Exchange Messaging Outlook
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Greetings! Welcome to Vol. 8, No. 3, 28 May 2003, of Exchange Messaging Outlook, a biweekly newsletter about Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft Outlook. Today's highlights:
Regular features:
Exchange Resource Manager released Exchange 2000 administrators have been waiting a long time for a comprehensive solution for managing resource calendars, those ubiquitous Calendar folders in mailboxes created specifically for booking conference rooms, equipment, and other company resources. While an open-source event sink that automatically accepts appointments for resource calendars has been available from http://autoaccept-sink.sourceforge.net/, the most anticipated tool has been Exchange Resource Manager (ERM), which Simpler-Webb showed at the MEC conference last October. ERM, now available at http://www.swinc.com/erm/, automatically accepts or declines meetings for the mailboxes you designate as resources, but it also adds many features that administrators and users alike have asked for. Some of the highlights:
If you want to give ERM a try, you can download a free, fully functional, one-server, two-resource version from http://shop.swinc.com/erm/evaluation.asp. Price cuts for Office XP Microsoft has announced immediate price cuts for Office XP, dropping the estimated retail price of the Standard and Professional suites by about 15% in the United States and Canada to $399 and $499 respectively. Microsoft subsidiaries in other countries will phase in similar price drops. Most, but not all of the standalone applications in the Office XP suite are also being discounted -- by about 30%. However, Outlook 2002 is not among those with a price reduction. You are probably wondering, "If I buy Office XP now, does that mean I get a free upgrade to Office 2003 when it comes out this fall?" At this point, nobody knows. Microsoft usually offers a "technology guarantee" to customers buying the previous version right before a new Office suite comes out. But there has been no announcement yet of a technology guarantee for Office 2003. Future licensing changes for Office Starting this September (perhaps a clue to the planned release date for Office 2003?), Microsoft will make some changes in its Software Assurance program, an option under which companies with volume licenses pay an annual fee for the right to upgrade at any time to the latest version of their Microsoft programs. One key new provision for Office is that a Software Assurance license for a single seat of Office will entitle the user to run the software not just at work, but also on a machine at home. Other new Software Assurance benefits include end-user interactive training modules, vouchers for official Microsoft classroom training courses, and enhanced technical support resources. More information is available at http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/programs/sa/. Outlook does news (but still not NNTP) The issue of why Outlook does not directly support the NNTP protocol for accessing Usenet newsgroups will probably never go away, but Microsoft has said repeatedly that it has no plans to ever add direct newsgroup support to Outlook. However, we did run across a new tool for Outlook that turns it into a client for RSS ("really simple syndication" or "rich site summary" -- take your pick) news feeds, the kinds that big news web sites and little webloggers alike make available using an XML format. NewsGator (http://www.newsgator.com/) is an Outlook COM add-in that manages your subscriptions to such feeds and aggregates each feed into its own Outlook folder. For bloggers, NewsGator also supplies add-ins that allow you to upload from Outlook to your own blog, with support for several different blog software packages. We are considering adding an RSS feed to the Slipstick.com site to help keep regular readers updated on the latest Outlook and Exchange news. Write us at rss@slipstick.com to let us know what kind of updates you'd find most useful. Microsoft virus alert list Earlier this month, Microsoft announced a new joint effort with Network Associates and Trend Micro aimed at getting the word out faster on viruses that target Microsoft products. As part of the effort, Microsoft now has a page at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/virus/alerts/default.asp listing virus alerts that its Product Support Services has issued for viruses with a potentially significant impact. (The latest is the Palyh virus, which masquerades as a patch sent by support@microsoft.com.) PSS gauges each virus outbreak according to six criteria to give it a severity rating and issues an alert only for virus threats rated Moderate or Critical, not for those rated Low. If a virus exploit takes advantage of a Microsoft software vulnerability for which no patch is available, it automatically gets a Critical rating. Jacob Busby, an alert participant in our Outlook users discussion forum (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/outlook-users/), noticed that the Outlook 2000 holidays update from Microsoft's web site left something out -- bank holidays for the United Kingdom. These are the official holidays declared when Christmas or Boxing Day (Dec. 26) fall on a weekend. The missing holidays are:
If you want to doctor your own Outlook.txt file to include these holidays, look for it at C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\1033\Outlook.txt (or in the appropriate path for your Office installation). In the section for [United Kingdom], add the five dates above. Also change the section header from from "[United Kingdom] <x>" to:
where <x> is the number of holidays for the UK previously in this file and <x+5> is the number of holidays after this change has been made. Many thanks to Jacob for sharing this information! To get the updated holidays download for Outlook 2000 or other dates you can load into Outlook, see http://www.slipstick.com/addins/calendar.htm#dates . |
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New Utilities |
CONNECTED DATAPROTECTOR http://www.connected.com/ General centralized backup solution for end user data, with some special features for backing up Outlook Personal Folders .pst files, including single-instance storage for identical files found in multiple users' .pst files. Available either as a server application or as a subscription with off-site storage included EXCHANGE RESOURCE MANAGER OUTLOOK REMINDERS BY SMS WS:BLANK REPLY WS:FAX DISPLAY MANAGER WS:PEEK MAIL |
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Updated utilities |
ACTIVE FOLDERS http://www.c2c.com/activefolders.htm Version 4.0 of this Exchange Server folder and mailbox management tool suite adds the ability to search for and manage data in Personal Folders .pst files. INSERT DATE-TIME NEWSGATOR PRINT ON DEMAND |
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Other resources |
MONITOR THE BASICS http://www.ftponline.com/dotnetmag/2003_06/online/tips/monitor/ Primer on basic tools for monitoring the status of Exchange 2000 and Active Directory OFFICE AUTOMATION AND DIGITAL CERTIFICATES DEMONSTRATION New code samples at http://www.outlookcode.com:
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More Information |
Click here to subscribe to the Exchange Messaging Outlook newsletter. Exchange Messaging Outlook Newsletter back issues ISSN 1523-7990 |
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Updated Dec 14 2009
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