by Guest columnist William Lefkovics

It was back in November 2005 when Microsoft announced that Exchange Server 2007 was going to be released as 64-bit only. After the initial shock wore off, it was clear that this was a good move for Microsoft to increase the performance of the product. Microsoft did not waver from that commitment throughout the beta process.

Exchange 2007 64-bit Redux

So why did Microsoft commit to 64-bit and where are the benefits for the customer?

The performance gains from the shift to 64-bit were just too significant to ignore. The biggest benefit comes from the increase in memory. 64-bit can access a lot more memory than the 4GB limitation in 32-bit processing. This enables a much greater cache of store activity in RAM. Remember, in previous versions of Exchange, store.exe consumed the lesser of the total RAM available and all of the RAM it needed. Obviously, RAM provides much faster data access than disk reads. In addition write data can be held in RAM a little longer prior to commitment to the database with a larger checkpoint, allowing for better performance and a faster response in the event that the data changes before the need for disk I/O to the store.

For larger enterprises, there is a potential benefit of hosting a larger number of mailboxes per server as a result of the performance gains. This will help some with the overall ROI for the migration to Exchange 2007.

For a more comprehensive look at the performance gains and reasons for the 64-bit commitment, see the Exchange Teams blog entry entitled Understanding Exchange Server 2007 I/O improvements from 64:
http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2006/09/08/428860.aspx

Hardware Implications

Vendors have assembled strong options for Exchange 2007 hardware, including HP and Dell. HP has a solid whitepaper, albeit not vendor neutral, which can be found here:
http://h71019.www7.hp.com/ActiveAnswers/downloads/Transition_Exchange2007_ProLiant.pdf

Microsoft requires a minimum of 2GB of RAM for an Exchange 2007 installation. As the number of users and storage groups increases, the RAM should go up as well.
There is a table in the Exchange 2007 Deployment Guide identifying the increments of RAM recommended based on increasing demands of the system.

Obviously, we are looking at a 64-bit processor in our Exchange Server. These are the supported processor technologies:
1. x64 architecture-based processor that supports Intel Extended Memory 64
Technology (Intel EM64T)
2. x64 architecture-based computer with AMD 64-bit processor that supports
AMD64 platform

How are customers affected?

Exchange 2003 does not run on 64-bit. Exchange 2007 does not run on 32-bit. That means, even if the Exchange 2003 hardware is 64-bit ready, there is no in-place upgrade path. Migrating to Exchange 2007 on existing Exchange 2003 hardware will require a swing migration with mailbox moves or perhaps an upcoming third party migration utility.

As a bonus, however, the MAPI conflicts from previous versions that resulted in a lack of support for Outlook installed on the Exchange server (KB 266418) are gone. We can install Outlook with Microsoft support on the Exchange Server as of Exchange Server 2007.

Finally, Microsoft virtualization products also only operate in the 32-bit realm. As such, 64-but Exchange Server 2007 is not compatible in a Microsoft supported environment.

What is stopping you?

Over the year since the 64-bit only news was released and Exchange 2007 went RTM, software and hardware vendors have been working to support it. Migration may be different than it has been in the recent past, but it is not overwhelming when properly planned. Certainly the new product functions and the performance gains from 64-bit will help IT departments to invest in the migration to Exchange 2007.

Exchange 2007 System Requirements
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa996719.aspx

Users are reporting problems with meeting requests having a mind of their own:

"One of the office people I support is having problems with meeting requests.
When he accepts the meeting, Outlook 2003 automatically tags it as a recurring meeting indefinitely . This is the case whether it is supposed to be recurring or not. I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling Outlook 2003 as well as the entire Office 2003 suite. I have deleted his Outlook profile and recreated it.
Any ideas? This is a new machine, with new installs and this is the only incident in our office of 80+ users. "

Let me guess - this new machine is a Dell? And it has MediaDirect installed?
This application installs an Outlook add-in called "Outlook Setup Addin" which is causing problems for some users. This add-in supports the Instant Office feature of Media Direct. Uninstall it from Control panel, Add and Remove Programs to prevent the problem with future meeting requests.

Along with causing meeting requests to become recurring, it doesn't work well with Outlook 2007 and is responsible for at least some of the complaints about Outlook 2007's slowness and CPU resources spiking.

So what is MediaDirect and Instant Office? It's a way to quickly view certain items on the computer when the computer is powered down. It's a pretty cool idea, too bad it doesn't play nicely with Outlook.

Description of the MediaDirect feature taken from the Dell website:

=======
Dell Exclusive: MediaDirect featuring Instant Office Dell MediaDirect puts your media and more at your fingertips. Now it also gives you "instant on" access to your calendar, contacts and presentations. With the computer off, one press of the MediaDirect button gives you quick access to items on your hard drive, optical drive, a USB key or from the integrated 5-in-1 media card, including:
Videos
Music
Photo slideshows
"Instant Office" featuring Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer, Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express Calendar Viewer, and Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express Contact Viewer
========

A question came up in the Microsoft newsgroups last week about a cool trick you can use if you send files to the same person frequently. The method the poster used with previous versions of Outlook is an often overlooked way of adding shortcuts to your Windows context menus but it no longer worked with Outlook 2007. What makes this trick so cool is that even if you aren't into editing the registry, you can do the same thing using the Send to menu.

The problem as presented by the poster:

In Outlook 11 she added a registry key for [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\*\shell\Send to Someone\Command] And in the default value, she entered "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\office11\OUTLOOK.EXE" /c ipm.note / m you@example.com "%1"

This creates an entry called Send to Someone when she right clicks on any file in windows Explorer. Choosing Send to Someone creates an Outlook email message with the file attached and the email address filled in. However, with Outlook 12, an "Invalid command switch" error occurs. The same command works without the attachment (/a) switch.

This happens because piggybacking switches is no longer supported, unless the second switch is optional or expected (i.e., the address (/m) switch requires the form (/c) switch).

This is the command line format used to add a attachment:
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\OUTLOOK.EXE" /a c:\files\attachment.doc

Although you can't include an address in the command line, the /c switch is optional with the /a switch, so you can call a custom form and attach the file:
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\OUTLOOK.EXE" /c IPM.Note.sendto /a c:\files\attachment.doc

Problem solved, sort of. Currently, sending published forms with Outlook 2007 results in a winmail.dat attachment on the message. This isn't a problem if the recipient uses Outlook too and your Exchange server may remove it for Internet messages, but it's something you need to be aware of.

Since the command is going to add the selected file to the message, replace the file path with %1, so the command line looks like:
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\OUTLOOK.EXE" /c IPM.Note.sendto /a "%1"

But what if you don't want to edit the registry?

Easy, create a Windows Shortcut using the following command - note that you don't need to add %1 to the switch when you use a shortcut in the Send to folder.

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\OUTLOOK.EXE" /c IPM.Note.sendto /a

In either case, this only works for one attachment. You can't select multiple attachments. In the case of the shell command, if you select more than one file, you'll create multiple messages, each with one attachment. The Send to command will fail.

You can use either method with any version of Outlook, just change the file paths in the command lines. If using an older version you can use the recipients email address in the command line instead of creating a custom form.

Create the following registry key, entering the command line in the default value field and replacing the IPM.Note form name with the name of the form you published. To make it easier, you can copy the text between the two dashed lines and paste it into notepad, then save it with the *reg file extension.
Turn off line wrapping to insure you don't have a line break in the command line. If you are using an older version of Outlook, change the path from \Office12\ to the appropriate location.

------------
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\*\Shell\Send to Boss\Command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Office\\Office12\\OUTLOOK.EXE\" /c IPM.Note.sendto /a \"%1\""
----------------

If you prefer to add a shortcut to the Send to menu, open Windows Explorer to the Send to folder location, C:\Documents and Settings\usrname\SendTo. Right click in the right pane, selecting New, Shortcut. Follow the steps in the wizard, adding the /c IPM.Note.sendto /a switches to the command line.

For Outlook 2003, the registry entry for Outlook 2003, using the default message form and inserting the address looks like the following. Change the email address (can use a name and resolve it to an address book entry) and use the correct path for your version.

------------
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\*\shell\Send to Someone\Command] @="\"C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Office\\Office11\\OUTLOOK.EXE" /c ipm.note / m you@example.com \"%1\""
--------------------

To publish a form you'll need to show the Developer ribbon. Go to the Office icon - click the editor options button on the lower right of the flyout and check the option to show the developer ribbon. Options to edit and publish forms are on this ribbon, along with macro options.

Are there any drawbacks to published forms? In older versions of Outlook, no. In Outlook 2007, a winmail.dat attachment may be sent with the message, even if it is a plain text message. If you use Exchange server the winmail.dat may be removed on messages sent to external recipients, otherwise, any recipient not using Outlook will get an attachment.

Templates saved to the file system work fine. They are recommended over published forms in Outlook 2007, when possible because of the winmail.dat attachment. Accessing templates can be as fast, or faster, than accessing published forms, either by hyperlinking toolbar buttons to templates (although it triggers a security warning) or storing templates in a folder in your mailbox or PST so they are easy to find.