
Time: <time>
User: N/A
Computer: <server name>
Description:
OALGen encountered an error [0x80040107]. This may be normal operation. Check other logged events to see if this is a serious error.
For more information, click http://search.support.microsoft.com/search/?adv=1.

Event Type: Error
Event Source: MSExchangeSA
Event Category: OAL Generator
Event ID: 9127
Date: <date>
Time: <time>
User: N/A
Computer: <server name>
Description:
OALGen encountered error [0x80040107] while calculating the OALs.

These errors can occur under the following conditions:
• The OAB Version 2, OAB Version 3 or OAB Version 4 system folder is missing from the public folder store.
• The All Address Lists or All Global Address Lists containers contain sub-containers, instead of just address list objects. 
• The offline address list was deleted and then it was re-created with the same name.

When an offline address list is deleted, it stays in the system public folder for seven days. If a new offline address list with the same name is created in this seven-day period, a new public folder that is named OAB Version 2, OAB Version 3 or OAB Version 4 folder is created under the public folder that is associated with the deleted offline address list. A new public folder for the new offline address list is created. Because the OAB Version 2, OAB Version 3 or OAB Version 4 folder is already located in the deleted offline address list public folder, an updated OAB Version 2 folder is not created for the new offline address list public folder. When the client computer tries to locate the OAB Version 2 folder for the new offline address list, it cannot find it because the folder does not exist.

Here are some workarounds to correct these issues.

Workaround 1: Create a new offline address list with a different name.
1. Start Exchange System Manager.
2. Expand Recipients.
3. Right-click Offline Address Lists, click New, and then click Offline Address List.
4. Type the name that you want in the Offline Address List Name box, and then click Browse.
(The new offline address list name must be different from the originally deleted offline address list name.)
5. In the Select Exchange Server dialog box, click the appropriate server,
6. Click OK, and then click Next.
7. Under Address Lists, click the Default Global Address List , and then click Next two times.
8. Click Finish.

Workaround 2: Remove the container objects and leave only the address list objects. Container objects cannot be enumerated which causes the 0×8004010f error.

Workaround 3: If you delete an offline address list, you must wait greater than seven (7) days before you can create an offline address list with the same name.

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Troubleshooting Error Code 0×8004010f