Security: RBC Royal Bank: Best laid plans of mice and men

We did some banking work with our bank, RBC Canada. In the process they sent us a few "Secure Document Access" requests that the agent provided the password for via a phone conversation.

When the first one came in, it was a bit of a system shock.

RBC Royal Bank "Secure Message"

The highlight is ours. Huh?!?

Given the nature of today's phishing attacks a phone call was very quick to happen to our contact after receiving the above to verify its legitimacy.

We received a number of subsequent "secure" e-mails using the same method.

The encryption process we use, and our clients use, on the ExchangeDefender (xD) system is a link to an Internet property owned by xD with the appropriate SSL properties in place to assure the recipient that they are in the right place. That's after we indicate to the recipient in a prior e-mail of the upcoming process to obtain the encrypted content.

The RBC Royal Bank method is close to that but why the .HTM attachment requirement? That's just plain weird. :S

Sure enough, this is what was in an Inbox here this morning:

Phishing Message

It's a poorly crafted phish attempt at best.

E-mail Header

The trail is pretty clear as far as where it came from and the "how" looks to be fairly clear as well.

All it would have taken was a bit better in the way of timing on the phisher's part and a bit of distraction on our part and BOOM we could have been hooked. :(

RBC Royal Bank Canada needs to change their secure document transmission methodologies please.

And, Microsoft, please give us built-in DKIM abilities for on-premises Exchange instead of keeping that to online properties only. That's not polite in the least.*See Note Below

Outlook Header How-To

Outlook users, here's how to get the header information shown above:

1. Double click on the e-mail
2. Click the Message tab
3. Click the break-out button on the bottom right of the Tags category
• 
4. Click anywhere in the small information window
• 
5. Keyboard:  CTRL+A then CTRL+C
6. Click Close and close the e-mail
7. Paste the content into the destined app (we use Notepad)

After examining a few headers it gets pretty easy to identify the legit and illegitimate messages hitting our Inbox every day. While the process may be a bit time consuming, figuring out whether something is legit or not could be the difference between DELETE and an encryption event or Inbox/Contacts harvesting.

Happy Monday everyone and thanks for reading! :)

2018-09-10 EDIT: Oops, that Microsoft sentence should have been CUT along with the other sentences that were in a previous paragraph. Suffice it to say, we've been working on DMARC/DKIM requests and discovered that Microsoft seems to be holding DKIM off from on-premises Exchange. Thus, we need to go third party to get to use that business critical security feature. :(

Philip Elder
Microsoft High Availability MVP
MPECS Inc.
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book
www.s2d.rocks !
Our Web Site
Our Cloud Service

AutoDiscover “Broken” in Outlook 2016

We have a client that has their services spread across a number of different cloud systems.

Recently, users had started “losing” their connection to their hosted Exchange mailbox with Outlook coughing up some really strange errors that were not very helpful.

We ran the gamut trying to figure things out since any calls to the hosted Exchange provider and eventually the company hosting their web site always came back with “There’s a problem with Outlook”.

Indeed.

What we’ve managed to figure out is that Outlook 2016 will _always_ run an AutoDiscover check even if we’re manually setting up the mailbox for _any_ Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) connection. It must be some sort of new “security” feature in Outlook 2016.

What does that mean?

It means that when something changes unbeknownst to us things break. :(

In this case the AutoDiscover setup in Outlook for EAS connections and the web host changing something on their end as things were working for a _long_ time before the recent problems. Or, a recent update to Outlook 2016 changed things on the AutoDiscover side that revealed what was happening on the www hosting side.

Okay, back to the problem at hand. This is the prompt we would get when setting up a new mailbox, or eventually all users started getting who already had mailbox connections:

Internet E-mail Name@Domain.com

Enter your user name and password for the following server:

Server: gator3146.hostgator.com

Well, our mailboxes are on a third party and not HostGator. So, on to chatting and eventually phoning them after opening a ticket with the Exchange host and hearing back that the problem was elsewhere.

Unfortunately, HostGator was not very helpful via chat or phone when we initially reached out. Outlook was always the problem they claimed.

So, we set up a test mailbox on the hosted Exchange platform and went to our handy Microsoft tool: Microsoft Remote Connectivity Analyzer.

We selected the Outlook Autodiscover option and ran through the steps setting up the mailbox information, then the CAPTCHA a few times ;-), and received the following results:

We now had concrete evidence that HostGator was not honouring the AutoDiscover.domain.com DNS setup we had for this domain which was not on their system.

A question was sent out to a fellow MVP on Exchange and their reply back was “HostGator had a URLReWrite rule in place for IIS/Apache that was grabbing the AutoDiscover polls from Outlook and sending them to their own servers.”

During that time we created the /AutoDiscover folder and put a test file in it. The problem still happened.

Okay, back on the phone with HostGator support. The first call had two “escalations” associated with it unfortunately with no results. A second call was made after seeing the MVP response with a specific request to HostGator: Delete the URLReWrite rule that was set up on this client’s site within the last month.

They could not do it. Nothing. Nada. Zippo. :(

So, for now our workaround was to move the DNS A record for @ (Domain.com) to the same IP as the hosted Exchange service’s AutoDiscover IP to at least get Outlook to fail on the initial domain poll.

Moral of the story?

We’re moving all of our client’s web properties off HostGator to a hosting company that will honour the setup we implement and use the Microsoft Remote Connectivity Analyzer to test things out thoroughly.

Philip Elder
Microsoft High Availability MVP
MPECS Inc.
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book
Our Cloud Service

Outlook Crashes - Exchange 2013 or Exchange 2016 Backend

We’ve been deploying Office/Outlook 2016 and Exchange 2016 CU1 in our Small Business Solution (SBS) both on-premises and in our Cloud.

Since we’re deploying Exchange with a single common name certificate we are using the _autodiscover._tcp.domain.com method for AutoDiscover.

A lot of our searching turned up “problems” around AutoDiscover but pretty much all of them were red herrings.

It turns out the Microsoft has deprecated the RPC over HTTPS setup in Outlook 2016. What does this mean?

MAPI over HTTPS is the go-to for Outlook communication with Exchange going forward.

Well, guess what?

MAPI over HTTPS is _disabled_ out of the box!

In Exchange PowerShell check on the service’s status:

Get-OrganizationConfig | fl *mapi*

To enable:

Set-OrganizationConfig -MapiHttpEnabled $true

Then, we need to set the virtual directory configuration:

Get-MapiVirtualDirectory -Server EXCHANGESERVER | Set-MapiVirtualDirectory -InternalUrl  https://mail.DOMAIN.net/MAPI -ExternalUrl https://mail.DOMAIN.net/MAPI

Verify the settings took:

Get-MapiVirtualDirectory -Server EXCHANGESERVER | FL InternalUrl,ExternalUrl

And finally, test the setup:

Test-OutlookConnectivity -RunFromServerId EXCHANGESERVER -ProbeIdentity OutlookMapiHttpSelfTestProbe

EXCHANGESERVER needs to be changed to the Exchange server name.

Hat Tip: Mark Gossa: Exchange 2013 and Exchange 2016 MAPI over HTTP

Philip Elder
Microsoft High Availability MVP
MPECS Inc.
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book
Our Cloud Service

Outlook: Cannot open this item. Outlook has already begun transmitting this message

We had a strange one this morning:

A couple of messages were stuck in the Outbox.

This site has some good troubleshooting tips:

• HowTo-Outlook: Message stuck in Outbox

However, after running through all of the steps Outlook eventually did step up and send the messages. Though, that happened when Outlook was _in_ Offline Mode.

It turns out that we now know why the Send/Receive process is being hung up:

Our Office 365 account was stuck?

Apparently there were no issues? Hmmm...

We tried to add the O365 account to a different system's Outlook and we hit this:

Using Men&Mice's awesome freebie online DIG tool we checked to make sure that AutoDiscover was indeed set up (which it was when we configured things back when).

So, at least at this point it is looking like the service is indeed having an issue.

And finally, after a huge pause Outlook's Send/Receive coughed up an error:

With the volume of e-mail we have flowing about right now having Outlook getting hung up on one of the mailboxes during Send/Receive is outright frustrating! :S

We removed the O365 account and sure enough Outlook has started sending and receiving without a hiccup.

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

Troubleshooting Out Of Office (OOF) with ExchangeDefender

We were in the process of trying to figure out just what was going on with the OOF feature in Exchange/Outlook as no automatic replies were being sent out at all.

We ran through a number of different steps in the process and eventually came to the conclusion that something was catching them in ExchangeDefender (XD).

Well, since we have been so busy one of the To Do list items on our own end did not get addressed. That is fixing the RSS setup between IE and Outlook on our own systems. Thus we missed the following XD posts:

• ExchangeDefender Blog: Outbound JR
• ExchangeDefender Blog: Rolling out Outbound-JR

If we had been paying attention to the XD blog we would have seen the following as noted in the above posts:

Almost all of our clients do not use OOF, nor do we, so to date we had not encountered a “problem” with them not being sent out.

Long story short, use outbound-jr.exchangedefender.com for the Smart Host setting in SBS/Exchange if there is a need to utilize these types of 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

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 Live 365 – We Are Now Online

Okay, so five minutes after hitting the post button in Windows Live Writer our SharePoint site came online.

• MPECS Inc. Blog: Office 365 Beta – Go Live Time Here

Now that DNS has had a chance to propagate for our new domain we are trying to get our Outlook connected.

Step 1 – Get that info in:

Step 2 – Authenticate:

Step 3 – We are connected:

Step 4 – Outlook wants to restart:

Step 5 – Outlook shows the mailbox:

Now, let’s test to see just how the system will handle spam:

• E-mail: PhilipElder@hostedmpecs.ca

With the above address being integrated into my Outlook, please feel free to e-mail me there however with Microsoft announcing that the O365 service is going live in a few days there is no guarantee on how long this beta based mailbox stays alive.

We will not pay for this service as we are already properly licensed in-house and utilize OWN’s Hosted Exchange for our client’s needs as well as our own.

So, let’s see just how long this lasts! :)

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 Error – Cannot open your default e-mail folders. You must connect to Microsoft Exchange with the current profile . . .

We ran the gamut of trying to figure out the following error:

Microsoft Outlook

Cannot open your default e-mail folders. You must connect to Microsoft Exchange with the current profile before you can synchronize your folders with your Outlook data file (.ost).

And:

Microsoft Outlook

Cannot open your default e-mail folders. The file C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Microsoft\Outlook\UserEmail@Domain.ca – First.ost is not an Outlook data file (.ost).

We tried everything from recreating her Outlook Profile, removing the OST file just in case it was corrupted, a number of combinations including the aforementioned steps along with others, and finally flattening her local profile and starting fresh.

It was not until we signed into a desktop OS VM with the user’s credentials after they mentioned that Outlook threw the same error for them when signing into a spare laptop that it became apparent that we were dealing with a server problem.

There was no clue that the problem was with SBS 2003 and Exchange 2003 because no other users were complaining about a Disconnected Outlook.

After combing through the logs on the SBS 2003 server we turned up the following:

Event ID: 9646 MSExchangeIS

Mapi session “/o=DOMAIN/ou=first administrative group/cn=Recipients/cn=Username” exceeded the maximum of 32 objects of type “session”.

Searching for this error brought us to the following KB article:

• Microsoft Knowledgebase KB842022: Event ID 9646 is logged in the application event log of your Exchange Server 2003 computer when a client opens many MAPI sessions

We needed to add the following registry key and restart the Information Store on the problematic server:

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit in the Open box, and then click OK.
2. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeIS\ParametersSystem

3. If the Maximum Allowed Sessions Per User entry does not exist, do the following:
   1. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
   2. Type Maximum Allowed Sessions Per User as the entry name, and then press ENTER.
4. Right-click the Maximum Allowed Sessions Per User entry, and then click Modify.
5. Click Decimal, type the value that you want to set in the Value data box, and then click OK.
1. We used the value of 128.
6. Exit Registry Editor.
7. Click Start, click Run, type services.msc in the Open box, and then click OK.
8. Click the MSExchange Information Store service, and then click Restart Service.

We confirmed that the Information Store restarted properly and our stores were mounted. We then started Outlook on the user’s system and were finally greeted with their mailbox!

Note that the user was using OWA when the problem started so it did not become apparent that the problem was on the server until _well_ into this troubleshooting process.

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 2003 – MSExchangeIS Error 9646 – Exceeded Maximum Objects

One of our SBS 2003 sites had the following in their morning report:

In the Event Logs we found:

Event Type:    Error
Event Source:    MSExchangeIS
Event Category:    General
Event ID:    9646
Date:        12/8/2010
Time:        9:46:25 AM
User:        N/A
Computer:   SBS
Description:
Mapi session "/o=DOMAIN/ou=first administrative group/cn=Recipients/cn=FirstLast" exceeded the maximum of 32 objects of type "session".

For more information, click http://www.microsoft.com/contentredirect.asp.

A quick search turned up:

• Microsoft KB842022: Event ID 9646 is logged in the application event log of your Exchange Server 2003 computer when a client opens many MAPI sessions

The instructions were as follows:

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit in the Open box, and then click OK.
2. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeIS\ParametersSystem

3. If the Maximum Allowed Sessions Per User entry does not exist, do the following:
   1. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
   2. Type Maximum Allowed Sessions Per User as the entry name, and then press ENTER.
4. Right-click the Maximum Allowed Sessions Per User entry, and then click Modify.
5. Click Decimal, type the value that you want to set in the Value data box, and then click OK.
6. Exit Registry Editor.
7. Click Start, click Run, type services.msc in the Open box, and then click OK.
8. Click the MSExchange Information Store service, and then click Restart Service.

We configured the registry setting at 96. The default is 32.

Once we restarted the Information Store the user could connect to Exchange in their Outlook 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

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

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

Outlook 2010 Contacts Missing On Windows Mobile Phone? Suggested Contacts Is the Culprit

By default, Windows Mobile will only synchronize the Contacts folder that resides in the user’s mailbox on Exchange.

Since installing Outlook 2010, any new contacts that were added in Outlook were not synchronizing to the Windows Mobile Phone.

It took a bit of time before this was discovered.

In Outlook a search for the contact’s name would turn up their contact properties. Not on the phone however.

A bit of hunting turned them up in the new Suggested Contacts folder in Outlook itself.

Now, the “why” as to their placement there has not come entirely clear as of yet, however, we do know how to turn this feature off for the moment:

Move the “missing” contacts that are in the Suggested Contacts folder to the Contacts folder.

After removing the check mark Automatically create Outlook… setting under the Contacts Options, we created a new contact and:

The contact was placed in the correct place.

No more issues with not having new contacts on the phone.

• Nod to: Black on Stuff blog: How to disable Suggested Contacts in Outlook 2010.

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 Beta Hanging On Send/Receive

Okay, so maybe all of the bugs are not quite worked out yet:

We have three Exchange mailboxes along with an Internet hosted SharePoint Calendar in Outlook 2010.

The hang up was on the SharePoint connection not throwing up an authentication window. It took a couple of shutdown and restarts before the credentials window finally showed itself.

The above was seen after Outlook mysteriously quite sometime between just before lunch and this afternoon when this post is being written.

How did we know? The client side rules were not being honoured and the Inbox was getting quite full. There are no indications in the system logs as to what caused it to stall either.

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 Primary Mailbox Disconnected While Remote?

This was a bit of a puzzle at first:

Outlook was prompting for credentials for the two add-in mailboxes but not for the primary mailbox.

It took a few minutes of working through the settings to figure out that there was one very important thing missed during the initial setup of this mailbox:

The Connect to Microsoft Exchange using HTTP was not enabled and our RPC/HTTPS Outlook Anywhere settings were not in place!

Oops!

Fortunately, the missed setting was on the laptop I am working on, but if it belonged to a client that was trying to use their new laptop setup there could have been a frustrated phone call. 

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 – Adding An Additional Exchange Mailbox And It Sorts To The Main Mailbox!

We have a number of different Exchange based accounts that we use for the various needs of our company.

When it came to e-mail, we would always set up a POP3 connection to grab e-mail from the various e-mail related accounts.

Now that we can set up those Exchange mailboxes within Outlook 2010, this is how we don’t go about it:

1. Click on the File tab button.
   • 
2. Click on Account Settings.
   • 
3. Click on Account Settings that shows up on the menu.
4. Click on the New button in the E-mail Accounts window.
   • 
5. In the dialogue box that comes up, we are going to choose the Manually configure server settings option.
   • 
6. Select Microsoft Exchange.
   • 
7. And, this is why we do not go about configuring an Exchange account from within Outlook 2010:
   • 

Okay, so we have learned that we cannot configure an additional Exchange account from within Outlook.

This is how we set up an additional Exchange account:

1. Close Outlook 2010.
2. Open the Control Panel.
3. Switch the View by: to an Icon view.
4. Click on the Mail  or Mail (32-bit) icon.
•  
5. Click on the E-mail Accounts button.
•  
6. Click the New button.
•  
7. Click the Manually configure server . . . option and click Next.
•  
8. Choose the Microsoft Exchange option and click Next.
•  
9. Set the Exchange server and user name in place.
• 
10. Click the Check Name button to verify the settings.
• Make sure to click the More Settings button once the settings are correct and input the Outlook Anywhere settings under the Connections tab.
11. Click Finish.

The new account will now be in the E-mail Accounts window:

Once we open Outlook and authenticate for the new account, we will have:

BTW, rules can be created in the secondary Exchange mailboxes to move content into the primary Exchange mailbox where that content has a dedicated folder.

So, no more fancy POP3 configurations for gathering e-mail from various mailboxes into certain folders!

This feature alone is worth its weight in gold!

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 – Office 2007 Uninstall Fail?

After uninstalling Office 2007, we installed Office 2010 Beta. But, things were not working as we had expected. So, into the Programs and Features we went on this Windows 7 laptop and we found:

Note that the above was found after uninstalling Office 2007 and rebooting the laptop.

So, what does that mean?

It means that the script used to deploy Office 2007 on our network via Group Policy does not detect the newer version installed on this laptop and proceeds to install Office 2007.

It looks as though the script is not aware of the 64bit versions. We will need to look into updating it to work with the new versions of Office 2010 when we have access to our Open Value Licensing version.

The script:

setlocal

REM *********************************************************************
REM Environment customization begins here. Modify variables below.
REM Modified 2009-10-06 by Philip Elder for company variables.
REM *********************************************************************

REM Get ProductName from the Office product's core Setup.xml file.
set ProductName=Enterprise

REM Set DeployServer to a network-accessible location containing the Office source files.
set DeployServer=\\SBS\ClientApps\Office2007Ent

REM Set ConfigFile to the configuration file to be used for deployment REM (required)
set ConfigFile=\\SBS\ClientApps\Office2007Ent\Enterprise.WW\config.xml

REM Set LogLocation to a central directory to collect log files.
set LogLocation=\\SBS\ClientApps\Office2007Ent\Office12Logs

REM *********************************************************************
REM Deployment code begins here. Do not modify anything below this line.
REM *********************************************************************

IF NOT "%ProgramFiles(x86)%"=="" SET WOW6432NODE=WOW6432NODE\

reg query HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\%WOW6432NODE%Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\%ProductName%
if %errorlevel%==1 (goto DeployOffice) else (goto End)

REM If 1 returned, the product was not found. Run setup here.
:DeployOffice
start /wait %DeployServer%\setup.exe /config %ConfigFile%
echo %date% %time% Setup ended with error code %errorlevel%. >> %LogLocation%\%computername%.txt

REM If 0 or other was returned, the product was found or another error occurred. Do nothing.
:End

Endlocal

So for now, we will restructure our OU and GPOs for the moment to exclude the GPO setting to deploy Office 2007 for any machines the Office 2010 Beta will be installed on.

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 Send/Receive And Exchange Settings After Upgrading

Since most folks will have a version of Office installed on their machines before installing the new Office 2010 Beta, one thing to keep in mind is that if installing the 64bit version of Office 2010 Beta the previous Office 32bit version will need to be uninstalled first.

This is how our Send/Receive settings looked after the whole process:

By default, our send/receive time limit will be 5 minutes.

Click on the Edit button in the above window and we found:

The “Include the selected account in this group” setting was unchecked.

So, we made sure to check it:

Once the settings were configured correctly, Outlook started to behave as expected for content flow.

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