We’ve all heard it about a hundred times already: “Don’t open attachments from unknown senders.” And yet there will always be someone who has either forgotten the last time their system locked up and stopped functioning or they believed their system was protected from viruses. But although administrators are constantly on guard they cannot prevent attachments from being opened.

Attachments which contain viruses are most commonly sent out denoted as executables and sometimes scripts. The reason is because unsuspecting users will expectedly double click on the attachments to perform some function which they thought would help them. Sometime the attachments are sent as documents intended to inform users about some new subject.

Continue reading List of Filename Extensions Blocked by Outlook

In Outlook, email is contained in a folder for incoming mail that is known as your Inbox. Sent email messages are contained in another email folder for your Sent Items. Outlook also has folders for Deleted Items, Drafts, Junk E-mail, Outbox and Search Folders.

Search Folders do not store email messages – they are virtual folders that use the concept of “views”. It is these views that present the email messages which match search criteria that have been defined by the user. The benefit of Search Folders is that once the search query has been executed the results will remain in the appropriate Outlook folder. Those folder results can then be used over and over again without having to run the same query.

Such Search Folders include: “Unread mail”, “Mail flagged for follow up”, “Mail either unread or flagged for follow up”, “Important mail”, “Mail from and to specific people”, etc.

Search Folders are either active or inactive. Inactive Search Folders are displayed with italic text and transparent icons. Active Search Folders are displayed with typical font and solid icons.

The three folders “For Follow Up”, “Large Mail” – email items larger than 100KB – and “Unread Mail” are default folders which can be modified or deleted. It is important to note that deleting a Search Folder does not delete the actual email messages. Remember that Search Folders are simply views for those email messages. But if your end users delete one or more of those email messages from within a Search Folder then the actual email messages will be deleted from their original Outlook folder.

Continue reading Troubleshooting Search Folder Issues

The process of making a connection between Outlook and Exchange can sometimes be problematic. Sometimes the network is not up or the connection information for either the client or the server may have changed or become corrupted.

When unable to make a connection between the client and the server a variety of error messages can be displayed: some alone and others in combination with each other. One such error message that a user or administrator may see displayed is the following:

“Exchange is currently in recovery mode. You can either connect to your Exchange server using the network, work offline, or cancel this logon.”

There are a couple different reasons for this message as well as multiple solutions. Most of the time the error message is displayed because of a difference in the cached copies of the mailboxes stored on the local client and of the cached copies stored on the Exchange server. This problem can be resolved by disabling the cached Exchange mode on Outlook, restarting Outlook and then resetting the cached Exchange mode on Outlook back to enabled status.

The “Exchange is currently in recovery mode” can also indicate that there are configuration issues with the Domain Name System (DNS) settings. This could also be the result of a connection problem either on the client or on the server. And it could also mean that the DNS server itself is down and thus not providing name resolution services.

Continue reading How to solve the Exchange in Recovery Mode Error

One very useful feature of Exchange server is that of the Autodiscover service. Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 provides a feature known as the Autodiscover service which is used to configure the user profiles of Outlook 2007 or Outlook 2010 clients. Additionally it is also supported on phones running Windows Mobile 6.1 or later versions.

The Autodiscover service also allows clients to get access to the various features of Exchange server while connected. Using the user’s email address and password profile the Autodiscover service provides profile settings for Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2010. It can also leverage the domain accounts of clients that are joined to domains.

Some of the benefits of using the Autodiscover service include the time savings and often cumbersome process that email Administrators had to go through when configuring user profiles manually for Exchange 2003 SP2 (or earlier) and Outloook 2003 (or earlier). Further adding to the sometimes moribund tasks that administrators have to periodically perform was also the fact that if changes or updates were made to any of the users’ profiles then the process would have to be repeated manually to reconfigure those profiles. Without these manual changes administrators would run the risk of Outlook clients no longer working in their normal manner.

Continue reading Outlook and Autodiscover Errors

Email administration can involve a variety of tasks. Some of these tasks are complex while others are fairly mundane. Oftentimes administrators have to support memory problems; sometimes it is configuration issues and settings, while other times it is underperforming or, at worst, non-performing clients and servers.

One of the easier issues an administrator has to support is the problem is space allocations in regards to disk or file space. On a system of limited disk space this can be a minor challenge. Conserving space on a hard disk will require the administrator to delete unwanted or unnecessary for business items from the various dot pst (.pst) and dot ost (.ost) files.

But if all your data resides on an Exchange server then this process in not needed. Most often, though, the relevant user data can be found in personal folder files such as the dot pst files. These files can be found by searching for files with the dot pst (.pst) extension. Outlook data items such as email messages, tasks, contacts, etc. reside within the dot pst files.

Once the non-critical information has been deleted then the administrator can begin the process of compacting the files which will reduce the size of those files and thus free up critical space on the system.

Continue reading Delete Item Space in Outlook

One of the fastest end user communications you can have will be from everybody’s least desired scenarios: slow startup performance with Outlook.

We’ve all become so accustomed to almost instantaneous response times that a five or ten percent drop in startup times can cause a major increase in complaints from end users. From small office operations to larger enterprise corporations those five to ten percent drops in startup times can sometimes be translated into lost revenue especially when the slow startup time bleeds into continuous slower performance and reduced availability and access to data.

There can be many causes for slow startup performance:

1. Folder updates are interrupted.
2. Interference or incompatibility with anti-virus or anti-spam software.
3. Problems with recent add-ins.
4. Inbox messages may be corrupted.
5. Critical file corruption.
6. TCP/IP communication problems.
7. Server/Client hardware configurations
8. User Interface customizations

If you suspect file or folder corruptions then one way to check for this is to check the size of some of your critical system files. Some very easy fixes include renaming or deleting these files and then letting Outlook recreate them as necessary. In Outlook 2007 such files that can be deleted or renamed include: outcmd.dat, extend.dat, views.dat and frmcache.dat.

Continue reading Outlook Startup and Slow Performance

Having multiple mailboxes can be a benefit for users who want to direct email to specific mailboxes based on subject material, audiences or other personal reasons. But it can also increase the workload of not only the corporate servers but of the administrators as well.

Exchange server allows users to access those multiple accounts while using only one profile and not having to re-log in under a different username. To support this functionality it is necessary for an administrator to configure Outlook such that it will enable a user to access those multiple email boxes from one profile.

An administrator should start Outlook using the profile that is configured for the Exchange server mailbox of the account (#1) that is going to be used to add a “delegate” account. Validation may be required. If so then log in to the network as the user of the account (#1). Then, follow the steps outlined below for Outlook 2002 and 2003:

1. From the Tools menu, click Options to add a delegate.
2. Select the Delegates tab and click Add.
3. Type or select a username for the delegate account (#2).
4. Click Add, and then click OK or hit enter
5. Locate the Delegate Permissions dialog boxes. Then select Editor (read, create, and modify items) in each of them.
6. Click OK or hit enter two times.
7. Click on Folder List on the View menu to make it visible.
8. Right-click the Mailbox – user name (to begin adding a new user).
9. Then click Properties for Mailbox – user name on the shortcut menu.
10. On the Permissions tab, click Add.
11. Type or select the username of account (#2) you wish to add and then click Add.
12. Click OK or hit enter.
13. From the Name box, click the newly added user for the account (#2).
14. From the Roles box, click Owner, and then click OK or hit enter.
15. Repeat steps 8 through 14 for the rest of the other folders in the mailbox.
16. On the File menu, click Exit and Log Off.

You are now ready to restart Windows and log in as the newly created username for account (#2). Once Windows has restarted you should then start Outlook with the corresponding profile for the newly created username.

Continue reading Working With Multiple Mailboxes

If you have set up Outlook to use Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) and also read receipts then you may have some users who will report errors or problems related to junk email.

A read receipt is a tracking mechanism that allows the sender to request a receipt indicating that the recipient has received and read their email message. The recipient has the option to acknowledge receipt and/or that the email message has also been read.

Whether or not the sender receives that receipt is not only dependent on the recipient’s acknowledgement but more so on the email server, specifically the email server’s support of read receipts. Additionally, although the email server might support sending out read receipts it may not support delivery receipts which is usually a setting configured to prevent spammers from determining mailbox addresses.

Read receipts make sense for internal communications and critical email messages. They help to establish a paper trail useful in legal matters. However some users may consider this an intrusion or a disruption in their normal business flow and may thus disable this option.

Some users have reported that when Outlook synchronizes with the email server and purges the junk email folder that read receipts will be returned. This can happen when messages that have receipt requests are being moved to the junk email folder and you then empty the junk email folder from another client. This can happen even though the settings in Tools, Options, Email Options and Tracking Options indicate otherwise.

Continue reading Read Receipt Requests and Junk Email

Having the ability to recall email messages in Outlook can be a very useful feature. Many a time have I sent email messages and then almost immediately wanted them back. This can happen to any user especially when messages are written in the heat of the moment only to have the sender cringe later after realizing that his or her message was sent in haste or was “poorly” worded.

Luckily for end users of Outlook there is a functionality that exists which administrators can implement for the benefit of their end users. That embarrassment saving feature is the “Recall” function of Outlook. Specifically it is the Recall function available if you have installed Outlook option called the Corporate Workgroup/Other option.

If you are in a corporate environment then this has probably already been implemented as you are most likely using the Messaging Application Programming Interface (MAPI) services to communicate with the Exchange server. If you need to determine if a predecessor has already done this for you then you can go to the Help menu and click on the About Microsoft Outlook choice. If you have the corporate option installed then you will see the title “Corporate Workgroup”.

Continue reading Troubleshooting the Recall Function in Outlook

Email attachments must be sent, received, opened and closed on a daily basis. When a user cannot open an attachment you can be sure that an administrator is going to hear about it. Sometimes there are problems with saving attachments; other times the problems show up when a user attempts to open an attachment.

Some error messages are related to Outlook’s attachment security settings. Other times the error message might be a result of a suspected virus as reported by the user’s anti-virus software.

The most common error message displayed will be something like:

“Cannot create file: file name. Right-click the folder you want to create the file in and click Properties on the shortcut menu to check your permissions for the folder.”

This error message can be an indication of a lack of sufficient permissions of the Temporary Internet Files folder stored on a server. You can fix this problem by configuring Outlook to use a specific folder for temporary internet files.

If Outlook 2000 is being used then you’ll have to make changes to the Registry. As always, before making any edits to the Registry you should always make a backup. That way if any errors are made then you will have a good working backup point that you can restore to.

Continue reading Outlook Cannot Create or Open Attachment