Exchange Messaging Outlook Volume 15, Number 10

Exchange 2010 and 15 Minute Reminders Bug

We're seeing complaints about a bug in Exchange 2010 that also existed in Exchange 2007: when you send a meeting request to external recipients and have the reminder turned off, the external recipients receive the meeting request with the reminder turned on. The reminder fires at the default of 15 minutes before the meeting starts. This isn't a big problem for most people, except when the meeting request is for an all day event and the recipient syncs with a Smartphone, then it goes off at 11:45 PM.

This bug is the result of Exchange incorrectly adding a default reminder when it converts an invitation to an iCal to send to external recipients. It was fixed in Update Rollup 4 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 so its somewhat surprising to see it in Exchange 2010.

For more information about this bug in Exchange 2007, see our article at Meeting Reminders are set for the recipient and the Microsoft KB article: When an Exchange Server 2007 user sends a meeting request to external recipients with the Reminder turned off, the default 15 minute Reminder pop-up window still appears  

Outlook 2010 and Shortcuts to Public Folders

When you want to use a shortcut to open Outlook to a public folder, you can use the select switch and path to the public folder:

Outlook.exe /select “outlook:\\Public Folders\All Public Folders\folder\subfolder”

This works great in older versions of Outlook but fails in Outlook 2010 with an error message: "Cannot start Microsoft Outlook. Cannot display the selected folder or item.”

This is because Outlook 2010 adds your Exchange email address to the public folder path. For this switch to work, you need to include your address in the path:

outlook.exe /select "outlook:\\Public Folders - frank@slipstick.com\All Public Folders\folder\subfolder"

Of course, if you don't use Exchange server or want to open Outlook to a different folder, you can use the select switch with the path to the folder. If you always want to open to a specific folder go to Tools, Options, Other tab, Advanced options and select a Startup in this folder (at the top of the dialog).

Outlook Hotmail Connector Error 4202

We're seeing a number of people report receiving Error 4202 when they sync Outlook 2010 with the Hotmail server. This error results when Outlook syncs email addresses in the blocked sender and safe sender with Hotmail and one or more addresses contain an underscore or is malformed. It shouldn't prevent a person from sending or receiving messages, as synchronization of mail, calendar, contacts and other data (including the junk lists) continues. Microsoft is working on a fix.

Outlook Quick Tip: Saving embedded graphics

An Outlook user asked about an annoyance: “When are they going to fix the bug that prohibits saving a graphic embedded in an email? Now I have to copy it, paste it into a graphic program and save it that way.”

It’s fixed in Outlook 2010, but that won’t help anyone with older versions of Outlook. You can use File, Save as to save the entire message in HTML format. This will create an HTML file and a matching folder on your hard drive and all images will be saved in it.

See Tip 713- Save as HTML folder for information on managing the HTML file and matching folder.