Diane Poremsky and I have joked for years about who is the "goddess" of Outlook. I maintain that Diane is the "goddess," and I'm just the "high priestess," and so it's with great confidence and excitement that I have turned over the operation of http://www.slipstick.com and the Exchange Messaging Outlook newsletter to Diane. She shares my enthusiasm for all things Outlook- and Exchange-related and for the community that you've helped build as EMO readers and Slipstick.com visitors.

I know she'll do a fabulous job of maintaining Slipstick as the premier destination for anyone researching Outlook and Exchange issues. The content, audience, and mission for Slipstick.com will remain the same - answering the questions that most perplex the Exchange and Outlook community and keeping up with the news. In fact, I expect Diane to do a much better job than I of keeping on top of Exchange issues; she has far more experience in that area.

Rest assured that I'm not leaving the Outlook and Exchange community. I will remain active in the newsgroups and other discussion forums and plan to attend conferences, such as Tech*Ed in May. (In fact, I'm speaking on desktop anti-spam technologies at the Anti-Spam Summit (http://www.101techstrategies.com) in San Francisco in March.) But, I'm largely narrowing my focus to Outlook deployment and development issues. Among my planned projects for 2004 is a new book on deploying Outlook 2003. In addition, Diane and I will be moving the content for Outlook and Exchange developers that currently appears at http://www.slipstick.com/dev/ to my other site at http://www.outlookcode.com. (Yes, there will be redirects for all pages, so you don't have to worry about your links breaking.)

Finally, I want to thank you for all the support you've given to Slipstick.com and hope you'll join me in wishing Diane the very best of success in this venture. And from me to you personally, may 2004 be all that you hope for. - Sue Mosher

In the first of many promised updates, Microsoft released an update to Outlook 2003's Junk E-mail filter in December. The update replaces Outlfltr.dat, providing a better definition of messages that are considered to be junk e-mail or not junk e-mail by the Outlook 2003 junk e-mail filter. The result is fewer newsletters mislabeled as junk e-mail, but more spam may remain in your Inbox. As a result, there are some complaints that it's less effective than the original filter in removing spam. Since the update can't be uninstalled, you may want to hold off on installing this update if you're satisfied with the original junk e-mail filter.

Use the Help, Check for Updates menu in any Office System 2003 product to open the Office Update site and install the Junk E-mail update. You can also download the Junk E-mail update using the link in MSKB 832333, Overview of the Outlook 2003 Junk E-mail Filter Update: December 16, 2003 (http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=832333).

After installing BCM, Windows XP Home users who normally boot directly into Windows discover they need to use the log on screen.

This behavior is caused by Microsoft .Net Framework's ASPNET account, which is automatically created in Windows XP to run the ASP.NET worker process. Since there is more than one account in the system, Windows XP displays the log on screen, even though the ASPNET account isn't listed on the log on screen. Because the ASPNET account is necessary to run Microsoft .Net Framework 1.1, which is required by BCM, you cannot delete the ASPNET account. As a workaround, you can follow the steps detailed in MSKB 315231, How to Enable Automatic Logon in Windows to configure Windows to log in automatically (http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=315231).

Released at the end of December, this patch resolves problems that were found in the Exchange Server 5.5 CDO since SP4 was released. This patch includes the fix for KB 818709, Outlook Web Access Stops Responding When You Try to Access a Mailbox on an Exchange 5.5 Computer (http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=818709).

Download the update from: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=b106c749-71f8-44cc-86cf-ab5cda169127&displaylang=en

In response to the Windows SharePoint Services and Windows Small Business Server 2003 installation issue, all Windows Small Business Server 2003 (standard and premium edition) customers are eligible to order five free Client Access Licenses (CALs). This offer is available through February 5, 2004.

This offer is available to all Windows Small Business Server 2003 customers, including those who licensed the product prior to January 5, 2004 and includes Retail, Open, and OEM SKUs. To qualify, customers must provide a valid Windows Small Business Server 2003 product ID. Customers are eligible for one 5-pack CAL for each licensed copy of Windows Small Business Server 2003. Customers can choose either user or device CALs.

To order your five free CALs, complete the order form at http://microsoft.order-4.com/sbscal/.

The tracking and reply with changes features in Office use information hidden in the document to keep track of comments and tracked changes. Anyone can open the document in Notepad and read the comments and changes as well as see who worked on the document.

In an effort to reduce the problems caused when people forget to remove the changes and comments, Microsoft released the Remove Hidden Data add-in for Microsoft Office 2003 Editions or Microsoft Office XP that lets users permanently remove hidden data and collaboration data from their Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint files.

Some of the data that the tool removes is used by Office for collaboration features, such as Track Changes, Comments, and Send for Review. Since you'll need this data while you're editing documents, you should only run the tool when you are ready to publish the document. Save the cleaned file using a new file name to preserve a copy of the document containing the original data.

Remove Hidden Data is available at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=144E54ED-D43E-42CA-BC7B-5446D34E5360&displaylang=en.