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Exchange Messaging Outlook
Volume 5, Number 21

Greetings! Welcome to Vol. 5, No. 21, of Exchange Messaging Outlook, a biweekly newsletter about Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft Outlook.

Today's highlights:

My Outlook 2002 Top 5 Lists -- the Good and the Annoying
New Outlook HTML mail patch
Integrating WinFax PRO 10.0 with Outlook
Exchange Server patch roundup
Latest Outlook-related viruses

Regular features:

New utilities
Updated utilities
Other new resources

My Outlook 2002 Top 5 Lists -- the Good and the Annoying

I'll admit it. I won't give up Outlook 2002 and go back to Outlook 2000. There are too many things I like. After spending some time with the Corporate Preview Beta version, here's my initial list of favorite 5 features:

End to the dual Internet Mail Only and Corporate/Workgroup modes -- The benefits of ending Outlook's split personality include having multiple profiles (something IMO mode couldn't do) and being able to mix and match all kinds of accounts, including POP, IMAP and Exchange Server, all in one profile. And, no matter how many accounts you have, you can choose which account you want to use to send each individual message.
Unified reminders window -- You get one pop-up containing all your task, appointment, contact and message reminders, rather than a separate window for each one.
WordMail that really works -- The feature that allows you to use Word as your e-mail editor is slimmer and more reliable than in previous versions. Under Tools | Options | General | E-mail Options, on the General tab, you can choose to filter HTML mail so that it isn't bloated with the XML formatting and other data that Office 2000 added to WordMail messages. (And if you still don't like WordMail, even the built-in Outlook editor now supports AutoCorrect.)
Ability to unblock certain file attachments -- Outlook 2002 is more flexible on attachment security than Office 2000 SP-2, because it includes a registry key to allow users to say which potentially dangerous attachments they don't want Outlook to block. See http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/esecup/getexe.htm#ol2002 for details. (The security story is not all positive, though, so stay tuned for the annoyances list.)
Marking your place in message folders -- If you're reading your mail in the Inbox and switch to your Sent Items folder for a moment, when you come back to the Inbox, Outlook remembers what message you were looking at and selects that message in the folder. This has saved me hours of paging up and down to find my place again.

So, what's the down side? So far, here are the 5 "features" that personally annoy me the most:

Object model guard -- Outlook 2002 enforces the security related to certain Outlook and CDO programming techniques that Microsoft introduced in the Outlook Email Security Update last summer. Unless you're connected to an Exchange Server that has the administrative components (see http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/esecup/admin.htm) installed, there is no way to avoid the prompts that appear when you try to access addresses or send a message programmatically.
Missing IMO features -- In the consolidation of IMO and CW modes, some IMO features didn't make the cut. For example, you cannot export and import Internet mail settings as .iaf files. Outlook 2002 no longer shares its contacts with Outlook Express through the Windows Address Book. The Nickname field on a contact is no longer used for address resolution. And, the "Automatically put people I reply to in <folder>" feature is gone.
No drop-down MRU lists next to the Back and Next buttons -- I use the Back and Next buttons on the Advanced toolbar all the time to switch between folders. I really miss the tiny arrows next to those buttons that let you see the last few folders you visited. Internet Explorer has such drop-down lists. Why did Microsoft have to cut them from Outlook?
Help on the Outlook object model -- There's no excuse for this. The revised Help for programming Outlook omits a lot of key information -- like the numeric values for all the intrinsic Outlook constants! -- and does not correct some errors that have been in Help since Outlook 97.
No View | Show Folder Home Page command -- Folder home pages are still an important feature in Outlook 2002, but you can no longer easily toggle between an Outlook folder view and a folder home page. Instead, you have to edit the properties of the folder to show the home page by default when you want to see it, and turn off that default when you want to hide it. That's five clicks instead of 1 or 2.

These are just my personal lists, based on the Corporate Preview Beta which has shipped to MSDN Universal subscribers and will go out to TechNet Plus subscribers next month. Everyone else worldwide can order it for $19.95 from http://www.microsoft.com/office/xpcorpbeta.htm.

I'll reserve my comments on whether you should upgrade or not until we get the final version. Office 2002 was released to manufacturing earlier this month, so it should hit Microsoft's largest customers in a few weeks and retail stores in late May or early June.

In the meantime, I'd love to hear from other users of the Corporate Preview Beta to find out about your favorites new features and annoyances.

New Outlook HTML mail patch

Microsoft Security bulletin MS01-015 details an "IE can Divulge Location of Cached Content" vulnerability that could make it possible for an HTML messages to launch a compiled .chm file that contains a shortcut to a malicious executable file. Microsoft has posted patches for Internet Explorer 5.01 SP1 and 5.5 SP1 See http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms01-015.asp for more details.

Integrating WinFax PRO 10.0 with Outlook

We've always relied on Outlook MVP Ken Slovak to keep us informed on issues with WinFax PRO and Outlook. For the basics, see http://www.slipstick.com/addins/utilities/winfax9.htm. WinFax PRO 10.0 apparently operates much the same as WinFax PRO 9.0. However, there is one big difference. For some reason, WinFax PRO 10.0 does not update the Mapisvc.inf file that makes it possible for you to add the WinFax PRO service to an Outlook profile. Symantec has published a service bulletin with the information on the Mapisvc.inf settings at http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/faxprod.nsf/pfdocs/2000030218274804. Many thanks to Ken for the tip.

FYI, from what we've heard, WinFax PRO 10.0 looks to be the last version of this product. Symantec seems to be concentrating their efforts in the area of security solutions.

Exchange Server patch roundup

Microsoft has released patches for Exchange 2000 to resolve problems found in the HTTP-DAV protocol implementation. Exchange 2000 administrators should also install the related "malformed URL" patch for Internet Information Server 5.0. See

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS01-014.asp
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS01-016.asp

Also, the MSKB article "XGEN: Rollup of Selected Exchange 2000 Server Post-Release Fixes" at http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q291/2/22.ASP summarizes the patches available for Exchange 2000 itself.

Latest Outlook-related viruses

Your system cannot become infected by either of these unless you open the .exe file that the virus sends as an e-mail attachment to propagate itself:

I-Worm.Magistr: Payload: .exe files with varying names

The I-Worm.Magistr virus is potentially dangerous and difficult to detect because it

has its own SMTP engine to propagate itself
uses addresses from Outlook, OE, Internet Mail & News, and Netscape mail
infects existing files
uses varying subjects, file attachments and .exe payload names to propagate
can affect hard drive data, CMOS and flash memory

New Utilities

AREA CODE QA FOR OUTLOOK
http://areacodeqa.freeyellow.com/home.html
Updates Outlook contacts when U.S. area codes split. Full product includes periodic updates.

CALENDAR SHARE
http://www.exyst.com/calendar-share.html
Web service for publishing and sharing your personal free/busy calendar information.

CONTACT SHARE
http://www.exyst.com/contact-share.html
Web service for publishing and sharing your personal contact information, downloadable as a vCard.

NJOYN
http://www.njoyn.com/
Web-based hiring management software that includes the ability to synchronize a recruiter's calendar with Outlook.

Updated utilities

EXPRESS MAIL@MATE
http://www.express-soft.com/mailmate/
E-mail notification tool that works with Outlook, Outlook Express and Windows Messaging/Exchange client. Version 2.2 provides access to attachments blocked by the Outlook Email Security Update.

MS01-015 - IE CAN DIVULGE LOCATION OF CACHED CONTENT
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms01-015.asp
Security patch to resolve a cache vulnerability that could make it possible for an HTML messages to launch a compiled .chm file that contains a shortcut to a malicious executable file.

Other new resources

MICROSOFT SECURITY BULLETINS FOR EXCHANGE 2000
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS01-014.asp
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS01-016.asp
Patches for Exchange 2000 to resolve problems found in the HTTP-DAV protocol implementation and for Internet Information Server 5.0.to fix a "malformed URL" denial-of-service vulnerability.

TO UPDATE THE COMPANIES FIELD IN A JOURNAL ITEM WITH DATA FROM A LINKED CONTACT
http://www.slipstick.com/dev/code/linkcompany.htm
Outlook 2000 VBA code sample to update the Companies field in a journal item with the CompanyName from a linked contact.

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Exchange Messaging Outlook Volume 5, Number 21