Exchange Messaging Outlook
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Greetings! Welcome to Vol. 7, No. 16, 23 Jan 2003, of Exchange Messaging Outlook, a biweekly newsletter about Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft Outlook. Today's highlights:
Regular features:
New security-related update for Outlook 2002 Microsoft has issued a public update for Outlook 2002 resolving a problem with Exchange clients that could allow information in encrypted HTML-format messages to leak out. Microsoft Security Bulletin MS03-003 (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS03-003.asp), Flaw in How Outlook 2002 Handles V1 Exchange Server Security Certificates Could Lead to Information Disclosure, provides details on the problem. The vulnerability does not affect mail encrypted with S/MIME certificates or non-Exchange clients. The update does contain other minor fixes, however. Details on the fixes and on download locations are available in a Microsoft Knowledgebase (MSKB) article at http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=812262. The client update requires Office XP Service Pack 2. The administrative update can be installed over SP1 or SP2. For end users, the best update procedure is the use the Office Updates scanner at http://office.microsoft.com/ProductUpdates/mainCatalog.aspx to see which updates fit your system. Security settings folder = minimal impact At long last, Microsoft has released some quantitative information on the performance impact of implementing the Outlook Security Settings folder to control attachment blocking, loosen or tighten security for the "object model guard," and, in Outlook 2002, trust specific Outlook COM addins. When the Outlook Email Security Update was initially released two and a half years ago, Microsoft warned that it was not scalable and, as a result, many administrators were probably hesitant to deploy it. Or, they avoided the Email Security Update altogether. The good news is that checking the security folder when Outlook starts adds only a few remote procedure calls (RPCs) to the startup sequence -- 16 RPCs in addition to the usual 20 or so. The MSKB article at http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=811968, Performance Implications of Outlook Security Settings in the Public Folder, explains that those extra RPCs occur only one time, as Outlook starts, and have no appreciable effect on the performance of either the client or the Exchange server. The bottom line, therefore, is that the security settings folder is probably more scalable than Microsoft originally thought. In large organizations, no doubt you’ll want to replicate the folder to several public folder servers. Given that changes to the security settings should be rare, the replication traffic should also be minimal. Microsoft CRM released Microsoft released Microsoft CRM (formal name = Microsoft Business Solutions Customer Relationship Management) to manufacturing this week, a bit later than the original December 2002 target date. The sales module has some Outlook integration. The service module is web-only. More information is available at http://www.microsoft.com/crm. This week's release is the U.S. version. An international version is expected in the second half of this year. I like the way Microsoft describes MS CRM as a ".NET-connected" application. That's one of the most precise uses of the .NET term that I've seen, and it’s appropriate in this case, because MS CRM is not .NET through and through. The data store is SQL Server 2000, while Active Directory holds security information. The basic CRM platform that controls the business logic is written with C++ and provides a web services interface. The application layer uses ASP.NET and, for the sales module, Outlook. Custom applications that interact with Microsoft CRM use XML and SOAP to communicate with the web services in the business logic layer. Developers can get the SDK from http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/CrmSdk/htm/default.asp. Defense Messaging System 3.0 A security-enhanced version of Outlook is being deployed at U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) sites worldwide as part of Defense Messaging System 3.0, which also includes Exchange Server. Deployment began last July and is slated for completion in March. The DMS version of Outlook incorporates security technology from SPYRUS for encryption and authentication. DMS is replacing dozens of different mail systems used at DoD. More holiday tools I’ve updated my holidays transmittal form to add support for the Location field, make it work better in non-English environments, and let the user set a category on all the added items. I have one more tweak to make and a readme to write, but if you'd like to try it, feel free to download it from http://www.slipstick.com/files/events.zip. Send feedback to webmaster04@slipstick.com. Also, the New Utilities section below includes a tool that allows you to select public holidays from many countries and add them to Outlook. Finally, Microsoft apparently has published yet another update for the Outlook.txt holidays file. The latest version, dated Jan. 21, 2003, is available from http://office.microsoft.com/downloads/2000/OutlHol.aspx and apparently fixes various errors. |
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New Utilities |
AOL2POP http://www.aol2pop.com/ Makes America Online mail available from any POP/SMTP mail program, including Outlook. MICROSOFT CRM MXCLAIM OUTLOOK2MAC OUTLOOKHELPER PUBLIC HOLIDAY CALENDAR FOR OUTLOOK SCOOFFICE SERVER SNAPSYNC SYNCHPST FOR OUTLOOK ULTRA SPAM FILTER VIRTUAL EMS |
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Updated utilities |
ADD EMAIL ADDRESS http://www.sperrysoftware.com/AddEmailAddress.asp Latest version of this tool to automatically create Outlook contacts can now handle people you receive messages from or reply to. Can add categories as it creates contacts. AUTO PRINT DUPLICATE E-MAIL REMOVER EZDETACH FOR OUTLOOK HIDE FAX NUMBERS OSA-SYNC PRO OUTLOOK 2000+ YEAR VIEW OUTLOOK 2002 UPDATE JANUARY 22, 2003 SEND PERSONALLY SUBSCRIPTION MANAGER |
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Other new resources |
DEVELOPING CUSTOM FORMS USING MICROSOFT OUTLOOK 2002 http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dnout2k2/html/odc_olcustfrm1.asp http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dnout2k2/html/odc_olcustfrm2.asp Six basic lessons on how to create custom Outlook forms. Does not cover any coding techniques. MANAGING SPAM MICROSOFT CRM SDK |
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More Information |
ISSN 1523-7990 |
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Updated Jul 30 2006
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