Exchange Messaging Outlook
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Greetings! Welcome to Vol. 8, No. 16, 13 Nov 2003, of Exchange Messaging Outlook, a biweekly newsletter about Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft Outlook.
Regular features:
Outlook 2003 custom forms incompatibility Outlook 2003 makes some changes in how the forms cache works that can cause problems when you run forms in a folder in the Public Folders\Favorites hierarchy. One symptom is that Outlook flashes the message that it's loading the form each time you open an item from the folder in Favorites, when you should see that message only once. The other main symptom is that after opening five or six items from the folder, Outlook hangs. A fix is in the works. In the meantime, as the article "Problems Occur When You Open a Custom Form by Using the Favorites Folder" at http://support.microsoft.com/?id=831586 explains, the workaround is to access any folder containing custom forms using the direct folder, rather than through Public Folders\Favorites. This, of course, means that you cannot use a public folder that has custom forms offline with Outlook 2003, nor should Cached Exchange mode users access public folders in their My Calendars or My Contacts lists if those folders use custom forms, because of the risk of hanging Outlook. Bottom line is that if you need offline access to public folders that contain custom form items, you should wait to install Outlook 2003 until Microsoft posts a fix for this problem. Outlook 2003's spam filter unmasked A fascinating article from Outlook add-in developer MAPILab at http://www.mapilab.com/articles/outlook_spam_filter.html says that the technology behind Outlook 2003's spam filter consists of a large dictionary that assigns weighting factors to tens of thousands of words, plus eleven fairly straightforward checks of other message characteristics, such as the time a message was sent. The dictionary weights and check results combine into a score that determines whether Outlook considers the message to be spam. MAPILab is critical of Microsoft's approach, saying it "can hardly be called 'state-of-the-art technology.'" However, I don't think it's as simplistic as the article implies. The key element is the dictionary: The weighting factors no doubt are related to the probability that a message that contains each word will be a spam message. Developing such probability weightings and the formulas that combine them wouldn't be easy. I imagine that's where the Bayesian analysis researchers at Microsoft Research have poured much of their years of anti-spam effort. I think MAPILab is on target, though, in criticizing Microsoft's engine for having no "training" feature that would let the engine adapt to a user's analysis of their own spam intake, beyond the obvious white list and black list capability. My latest hypothesis is that a spam filter with a training component will be more effective by one key measure than a tool with no training feature, even if the "training" is largely a placebo. That measure is user productivity: I think that a user who "trains" an anti-spam tool will develop trust in the tool more rapidly and, therefore, will spend less time reviewing every single item in the spam folder, regardless of how accurate the spam filter actually is. [High school students looking for a science project topic should feel free to contact me via the web site feedback form at http://www.slipstick.com/feedback.htm -- I have some ideas on experimental design to test this hypothesis.] If the training really does make the spam filter more accurate, so much the better! The other component missing from Outlook 2003's spam filter so far is regular updates. Microsoft has promised updates to the anti-spam engine, but we don't have any indication yet what they will be or how often they will be issued. Back in June, Bill Gates wrote in one of his web articles (http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/execmail/2003/06-24antispam.asp) , "The filter in Outlook 2003 also will be updated frequently and easily, as with Windows Update today." It's time for Microsoft to explain just how that's going to happen ... and when. Windows Rights Management Services released With a minimum of fanfare, Microsoft last week released its Windows Rights Management Services component for Windows Server 2003, along with the Windows Rights Management client. Rights management (RM) provides a way to control what happens to a document or email message when it leaves its creator's desktop. In other words, it answers the question that Exchange administrators have been asking for years, "How can I prevent people from printing or copying or forwarding a document or message?" I explained the basics of how RM works in an article at http://www.windowsitpro.com/Article/ArticleID/38326/38326.html, written during the Office beta. Microsoft has a wealth of information at its RM site, http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/technologies/rightsmgmt/default.mspx, including both client and server software development kits (SDKs). That's right, SDKs. The architecture for RM is based on web services and lends itself to integration with a variety of client applications. So, for now, the only applications capable of protecting documents with RM are those in the Microsoft Office 2003 Professional suite (and not other Office 2003 configurations), new RM-enabled applications can be expected over the coming months. Microsoft also has a client for Internet Explorer in beta that allows Windows-based IE users to view HTML versions of RM-protected documents. Obviously, RM can't protect against analog techniques, such as photographing a computer screen or simply writing down the figures from an Excel sheet. But as a means to help keep honest people honest, it may fit the bill. Note that RM is not a free add-in for Windows Server 2003. Both client and server licenses are required. Report from Exchange Connections in Orlando I spent several delightful days in Orlando last week at the first-ever Exchange Connections conference, which attracted several hundred Exchange administrators from not just the U.S. and Canada, but also other countries including Austria, the U.K., and Russia. Because it was held concurrently with the Windows Connections conference, attendees got a great opportunity to cross over and get the latest information on group policy, Active Directory, and other Windows issues that directly affect Exchange. One of the highlights was the keynote by HP vice president and Exchange enthusiast Tony Redmond affirming that Exchange 2003 with Outlook 2003 is the best email environment ever from Microsoft. Redmond listed his favorite Outlook 2003 features as last-in, first-out downloads that transfer the most recent information from your mailbox to your Outlook client; compression and buffer packing to get more out of the available bandwidth; Outlook's junk mail processing; search folders; and RPC over HTTP connections. He said that it's too early to gauge the impact of Cached Exchange mode on servers yet, but advised not to move everyone in your organization onto Cached Exchange at the same time. A phased approach, he advised, would avoid a situation in which everyone downloads their mailbox to their local cache at the same time. Attendees were able to read more about what Redmond thinks about Exchange 2003 on the plane home, since Microsoft and Digital Press (publisher of my "Microsoft Outlook Programming" book) teamed up to give away a copy of Redmond's new Exchange 2003 book to everyone who filled out a survey. The organizers and Microsoft executives I talked to seemed to like what they saw at this new conference -- solid technical content from well known speakers (mostly non-Microsoft), high quality exhibitors, and lots of networking opportunities for attendees. The chances look good that the conference will enjoy an encore appearance next year. I've already penciled in mid-October in Orlando on my calendar. Don't forget these Outlook deployment tools One of the sessions I gave at Exchange Connections was on Outlook deployment. In putting together the session, I was reminded that, while most people know about the deployment tools in the Office Resource Kit (for example, the Custom Installation Wizard or CIW), not everyone knows about two other tools in my deployment toolkit. One is the Group Policy Management Console built into Windows 2000 or 2003. You can set up group policies on domains or organizational units in Active Directory to control key Outlook and Office settings. Options that you set with group policy cannot be changed by the user, in contrast to CIW options, which set defaults that the user can later change. A group policy, for example, can disable any toolbar or menu command. Microsoft has had some great webcasts recently on new group policy management features in Windows 2003, and there's also a wealth of information in TechNet, starting with a "how it works" article at http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techinfo/howitworks/management/grouppolwp.asp . If you're going to start disabling Outlook toolbar or menu commands, you need to know the ID numbers for each command you want to disable. You might be able to write code to enumerate the CommandBars collection, but I prefer to use the Outlook Spy tool from http://www.dimastr.com . Written by one of the Outlook MVPs, Outlook Spy lets you look up any menu or toolbar command ID. But what it's really good for is digging into all the hidden corners of Outlook -- rules, views, reminders, etc.. With more features and friendlier interface than the venerable free Mdbvu32.exe tool, it's invaluable for developers, but I also know administrators who use it to clean up mailboxes. PolicyMaker beta One of the things I enjoyed about the Exchange Connections conference was that time was set aside for exhibitors to make formal presentations on their products in the same rooms as the regular sessions, so you could hear and see well and get an opportunity to ask questions easily. With my interest in Outlook deployment, one demo really stuck in my mind -- that for Policy Maker from http://www.desktopstandard.com/policy/index.html. AutoProf was originally a leader in automating Outlook profiles, but has long since branched out into customizing all kinds of Windows and application settings. This new product, currently in beta, has the potential, I think, to change the way we manage everything in the Windows environment. PolicyMaker extends the group policy platform for Active Directory to add all kinds of desktop management features, including the ability to manage Outlook profiles from AD group policy, as well as drive mappings, network printers, and much more. The PolicyMaker extension is itself extensible, so that third-party tools can build onto its architecture, without the need to develop their own lower-level group policy extension. If you have ever tried to manage Outlook profiles with .prf files or if you have used group policy a little, but don't see all that much that it can do for you, you might want to sit through the demo that AutoProf runs every Thursday at 11 a.m. Eastern time by browsing to http://www.desktopstandard.com/policy/demo.html. You can also download a trial copy of PolicyMaker from http://www.desktopstandard.com/download.html. First Business Contact Manager sync tool Chapura's PocketMirror Professional (http://www.chapura.com/pm_professional.php) is the first PDA synchronization tool we know of that works with data from Microsoft's new Business Contact Manager add-in for Outlook 2003. It's for Palm only, though, so we're still waiting to hear about tools that can work with Pocket PC devices. When we're hear about such utilities, we'll post info in our BCM FAQ at http://www.slipstick.com/bcm/bcmfaq.aspx. |
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New Utilities |
AELITA RECOVERY MANAGER FOR EXCHANGE http://www.aelita.com/products/ARMEx.htm Perform brick-level restores from regular Exchange backups. You can search for what you want to restore by mailbox, message content, and types of items. CLICKFAX PRO PFDAVADMIN SHARE360 SPAMLOOK VENALI INTERNET FAX FOR MICROSOFT OFFICE 2003 VIDEO EMAIL WINDOWS RIGHTS MANAGEMENT |
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Updated utilities |
EXCHANGE 2003 MAILBOX MERGE WIZARD (EXMERGE) http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=429163EC-DCDF-47DC-96DA-1C12D67327D5&displaylang=en Updated version of the standard utility for extracting contents of a mailbox to a Personal Folders .pst file and merging the PST data into a target mailbox on a different server. Must be run from an Exchange 2003 server (or a machine with the Exchange 2003 admin tools installed), but can operate against Exchange 5.5, 2000 or 2003. PERSONAL FOLDERS BACKUP POCKETMIRROR PROFESSIONAL WINFAX PRO |
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Other resources |
CHANGES TO THE OUTLOOK 2003 OFFLINE ADDRESS BOOK http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=831123 Detailed article on the files, registry entries, and behaviors involved in the Unicode-format offline address book produced by Exchange 2003 for use by Outlook 2003. CONFIGURE EXCHANGE 2003 TO CHECK RECIPIENTS IN SMTP PROTOCOL MICROSOFT OUTLOOK 2003 SPAM FILTER: UNDER THE HOOD OUTLOOK 2003 RESTORES FIXED LINE LENGTHS AND QUOTED-PRINTABLE
PLAIN TEXT Code sample 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 Apr 11 2009
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