Exchange Messaging Outlook Volume 9, Number 3

Today's highlights:

• Clean Out Your Mailbox
• Using the Deleted Items folder
• Using Outlook With OWA

Regular features:

• New utilities
• Updated utilities

CLEAN OUT YOUR MAILBOX

It doesn't take much for a mailbox to grow to an uncontrollable size and when you use add-ins like Newsgator and NewsLook to pull a large number of RSS feeds or busy newsgroups into Outlook, your mailbox can reach its limits surprisingly fast. Fortunately, it's easy to automatically delete old messages from specific folders using AutoArchive, or for Exchange server mailboxes, using Mailbox Manager.

On each folder that needs cleaned out regularly, configure AutoArchive to delete items older than a specific number of days then configure AutoArchive to run every couple of days to once a week. For example, you may want to configure AutoArchive to delete messages from the Junk E-mail and Deleted Items folder that are older than 3 days but keep messages in RSS feed folders for 20 days. If you configure AutoArchive to run weekly, you'll have Junk E-mail up to 10 days old and RSS feeds up to 27 days old.

Setting up AutoArchive is easy. Right click on the folder to be archived and choose Properties, then the AutoArchive tab. Select Archive this folder using these settings and choose the Clean out items older than time period. When configuring AutoArchive on Deleted Items, Junk E-mail and RSS folders, you'll want to select Permanently delete old items as you don't want the items moved to an archive folder. Click Apply. If you don't have a global AutoArchive setting configured, Outlook will warn you and set it for the default of 14 days.

Change the default global setting using the dialog at Tools, Options, Other, AutoArchive. In most cases, you'll just want to change the Run AutoArchive every xx days option to seven days or less and keep the remaining settings on default. Unless you explicitly enabled a folder for AutoArchive or pressed the button to Apply the setting to all folders, only the folders you configured for AutoArchive will be processed.

Administrators may want to control the cleanup of deleted items and junk e-mail or spam folders and can configure Exchange Server's Mailbox Manager to delete items from mailboxes. To access the Mailbox Manager, open the Exchange System Manager, navigate to the Recipients container, then the Recipients policy. Right click in the blank area under default policy and choose New, Recipients Policy. Add a check to Mailbox Manager Settings and click Ok then enter a name for your new policy.

If the policy applies only to specific users, click the Modify button on the General tab to configure filters, otherwise the policy applies to all mailboxes. Choose the Mailbox Manager Settings tab to choose the folders you want to apply the policy to. By default, all folders are selected. In most cases, you'll only want to apply the policy to the Deleted items folder and junk or spam folders and you should remove the checks from the other folder types. Some sites may want to use Mailbox Manager to clean out old appointments and journaled items to conserve mailbox space, processing only items over a specific size or age.

If your antispam program creates a new folder in every mailbox and you want the policy applied to that folder, click the Add button and enter the folder name; if you're adding subfolders, use the backslash to separate folder names: Newsletters/Microsoft, not the forward slash used in the folder path in Outlook's Address bar (on the Web toolbar). The criteria used to delete items is based on age and/or size and you can exclude items that use specific message classes, including custom forms. After completing the policy, right click on it in the policy list and choose Apply this policy now.

To run the policies automatically at a set time, open the server container, right click on the server name and choose properties. Use the Mailbox Management tab to configure the policies to run automatically. To run mailbox manager at any time, right click on the server name and choose Start Mailbox Management Process.

I use Mailbox Manager to remove old posts created from RSS feeds in my Newsgator folders and old news articles from my NewsLook folders, as well as Junk E-mail and Deleted Items. While administrators won't want to create highly customized mailbox manager policies for each user, Mailbox manager is a good way to clean out messages in antispam folders and Deleted Items system wide.

The Exchange product group is looking for feedback on the Mailbox Manager. Stop by the 'You Had Me At EHLO...' blog to see what other administrators have to say about the Mailbox Manager and leave your opinions on the following questions:

#1: If you use it today, why - what scenarios do you use it for? For example, to reduce mailbox size to reduce backup time, to keep users under a certain SLA mailbox size, corporate retention policies, etc... just tell us any details you're willing to share on how and why you use it today.

#2: What does it do today that you like?

#3: What does it not do today, that you'd like to see it do in the future? Especially for those of you who don't use it today, is there some change we could make to it that would make you want to use it?

The blog is located at http://blogs.msdn.com/exchange/archive/2004/05/05/126922.aspx 

Look for a number of third party mailbox management tools at http://www.slipstick.com/addins/housekeeping.htm

USING THE DELETED ITEMS FOLDER

No one uses the office trash can as a filing cabinet or would think of dropping a diamond necklace in one for safe keeping, yet many people use Outlook's trash can to file their e-mail. The Deleted Item folder holds deleted Outlook items in a virtual trash can, it's not a file cabinet. But as any administrator will attest, there are a lot of people using the Deleted items folder to store messages they want to keep.

In most, if not all cases, users store messages in the Deleted items folder because they want to remove messages from the Inbox as they read them and using the Delete key is the quickest and easiest way to move items. However, using the Deleted items folder as a filing system for mail you want to keep is a risky message management technique and can result in thousands of lost messages.

A better solution is marking messages read and using the hide read messages view. In Outlook 2002 and earlier, read messages "disappear" immediately, in Outlook 2003, use F5 to refresh the view and hide read messages. Users can create rules and run them "offline" using the Run Now option at the end of the day. However, Rules Wizard doesn't support using the received date or read state as conditions, so you can't use it to move 'read messages received yesterday'. Advanced Find supports the received date and read state as conditions, but it's not automated--users need to use the Move to folder command to move messages.

A new Outlook add-in can move 'read messages received yesterday'. Developed by Pergenex Software, Auto-Mate for Outlook helps users control their inbox by running rules on existing messages, automatically filing the messages in the appropriate folder. Unlike Outlook Rules Wizard, Auto-Mate runs on messages already in the inbox, on messages marked as read, marked completed, or that arrived a specific number of hours or days ago. (http://www.pergenex.com/auto-mate/index.shtml)

USING OUTLOOK WITH OWA

What options do you have when the only access to your Exchange account is through OWA but you want to use Outlook to read your mail? How do you make backup copies of messages using OWA? These are questions many OWA users ask and the typical answer they get is "You can't use Outlook and you can't backup your messages using OWA."

Let's start with the first question: How do you use Outlook to read your mail when your only access to your mailbox is through OWA? Well, if you're lucky, you're using Exchange 2003 and Outlook 2003 on Windows XP and can use the RPC over HTTP protocol to access your mailbox over the Internet.

When you're not that lucky, you can configure Outlook to access OWA if you have a mailbox on an Exchange 2000/2003 server and use Outlook 2002 or Outlook 2003. However, keep in mind that it's an unsupported configuration. If you're stuck on Exchange 5.5 or use an older version of Outlook, you'll need to continue using OWA.

Begin by creating an HTTP account type in Outlook. This is the same type of account used by Hotmail and MSN, and is supported by Outlook 2002 and Outlook 2003, as well as Outlook Express. Use your full OWA URL as the server URL: http://owa.domain.com/exchange/mailbox_alias. As with Hotmail/MSN, the mailbox is opened in a separate personal folder and only headers are downloaded by default. While all mailbox folders are listed in the folder list, all folders are treated as mail and post types. This means your contacts, calendar, tasks, and journal items are not usable in Outlook when you use the HTTP protocol. Because of this limitation, Microsoft considers HTTP access to Exchange server mailboxes an unsupported scenario.

How do you back up your messages when you use OWA? Connect using HTTP protocol in Outlook, and move or copy the messages to your default pst or add a new data store using File, New, Outlook data store and move them to it.

If you don't use Outlook 2002/2003, SeaSide Software has two nifty products that can make using OWA a nicer experience. Their first product, HiPer Exchange, adds offline access and other features to OWA, or you can carry your Exchange mailbox on a USB key with their Xkey product. (http://www.seasidesw.com/products/index.htm)

Look for these and other OWA tools at http://www.slipstick.com/exs/owa.htm#tools.

Some of you are probably thinking "Hmmm, my Yahoo e-mail is web-based, I can use Outlook to access " Sorry. Using the HTTP protocol requires a server that supports WebDAV and at this time only Hotmail, MSN, and Exchange 2000/2003 support WebDAV. Try YahooPOPs! from http://yahoopops.sourceforge.net/.

New Utilities

NEWSHOUND
http://www.shorelinesoftware.com/index.htm 
A new addition to the growing list of newsgroups-in-Outlook add-ins, NewsHound is a MAPI service provider that adds full newsgroup (NNTP) support into Outlook. Newsgroup articles can be stored in personal folders files (.pst) or in your Exchange mailbox folders and copied or linked to contact, task, journal and note items. As with any Outlook item, newsgroup posts can be grouped, sorted, organized, searched, archived, forwarded or included in Outlook 2003's search folders. Newshound does not require CDO or Microsoft.NET and works with Outlook 2000, 2002 (XP) and 2003 on Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP and 2003.

OUTLOOKEXTRACTPRO
http://www.outlookextract.com/ 
OutlookExtract automatically extracts your E-mail messages and Attachments contained in Outlook and Outlook Express either as Mime (*.eml), as Mapi (*.msg) or decoded as Text or Html Files. You can also convert them to the Adobe Pdf format. The messages are stored in a folder of your choice on your hard drive or a CD, using unique names [From-Id-Subject.*] and with the original reception date so that you can order them by date. After extracting you can organize, view, print and easily search the messages without the need to have Outlook or Outlook Express installed.

PLUS PACK 2003 FOR OUTLOOK WEB ACCESS
http://www.messageware.com/products/pluspack2003.html 
Extends and enhances OWA so all users, no matter which browser or access method (Basic or Premium) they use will enjoy an Outlook-like experience. Plus Pack adds Outlook-style scroll and select addressing, private contacts, private appointments, advanced Spell Checking with custom dictionaries and more.

TRAYLOOK ADD-IN FOR OUTLOOK
http://www.pergenex.com/traylook/index.shtml 
Traylook runs in the system tray and provides unobtrusive notifications of new email in selected Outlook folders, using a colorful MSN-style popup window. You can quickly glance at the incoming messages as they scroll by one at a time. The program integrates into Outlook and additional configuration options are available from the Outlook options menu. You can customize the color of the popup window, limit notifications to selected folders, select an alert sound and more. Traylook also lets you hide the Outlook interface and provides quick access to sending new mail, adding tasks etc. from the tray icon menu.

Updated Utilities

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Updated Dec 14 2009

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