Volume 23 Issue 15

Today's Highlights:

• Remove Tentative as a Meeting Response
• Outlook Advanced Diagnostic Scan in SaRA
• Adding More Calendar Reminders
• Custom Search Filters

Remove Tentative as a Meeting Response

A user had a request: Outlook needs an option to disable or remove the tentative button on meeting invitations:

I only want to allow accept or decline, I have a coworker who refuses to do anything but hit tentative. I don't care if they send a response back, just make a commitment.

While you can't force your co-worker to accept or decline, your administrator could use group policy to disable the tentative option in all invitations. Use Group Policy to disable commands has the instructions or use the Group Policy templates. The command IDs for the tentative options are:

MenuTentativeInvitation 19992
TentativeInvitationEditResponse 19993
TentativeInvitationSendResponse 19994
TentativeInvitationNoResponse 19995
TentativeAcceptInvitation 1089

If you'd like the option to disable the tentative option, make sure you vote for it here: Provide an option to disable/remove tentative button for appointments or invites in Microsoft Outlook 2016

Outlook Advanced Diagnostic Scan in SaRA

Microsoft has integrated OffCAT scanning functionality into the Outlook Advanced Diagnostic scenario in the Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant for Office 365 (SaRA) tool. As a result, the OffCAT utility was removed from the Microsoft Download Center earlier this month. Note that OffCAT rule files will be updated until the end of August 2018 (or longer).

A link to SaRA is in Outlook, under File, Support, Support and Recovery Assistant or you can access it at https://diagnostics.office.com

SaRA includes configuration details for Excel, PowerPoint and Word in the scan results. Included are registry & policy settings, installed add-ins, relevant dll file properties, and event log entries.

If Outlook is running, a complete (full) scan is performed. While this is the preferred scan method, if you only need the configuration information for Excel, PowerPoint, or Word, then you can perform an offline scan by closing Outlook before running. An offline scan is faster than the full scan, but there is a significant amount of configuration information missing from the offline scan, especially for Outlook.

Adding More Calendar Reminders

I had to laugh when a user suggested Outlook needed more calendar reminder options, such as options for 60 minutes, 24 hours, and 7 days. While Outlook could probably use additional reminder times, Outlook already has the 60 minute, 24 hours, and 7 day reminders under different names (1 hour, 1 days, 1 week).

If a reminder time you want to use is not listed, you don't need to wait for Microsoft to add more reminder times. Just type it in the reminder field, using shortcuts such as 45m, which converts to 45 minutes. Use h for hours, d for days and w for weeks: 14h (14 hours), 7.5d (7 1/2 days), or 10w (for 10 weeks) to enter a custom time in the reminder field.

Natural language phrases, such as "Christmas eve" won't work to set a reminder (but works fine in the date field.). Years and Months are also not supported.

With the shortcuts, its as fast to type as it is to select the predefined times.

You can also set custom snooze times, but need to type "minutes", "hours", or "days" out in full, however, you won't be able to set custom ‘before start' reminders.

Speaking of reminders, a major complaint with Outlook's reminders is that the reminder window often comes up behind other windows and is easily missed. Current builds of Outlook 2016 have a solution: the ability to Show the reminder window on top. This setting is in the Options dialog on the Advanced page. (I still prefer syncing my calendar with the Windows Calendar app – it has much better reminders.)

Custom Search Filters

A user wanted to know if he could create a custom search to show email, appointments, and tasks that arrived or were due between two periods, such as the 21st of last month and the 20th of this month so he could use it to gather for billing information every month.

Yes, you can create an instant search that does this, or use a filter in custom views or search folders.

In a custom view or search folder filter, you'll create the filter on the Advanced tab, entering it like this:

Received between 21 last month and 20 this month

With Instant search, you can't use a generic "20th of last month" filter and will need to enter the dates, but you can search a range of dates. (A macro could update the dates each month and do the search with one click.).

received:(>4/21/2018<5/20/2018)
received:(4/21/2018..5/20/2018)

Outlook Instant Search Queries

New & Updated Exchange KB Articles

'TooManyObjectsOpenedException' error when you run the 'Get-PublicFolderMailboxDiagnostics' cmdlet in Exchange Server
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4294208

HTTP 500 due to ADReferralException when user views properties of mailboxes in child domain in Exchange Server
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4133620

System.InvalidOperationException occurs when the 'Enable-MailPublicFolder' cmdlet is run against a public folder in Exchange Server
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4095974

Add a new Visual C++prerequisite to Exchange for third-party files in Exchange Server 2016, 2013, and 2010
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4295081

An Office 365 primary mailbox user cannot be assigned full access permissions for an on-premises mailbox in Exchange Server
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4058473

Cannot clear the Maximum message size check box for Send messages or Receive messages in EAC in Exchange Server 2016
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4294209

Cannot edit an email attachment in OWA in an Exchange Server 2016 environment
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4294210

Cannot run Set-CalendarProcessing cmdlets after you apply CU8 or CU9 for Exchange Server 2016
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4294211

Cannot send VBScript-created messages in the Outlook 2016 client
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4294212

Can't log on to a POP/IMAP account via NTLM authentication in Exchange Server 2013
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4133604

Changing 'IsOutOfService' to 'False' in an earlier Exchange Server version does not immediately update in a later Exchange Server environment
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4294204

Cmdlets to create or modify remote shared mailbox in on-premises Exchange environment
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4133605

Cumulative Update 10 for Exchange Server 2016
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4099852

Cumulative Update 21 for Exchange Server 2013
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4099855

Error for Get-DatabaseAvailabilityGroupNetwork cmdlet in Exchange Server 2013
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4133618

EWS impersonation not working when accessing resource mailboxes in a different site in Exchange Server 2010 SP3
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4295751

HTTP 500 error when an administrator tries to manage regional settings in ECP on Windows Server 2016
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4095993

POP3 services intermittently stop in an Exchange Server 2013 environment
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4294205

Set-ServerComponentState cmdlet does not honor the write scope defined in the RBAC management scope in Exchange Server
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4095973

The MSExchangeRPC service crashes with a System.NullReferenceException exception in Exchange Server 2013
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4094167

Update Rollup 22 for Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 3
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4295699

New & Updated Office 365 KB Articles

Hybrid free/busy lookups fail between Exchange Server 2016 CU8 and O365
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4058297

Office 2019 Commercial Preview frequently asked questions
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4133312

Security Settings for COM objects in Office
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4058123

New & Updated Outlook KB Articles

You can't sign in after you update to Office 2016 build 16.0.7967 or a later version on Windows 10
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4025962

How to scan Outlook by using the Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant tool
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4098558

Outlook freezes when creating a Skype meeting in Skype for Business 2016 running in a terminal server session
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4294969

Prevent sign-in prompt for a Google account in Outlook 2016 for Mac
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4340460

Other Resources

Fixed: Search Broken in Outlook 2016 POP Accounts
Solution for an issue where Instant search isn't working with POP and IMAP accounts and some Exchange accounts.

How to hide LinkedIn, Facebook, Google and other extra contact folders in Outlook.com
How to hide extra Contact folders, left from previously linking contact sources with Outlook.com accounts, so they aren't visible in Outlook or on smartphones.