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A reader asks:
I upgraded to Vista and use OWA to access my email. I can read emails fine but when I try to reply to a message, the message body is not editable, it's blank. Do you know what's wrong and how to fix it?After logging on, I try to send an email. After the subject line, I cannot tab down to the dialogue box, due to a red x in the left corner of the dialogue box. I also get a script error in Internet Explorer with the following error message, "errors on this web page might cause it to work incorrectly. tbContentElement.DOM is null or not an object, frm_composenote.js, Code:0, Line 195 Char:1 cannot forward, reply or construct an email.
The problem occurs because the dhtml text editor control used by OWA is not supported in Vista and your Exchange administrators aren't patching the servers in a timely manner. There is a hotfix your administrator should install on the Exchange server that will fix this and a similar issue that affects Windows XP users who've installed the security patch described in MS06-013. The hotfix installs a new editor for Internet Explorer which uses an iframe instead of an ActiveX control.
For more information and links to the necessary hotfixes for Exchange 2000 and 2003, see https://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/911829
MS06-013: Cumulative security update for Internet Explorer (July 2006)
https://support.microsoft.com/kb/912812
More Information
The Compose Message form stops responding after you install Internet Explorer 7.0 and the S/MIME control on an Outlook Web Access client in Exchange Server 2003
Error message when you click the flag icon of a message in the message list view in Outlook Web Access 2003 when you are using Internet Explorer 8: "'firstchild.firstchild' is null or not an object"
You receive an error message when you try to perform any editing tasks, or you must click to enable the compose frame in Outlook Web Access
