Microsoft Fails Long Term Open Licensing Customers with Office for iPad O365 Requirement

We received an inquiry from one of our clients about obtaining Office for their iPad. Obviously the paid version is required in order to edit Office documents.

We fired an e-mail off to our licensing contact at Synnex Canada and received the following:

The clear-cut answer is that Microsoft has seemingly set up a requirement for Open License customers to double pay.

How is that?

Well, in the case of our clients they have been on Open Value Agreements for quite a few cycles in some cases. When OVL hits the third renewal (years 7-9) the SA Only costs bring the overall cost of that license and SA close to the OEM costs.

For clients that have regular refresh rates of about 36 months for their equipment this makes sense on so many levels.

So, our clients have already purchased their Office Professional Plus or Office Standard licenses and are on SA Only for them.

To get Office for iPad for their devices there is no SKU to add to their existing agreement. They would have to purchase an Office 365 subscription either personally or for the organization in an O365 MidSize Business plan which on Open Value is $200/Year/User.

Ouch.

It looks like we've just been double billed.

IMNSHO this decision of Microsoft's to force the Office 365 subscription for existing Open License clients is very poorly thought through.

This situation really begs the question as to whether Open License is a valued proposition going forward as Microsoft further segments products into the subscription side to force businesses that have already paid for their licenses to pay yet again ... and again ... and again.

Hopefully Microsoft will come up with something to remove the double billing.

Philip Elder
Microsoft Cluster MVP
MPECS Inc.
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen ASP Project
Find out more at
Third Tier: Enterprise Solutions for Small Business

Office Pro Plus: Setup Error - Files necessary to run the Office Customization Tool were not found. Run Setup from the installation point of a qualifying product.

That was the error we had when we ran setup /admin from our Office 2013 Pro Plus distribution point.

It turns out that we do need to download some additional files from Microsoft's download site.

• Office 2013 Administrative Template files (ADMX/ADML) and Office Customization Tool

We downloaded the 32-bit version of the tools and extracted them to a folder.

Once the extraction is complete copy the Admin folder to the root of the Office distribution point.

We could then run the setup /admin command from the distribution point and voila:

We can now go on and create our MST file to allow for automatic installation, activation, and base configuration of the products.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

Utility: Convert Outlook NK2 File to Stream_Autocomplete*.dat File

This little gem came via fellow MVP Robert Pearman:

• Microsoft Office Forum: How to import/export .NK2 to Stream_Autocomplete*.dat file for outlook 2010

Quote:

Note: Please ensure Outlook 2010 is closed.

1. Download NK2Edit from http://www.nirsoft.net
   • Please Note: The third-party product discussed here is manufactured by a company that is independent of Microsoft. We make no warranty, implied or otherwise, regarding this product's performance or reliability.
2. Open the old Nk2 file (associating the file with NK2 does not work with version v1.12
3. Click Save As, Change the Save as type to "Outlook 2010 AutoComplete .dat file".
4. Navigate to the following directory in the address bar within the Save As Window. %AppData%\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\RoamCache
5. Save over the current Stream_Autocomplete file.
• Note: To avoid unexpected problems, you can first back up the Stream_Autocomplete*.dat file to other place.
6. Test the AutoComplete feature.

Best Regards,

Sally Tang

Our previous post on this topic:

• MPECS Inc. Blog: Outlook 2010 – “My Address Book Is Gone” Importing The NK2 File

We mention this second option to the original process because the import process did not always work with us subsequently being stuck for a method to bring in those addresses.

It is surprising to see just how many folks use that list as their address book with their actual Contacts list being relatively empty!

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Office 2007 Error – OutOfBoundsIndex And Office64WW.xml

We are trying to get Office 2007 installed on that standalone server that we installed BESx on (BlackBerry label) a little while back.

Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007 Setup has stopped working.

An error occurred during the installation, and Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007 setup was unable to complete.

. . . OutOfBoundsIndex
ProPlus.WW\Office64WW.xml

The Check online button does nothing to bring up any possibilities for a fix.

In the Remote Desktop Services server’s event logs we found:

Log Name:      Application
Source:        Microsoft Office 12
Date:          12/13/2010 10:55:32 AM
Event ID:      5000
Task Category: None
Level:         Information
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      TS-01.domain.local
Description:
The description for Event ID 5000 from source Microsoft Office 12 cannot be found. Either the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer or the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the component on the local computer.

If the event originated on another computer, the display information had to be saved with the event.

The following information was included with the event:

Office12Setup
{10120000-0F00-0000-0000--0000000FF1CE}
12.0.4518.1014
X
OutOfBoundsIndex
ProPlus.WW\Office64WW.xml

Searching for OutOfBoundsIndex (Bing search) brings up a lot of links to the _same_ forum support request on other forums which does not include an option.

After sifting through the above search results we came upon this forum post:

• Microsoft Forums: Office – Can’t install Office 2007 on Server 2003 64bit

That post lead us to this one:

• Microsoft Forums: Office – Can't install Office 2007 on Windows Server 2003 SP2 64-bit

In this post we found the answer to our install problem.

Since this particular server had Office 2007 installed and running in Remote Desktop Services (Terminal Services) prior to the BlackBerry Enterprise Express install, we had uninstalled it prior to running the BESx install routine.

Once BESx and the extra Microsoft components had been installed a block was set into the registry to not allow Outlook to be installed on the same machine.

BlockOutlook12: 1

Well, we need Office for Word and Excel without Outlook.

So, we edited the registry as follows:

BlockOutlook12: 0

We reran Office setup and it again failed.

So, we went ahead and renamed the registry keys mentioned:

However, the key did not exist in the second location:

We then ran the Office setup and were greeted with:

So, we entered our key and set the following for Installation Options:

After clicking the Install Now:

And finally:

We then ran Word and Excel to make sure they fired up as expected:

The final step was to verify that they were being properly served by TS RemoteApps:

And:

Good to go!

We now know how to get RDS/TS and Office back onto a standalone server running BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Outlook 2010 – “My Address Book Is Gone” Importing The NK2 File

How many of us have heard, “My address book has disappeared!” after migrating the user to a new workstation.

We learned the hard way in the past to migrate the NK2 file, or what is called the Nickname Cache, to the new workstation _after_ creating a new one in Outlook 2007 or earlier.

With Outlook 2010, we need to go through an import process in order to get those nicknames into the user’s new Outlook mailbox setup.

• Microsoft KB980542: How to import .NK2 files into Outlook 2010

To import .nk2 files into Outlook 2010, follow these steps:

1. Make sure that the .nk2 file is in the following folder:

   %appdata%\Microsoft\Outlook

   Note The .nk2 file must have the same name as your current Outlook 2010 profile. By default, the profile name is "Outlook." To check the profile name, follow these steps:

   1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
   2. Double-click Mail.
   3. In the Mail Setup dialog box, click Show Profiles.
   4. 
   5. The original Outlook 2007 file is shown above.
2. Click Start, and then click Run.
3. In the Open box, type outlook.exe /importnk2, and then click OK. This should import the .nk2 file into the Outlook 2010 profile.
4.  
5. Note After you import the .nk2 file, the contents of the file are merged into the existing nickname cache that is currently stored in your mailbox.

Note The .nk2 file is renamed with a .old file name extension on the first start of Outlook 2010. Therefore, if you try to re-import the .nk2 file, remove the .old file name extension.

Make sure to follow the profile name verification as the import does not work if that step is not followed. The Outlook 2007 file was named Default.NK2.

Also:

Our Outlook.NK2 file did not get the .OLD extension tied onto it after the file was imported into Outlook. We could tell that the file was indeed in there because typing a letter in the TO field of a new e-mail brought up _lots_ of e-mail addresses.

Obviously our client would not have been too happy if their address book was deleted.

Now, what happens when we want to move them from this system to another system whether with Outlook 2010 or newer version of Office has yet to be seen. Given that the above KB is a “Fast Publish” article, we can only hope that an avenue to move that nickname cache between Outlook 2010 profiles or to newer Office versions will happen.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Microsoft Office 2010 And SharePoint – Add Server Button To Quick Access

When working with Microsoft Office documents located on a local or remote SharePoint library we are discovering that we need to know the Check In/Out status of the document either being opened or worked on.

To do that click on the arrow that points down just to the right of the Quick Access Toolbar (Customize Quick Access Toolbar).

The command we are after is not to be found in any of the button groups after clicking More Commands…

Change the Choose commands from: list to All Commands.

Click on the first item in the commands list and hit the “S” key on the keyboard to drop down to the commands that start with that letter.

After finding Server click the Add button to get the command into the Quick Access Toolbar.

Once the Server command is on the Quick Access Toolbar we will have easy access to the needed SharePoint related information.

The problem that we were running into had to do with a document being saved and closed but for some reason not being checked back in. If the document is checked out, and someone attempts to open that document and edit it, even the same user editing it from another location, the user will run into Read Only and “Notify when available” messages.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Office 2010 OPK is Now a Download

As a registered System Builder with the Microsoft OEM Partner Centre (sic), we gain access to reselling Microsoft’s OEM products.

In the case of Office 2007, we needed to obtain a kit from one of our Canadian distribution points that contained the necessary install media, licensing information, and the deployment toolkit.

Now, that kit is available as a download from the OEM System Partner Centre (sic).

After clicking the above link, we see:

We have had a few clients that have asked for French language versions of products in the past, but for the most part we deal with English speaking and writing clients.

Once we click on the English download, we are greeted with the following:

Answer any of these questions incorrectly, and a rubric shows up indicating that we cannot qualify. So, we went through and made sure we were in the right with the above answers.

Office Starter 2010 is a non-starter for us. ;)

We do not do a lot of OEM licensed products. Pretty much all of the OEM licensing are for one-off situations as is the case here.

Okay, so we go through and answer the above questions. We then have to sign the System Builder Download License Agreement. It is a bit of a read, so be prepared to either PDF it, or print it off to go through before signing it as the session will likely time out by the time we read it all.

Once through all of the above steps, we finally had our download on the way:

Once we have the OPK downloaded, we can load the software on a new system and also sell our client a Product Key Card.

From Microsoft:

Purchase a Product Key Card to activate preloaded Microsoft® Office 2010 software on this PC. Product Key Cards provide one installation for one preloaded PC only.

The Product Key Card part numbers for us in Canada are:

• Office Home Standard 2010: 79G-02020
• Office Home Business 2010: T5D-00295
• Office Professional 2010: 269-14834

Now that we have all of that figured out, we can get a PKC for Office Home Business 2010 for our client.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Some Office 2010 Resources

A trial copy of Office 2010 is available for download.

• Evaluation Center: Download Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010
• Evaluation is for 60 days.
• Trial product must be uninstalled prior to installing RTM.
• Evaluation Version Release Notes.

The Office 2010 user guides are a good source for learning the product’s various abilities.

• Microsoft Download Center: Office 2010- Product Guides

We manage our client’s Microsoft Office deployments using Group Policy. To do so, we need to create and link a custom GPO and import the respective templates into that GPO.

• Microsoft Download Center: Office 2010 Administrative Templates and OCT

Since there are now two architecture based versions of Office, one for x86 (32bit) and amd64/x64 (64bit), we need to be mindful of any caveats to running the newly created 64bit version.

• Microsoft Download Center: 64-bit Client Installation of Office 2010
• MSDN: What is the difference between the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Office 2010?

And finally, Microsoft has simplified the number of versions of Office down to three.

• Office 2010: Which suite is right for you?

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Channel 9: Top 5 Features in Microsoft PowerPoint 2010

If you have a few minutes to kill and would like to have a look at some of the new features in PowerPoint 2010, then check out this Channel 9 video:

• Channel 9: Top 5 Features in Microsoft PowerPoint 2010

Doug Thomas who is a content producer for Office.com goes through and explains each of the key features now included in PowerPoint.

The video is also a good place to send client users when it comes time to introduce them to PowerPoint 2010 and its new features.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Microsoft Office 2010 Home Use Program Site

The Microsoft Licensing console has an old URL that still indicates Office 2007 for HUP.

The correct site is:

• HUP Program Web site

This site will give eligible users the ability to obtain their Home Use Program version of Office.

• HUP Information Site

Essentially, any company that has Software Assurance on their Microsoft Office products gives that company the ability to have their users obtain a copy of Office for their home computer for a small shipping fee.

A two for one deal if you will.

With users working with Office 2010 at home, their familiarity with the product grows a lot faster than if they were only using it at work.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Unicode Characters – The Interrobang?!?

I am into cars as has been mentioned in this blog before. Having discovered computers just as I was digging into my last year towards a Journeyman’s ticket as an automotive mechanic, I got the tech bug and never looked back.

We all know where I ended up with that bug now don’t we? ;)

• Image: Jalopnik

While reading the above Jalopnik article on the 2010 Ford Focus RS which looks to be an amazing little car, one of the lines in the article mentioned folks faces personifying the Interrobang (Wikipedia) when they first saw the Focus RS.

Having not heard of such a thing, I ventured over to the Wikipedia article to find the above character.

Ah, the writer in me sees the above character as being _very_ useful for those occasions where “?!?” just won’t cut it or other expressions/acronyms are just not quite polite enough! :)

Now, a neat thing is that Microsoft kindly included the Interrobang in their created for Office default font called Calibri.

This is what the Interrobang looks like in a Web based font: ‽

Note that in Windows Live Writer the character shows up fine. But, it may get toasted by the upload process to Blogger or by Blogger itself when it renders this post.

As mentioned, I see the Interrobang as being very useful for those of us that write. Now that I have discovered it, it will probably find its way into the various writings that I do.

• Unicode General Punctuation Range: 2000-206F (PDF)
• Interrobang: 203D
• MSDN Font Blog: Interrobang?! — Interrobang!?

From the MSDN Font Blog comments comes this little gem from Si:

• Interrobang keyboard shortcuts
• ALT+8253 (numbers on #pad)
• 203D + ALT+X (in Office Apps)

Both shortcuts work quite well. What I did not know was about the second one and how Unicode characters work in Office Applications.

In Microsoft Office type the Unicode string number with the keystroke combination ALT+X after it to bring up the Unicode character. After firing up Word and typing 203D then hitting ALT+X sure enough the Interrobang showed up!

To date, I would either used the ALT+# (not possible on a Microsoft Entertainment keyboard that has no separate number pad) or the Character Map tool in Windows.

Using the Advanced view I can search for a character quickly when I know its name then copy and paste it into my work.

Not bad from one Jalopnik article eh‽ :D

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

SBS 2008 – Outlook 2007 Cannot Connect To Exchange Error

We set up a new Windows 7 Enterprise x64 VM for a client this afternoon.

We then installed Open Value licensed Office 2007 Standard via a network share where an MST file with their settings and the service pack files are already in the Updates folder.

When we opened Outlook to set up the user’s mailbox we were unable to do so. No matter what we tried we kept getting a password prompt which would eventually lead to a Failed to Connect to Exchange error message.

Starting Outlook /RPCDiag brought no clues other than to indicate that Outlook was seemingly not even trying to connect. The dialogue did show DNS resolution to be working as the SBS 2008 server name showed up there.

Running Windows Update, which was by default tied to WSUS on SBS, did not resolve it. We needed to run the online Microsoft Update version, install MU, then check for updates to see the Microsoft Office 2007 updates that were available post SP2.

Once we installed the MU Office 2007 updates, we rebooted. After logging in we were able to get the user’s mailbox configured in Outlook.

SBS 2008 is up to date on this particular network. So, there looks to be an Office 2007/Outlook 2007 update that needs to happen in order to get the two of them communicating again.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

SharePoint Designer 2010 x64 and x86 Downloads Are Available

The free SharePoint Designer 2010 RTM downloads for both CPU architectures are available on Microsoft’s download site:

• Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2010 (64-bit)
• Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2010 (32-bit)

As we have noted in a previous post, SharePoint Designer 2010 will only work with the current SharePoint 2010 versions (previous blog post).

We need to have SharePoint Designer 2007 installed in order to work with Windows SharePoint Services v3 or Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Excel 2010 – Multiplies Cells Containing Formula Results with a Slightly Off Result?

Okay, this is just plain weird:

That calculation is taking a raw number “8” and multiplying it by the result of a series of calculations found in the second cell with the result of “$20.55”.

The end result states that 8 * 20.55 is 164.38 which for most of us seems to be really wrong. Especially for a program that is supposed to do this right!

So, just how do we “fix” this?

A quick search turned up the culprit:

Under File –> Tools –> Advanced we find the Set precision as displayed setting.

When we enable it and click OK Excel becomes quite unhappy about it:

 Microsoft Excel

Data will permanently lose accuracy.

Well, be that as it may, that “loss in accuracy” helps the old human brain to see what it really needs to see:

 

That is the expected result! This works for all versions of Excel too.

The solution was found here:

• CPearson.com: Rounding Errors In Microsoft Excel 97

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Office 2010 Beta – A Step In The Right Direction

Indeed, the Dev Team has fixed one of the most critical problems with the Release Candidate!

The above screenshot is of our own audit notes opened from a remote SharePoint library.

Since we use SharePoint a lot for our document collaboration, having the ability to open SharePoint documents remotely is absolutely critical to the way we do business. That bug put a quick end to the use of Office 2010 Release Candidate in our company.

It looks as though that will change as of tonight!

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Office 2010 Beta Available For Download For TechNet Subscribers

It’s official, the Office 2010 Beta has arrived . . . at least for TechNet Plus subscribers:

We shall soon see if Microsoft has addressed some of the issues that plagued us with the Release Candidate as the Beta has been downloaded and will be trialed on the Asus Eee PC that is here in Calgary with me.

Our main concerns:

• Remote documents stored in a SharePoint library will open properly.
• Outlook Search does not keep breaking.
• Recurring Calendar items do not get deleted when only one in the series is deleted.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

OneNote – No 64 bit Print Driver

On one of our Windows 7 RC machines we do a bit of online banking. We need to digitize some of the transactions so as of late we had been using the OneNote “printer” to generate the required Note page and then save to PDF.

While there are solutions that work and are free, some can be somewhat troublesome to install on Windows Vista and/or Windows 7.

• David Rasmussen’s Blog: ONENOTE 64 BIT PRINT DRIVER

It seems that we will not be seeing the ability to send anything to OneNote via the print driver on 64 bit OSs until the next version which should be released sometime next year.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*All Mac on SBS posts will not be written on a Mac until we replace our now missing iMac! (previous blog post)

Windows Live Writer

Windows and Office Product Key Finder Utility

We have one our client’s partner systems on our bench right now. We sold them the system as well as the software licensing.

We were not expecting to do a full OS reinstall. But, we are replacing the original DP35DP motherboard with a DP45SG series board since we cannot get the system to run completely stable. Our client does not have the keys with them.

The reason for the replacement is that we put together an upgrade for this partner not too long ago and that upgraded system is almost identical to this one, running on the DP45SG, and does not spontaneously combust every once in a while like this one seems to.

We have a copy of the Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 retail DVD here along with the Office 2007 Enterprise Home Use Program disk that are required for the rebuild.

What we need though are the key codes for the products.

Enter the Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder.

The key finder is an open source project and picks up the product keys for most Windows and Office products.

We save the keys to a text file on either a USB flash drive if there is only one partition on the system, or to the second partition just prior to flattening the system. Once we are done and the keys are back into the respective products, the text file gets wiped.

A ShadowProtect image is taken of the system before it gets flattened as well.

We keep a copy of the utility on our Technician’s Thumb Drive.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*All Mac on SBS posts will not be written on a Mac until we replace our now missing iMac! (previous blog post)

Windows Live Writer

Outlook and Exchange – Send/Receive Settings Verification Needed

In most of our client sides we deploy Office 2007 via Group Policy as our corporate clients are on Open Value Agreements and most of our non-profits are using TechSoup for theirs.

When we run the Office 2007 setup.exe /admin [Enter] from the command line to create our MST file, one of the things we make sure to do is to customize the send/receive settings for the Outlook client.

By default, we prefer the Send immediately when connected setting not be checked for those, “oh oh, I missed something” moments where the user wants to get back into that e-mail and make changes:

After clicking the Send/Receive button in the above screenshot we are presented with:

Out of the box, the default Send/Receive time cycle is 30 minutes. When creating the MST file we make sure to set that to 5 minutes. Though lately, we have needed to make sure the newly set up client has the correct time interval settings.

For some reason, the default 30 minute Send/Receive cycle has been the setting in the user’s Outlook setup out of the box.

Now, for the critical setting:

Besides the Send/Receive setting not being the 5 minute interval, the Include the selected account in this group check mark has not been checked for the Microsoft Exchange account.

What we have been seeing is the Send/Receive immediately setting enabled, the above Microsoft Exchange account group not checked, and users calling us to ask why their Public Folders content was updating on everyone else’s system but theirs!

So, we now take a quick check to make sure that the above settings are indeed in place before handing the system, or new network profile, over to the user.

One other area we will be investigating is Group Policy management for Office 2007 settings as we get settled into the new GP setup in Windows Server 2008/SBS 2008. Once we have the Group Policy Objects in place, we will make sure the settings are in place for all of the SBS domain clients.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*All Mac on SBS posts will not be written on a Mac until we replace our now missing iMac! (previous blog post)

Windows Live Writer

Outlook 2007 Error – The account you added is not fully configured…

While setting up a remote Outlook 2007 for Outlook Anywhere connectivity with Exchange back at the main office, the Internet connection went down.

Normally, this would not present too much of a problem, but in this case the connection died just after applying the RPC/HTTPS settings in the Connection tab but before the authentication dialogue popped up.

The Outlook connection dialogue hung at that point. After forcing a close, we tried to run the set up procedure again, but we would receive the following error as soon as we clicked on the More Settings button:

Microsoft Office Outlook

The account you added is not fully configured. It might not work properly until re-configured correctly.

A bit of searching for the specific error turned up the following:

• MS KB252304: Error message when you start Outlook: "Unable to open the Outlook window," "No profile has been created," or "The list of Profiles cannot be loaded"

While the article does not have the above specific error, when we tried to fire Outlook up we did get one of the error messages contained in the KB article when Outlook was trying to start.

Method 2 in the KB was the solution to our problem:

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
2. Locate one of the following registry keys, as appropriate for the version of Microsoft Windows that you are using:

   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem

3. Delete the Profiles key under the Windows Messaging (Subsystem) key.
   To do this, right-click Profiles, and then click Delete. Click Yes to confirm the deletion.
4. Exit Registry Editor, and then restart Outlook.

Once we deleted the above indicated registry key, we were not able to run the account creation process via the Mail icon due to the fact that there were no longer any Outlook profiles on the system.

There will be a prompt to create one:

Outlook Profile Created

Once created, we could go on to put the SBS server FQDN in the Exchange server properties along with the user name and subsequently the Outlook Anywhere settings and have the user authenticate.

Once authenticated, the SBS server name and the proper user name were underlined as they should be and we were able to complete the setup process.

The user could then open their Outlook, authenticate and begin caching their mailbox locally.

When connecting via Outlook Anywhere (RPC/HTTPS), the logon credentials should be formatted:

• SBSDomain\UserName
• My very l0ng p@ssw0rd!

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*All Mac on SBS posts will not be written on a Mac until we replace our now missing iMac! (previous blog post)

Windows Live Writer