We have some questions about receipts this week. I don't like read
receipts because they can't prove if a message was read or not.
Delivery
receipts are a little better only because the server doesn't
discriminate and returns them to everyone if it it's configured to
respond, but the presence of a delivery receipt doesn't guarantee
that
the message was placed in the recipients mailbox, it only tells the
sender the server accepted the message.
Question:
We are using OWA (Exchange 2003). Is there any way to force the
users to
always send read receipts without them being able to change it? I
know
it's not fair or nice but the supervisor wants everyone to return
receipts.
No, not within OWA's configuration or using group policies. You
could
try an event sink, but you can't force anyone to mark messages read
when
using the preview pane, which is necessary to generate the read
receipt.
In fact, they can read it in the preview pane then delete it and
generate a receipt showing it was deleted unread.
The best solution in this situation is to make it a company policy
that
users can't block read receipts and enforce it. If you only want
receipts returned for internal email and not returned for Internet
mail,
disable the ability to send receipts to the Internet on the Exchange
server.
Question:
"Are delivery receipts sent automatically by the recipient's server
or
computer, or manually by the recipient? The issue: Requesting read
receipts can be an annoyance to the recipient even though the sender
has
interest in knowing if the message was received and read. If
delivery
receipts are sent by the recipient's server or computer, at least
you
know they "got it".
Delivery receipts are handled by the server, however, not all
servers
are configured to return them and it only means the server accepted
it.
It doesn't mean it ever made it into the recipient's inbox or if
they
read it.
If you need to know if someone read a message, ask them to simply
hit
reply and send after reading it. Many people will show enough
respect to
honor your request and the ones that don't will go to great lengths
to
avoid giving you any information, whether you use receipts or web
bugs
to track them.
Question:
How can I tell who is requesting receipts?
You could look on the message properties (File, Properties menu),
but
it's easier to add the Read Receipt field to the view in Outlook. To
add the field to Outlook, right click on the row of field names and
choose Custom... or Field Chooser from the menu. Locate the Receipt
Requested field under All Mail items and add it to your view.
Question:
I read a message that contained a receipt but I don't want to send
it
back. I can't find it in my Outbox to delete. Where is it?
Receipts are stored as hidden messages in the top level of the
mailbox,
waiting for the next send and receive session. You'll need to use
Outlook Spy to delete it.
If you receive receipt requests on accounts that can't use the
current
SMTP server and are returning receipts, the receipts will cause an
error
each time you do a Send and Receive. You can either change the SMTP
server for that account to one that can send or use Outlook Spy to
delete it.
OutlookSpy
http://www.outlookspy.com/
Delete Read Receipts using OutlookSpy
http://www.outlook-tips.net/howto/delete_rr.htm
If you're suddenly having problems accepting tasks, check your
recently
installed security updates. The Security Update for Outlook 2003,
released on January 10, 2006 and described in Knowledge Base article
892843, is reported to cause problems when accepting assigned tasks
or
updating completed tasks on the sender's tasks list. This security
update may also cause some VBA and scripts to fail.
Not everyone who installs this update is affected and later updates
may
fix it, so go ahead and install it, but if you experience problems
opening or accepting tasks, with tasks updates, you'll need to
uninstall
the update. You can do this through Control Panel, Add and Remove
Programs.
Security update for Outlook 2003: January 10, 2006
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=892843
The update addresses the issued described in Security Bulletin
MS06-003:
Vulnerability in TNEF Decoding in Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft
Exchange Could Allow Remote Code Execution (902412)
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/Bulletin/ms06-003.mspx
If you haven't yet responded to our polls, visit Slipstick.com to
make
your selections and view the results.
Which version of Outlook do you use?
http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/index.htm
Not surprising, Outlook 2003 is the leader, with Outlook 2000 in the
dust, but ahead of Outlook 2002.
Which version of Exchange Server do you use?
http://www.slipstick.com/index.htm
As expected, Exchange 2003 has a strong lead over Exchange 2000 and
Exchange 5.5.
Which type of email account is the default in your Outlook profile?
http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/share.htm
Exchange accounts hold a slight lead, with POP3 well ahead of IMAP
and
HTTP accounts types.
The Outlook 2002 holiday update is available once again. This update
provides holidays for the Outlook 2002 calendar for the year 2006
through the year 2012 and requires Outlook 2002 SP3 to install. The
only
problem I noticed in the new file is minor - some holidays from 2003
-
2005 are in the file. If you need updated holidays for earlier
versions
or Outlook 2003, see
http://www.outlook-tips.net/howto/missinghol.htm.
Update for Outlook 2002 (KB910619)
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=910619
Outlook 2002 holiday file download:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=EA8DF27B-3130-47AA-AB09E99F4BE721A5&displaylang=en
The following languages are supported in the holiday download:
English,
Thai, Hebrew, Chinese-Simplified, Chinese-Traditional, Chinese-Pan,
Danish, Swedish, Japanese, Korean, and German.
A frequent complaint about Outlook 2003's multi-calendar view is the
lack of names on each calendar in the view. A calendar from a
secondary
mailbox is just called "Calendar". Besides being less than
informative,
it's confusing - you need to pay close attention to which calendar
you're in when you are creating appointments in other people's
calendars.
When calendars are opened as a shared calendar, either using the
Open a
shared Calendar link or from File, Open, Other users calendar, the
mailbox name is displayed at the top of the calendar. So, add the
calendar to both the profile using both methods and display the
calendar
using the link in Other Calendars. You'll need to open the calendar
using the shared calendar link before adding the mailbox to your
profile
for this to work, but you'll have the convenience of the calendar in
your folder list as well as the actual name of the calendar.
You probably don't need another reminder that the Nyxem.E worm (aka
Blackworm, KamaSutra, MyWife) is set to activate and delete files
tomorrow. If your mail server is using updated antivirus or filters
attachments, it should have little effect within the organization,
other
than causing higher than normal traffic at the gateway.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/advisory/904420.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/security/encyclopedia/details.aspx?Name=Win32/Mywife.E@mm
http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.blackmal.e@mm.html
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