New Junk E-mail Filter definitions have been made available for Outlook 2003, Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2010.

Download: Update for Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 Junk Email Filter (KB2597968)
Download: Update for Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 Junk Email Filter (KB2597998)
Download: Update for Microsoft Office Outlook 2010 Junk Email Filter (KB982726)

If you have Microsoft Update configured to also update other Microsoft applications, then this update will also also be offered via Microsoft Update or has already been updated automatically for you.

Update Rollup 1 for Exchange 2010 Service Pack 2 is now available for direct download (see below for links). Expect it to become available via Microsoft Update on March 20.

It includes 58 new fixes. The Exchange Team would like to highlight the following ones (some KB articles might not yet be available in your region);

• KB2616230 Exchange 2010 CAS server treats UTF-7 encoding NAMESPACE string from CHS Exchange 2003 BE server as ASCII, caused IMAP client fails to login.
• KB2599663 RCA crashes when recipient data is stored in bad format.
• KB2492082 Free/busy publish to Public Folders fails with 8207 event.
• KB2666233 Manage hybrid configuration wizard won’t accept domains starting with a numeral for FOPE outbound connector FQDN.
• KB2557323 “UseLocalReplicaForFreeBusy” functionality needed in Exchange 2010.
• KB2621266 Exchange 2010 Mailbox Databases not reclaiming space.
• KB2543850 Exchange 2010 GAL based Outlook rule not filtering emails correctly.

No expected release date for the next update rollup has been made known yet.

Download: Exchange 2010 SP2 Rollup 1
View: Description of Update Rollup 1 for Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 2

This week, a select group of testers were granted access to the Office 15 Technical Preview build. As this program is under a non-disclosure agreement, nothing can be shared about how it has progressed from previous leaks and screenshots which were published.

The current “Office 15” codename encompasses the entire Office Family which is; Office, Office 365, Exchange, SharePoint, Lync, Project, and Visio.

While the current builds have only been made available to a select group of testers, you can expect a public beta later this summer.

Update Rollup 6 for Exchange 2007 Service Pack 3 is now available for direct download (see below for links). Expect it to become available via Microsoft Update on October 25.

It includes 21 new fixes. The Exchange Team would like to highlight the following ones (some KB articles might not yet be available in your region);

• DST Cadence Release for Dec 2011 – Exchange 2007
• KB22656040 An Exchange Server 2007 Client Access server may respond slowly or stop responding when users try to synchronize the Exchange ActiveSync devices with their mailboxes
• KB2498852 “0×80041606″ error message when you perform a prefix search by using Outlook in online mode in an Exchange Server 2007 environment
• KB22653334 The reseed process is unsuccessful on the SCR passive node when the circular logging feature is enabled in an Exchange Server 2007 environment
• KB22617784 Journal reports are expired or lost when the Microsoft Exchange Transport service is restarted in an Exchange Server 2007 environment
• KB2289607 The week numbers displayed in OWA do not match the week numbers displayed in Outlook for English users and French users in an Exchange Server 2007 environment

No expected release date for the next update rollup has been made known yet.

Download: Exchange 2007 SP3 Rollup 6
View: Description of Update Rollup 6 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 3

An update is available for the Facebook Provider for the Outlook Social Connector. This updates the Facebook Provider to version 14.0.6114.5003.

No change log has been made available but the issue of not being able to directly add someone to Facebook via the Social Connector in Outlook is still there (leads to a 404 page). However, this is also more of an issue with the Facebook website than with the Outlook Social Connector as Facebook needs to process these URLs and send out the invite.

Update: The Outlook Team has made known that the new Facebook Provider supports secure HTTPS connections. An upgrade notification will also be shown in the People Pane later this month when you haven’t updated yet.

Download: Microsoft Outlook Social Connector Provider for Facebook

New Junk E-mail Filter definitions have been made available for Outlook 2003, Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2010.

Download: Update for Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 Junk Email Filter (KB2597098)
Download: Update for Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 Junk Email Filter (KB2596686)
Download: Update for Microsoft Office Outlook 2010 Junk Email Filter (KB982726)

If you have Microsoft Update configured to also update other Microsoft applications, then this update will also also be offered via Microsoft Update or has already been updated automatically for you.

I’m wishing everybody a great 2012! And of course a trouble free Outlook year as well!

To help you out, here are a couple of Outlook New Year’s Resolutions;

• Backup your Outlook data
• Disable add-ins you don’t use
• Use more than rules to organize your mail

Continue reading: Top 10 Best Practices for Outlook

Still haven’t sent out your Christmas cards? You are cutting it a bit short but it is still not too late.

If you’ve got lots of people to send out cards to, writing your Christmas cards and address the envelopes can be quite a chore. By categorizing your contacts and using a Mail Merge, you can be done a lot quicker still and address everyone personally.

While a Mail Merge might sound complicated for some, it is actually quite easy to do. All the preparations and some other tips for sending Christmas cards by snail mail or email can be found in our special Christmas Guide.

Of course you can also use this method to send out your invitations for your New Year’s party!

On-line Services where you can create a card or upload your own picture and then have it delivered as a real card are also becoming increasingly more popular. If they support importing contacts from an Excel or csv-file, you can quickly export only your selected contacts and their addresses to Excel (which also supports saving as csv-files) as detailed in the guide; Export Contacts to Excel.

And if you are planning to extend your Christmas and New Year holiday (a skiing trip perhaps?), don’t forget to set an Out of Office or Vacation message.

Continue Reading: Christmas Time!

The following hotfixes have been released for Outlook 2010. Some only apply to Service Pack 1 users;

Hotfix KB2597061 for Outlook 2010
This hotfix solves an issue where you cannot attach calendar information to an email message by using the “Send a Calendar via E-mail” feature in Outlook 2007.

This issue was introduced in hotfix KB2552972 (June 28, 2011) and is also included in subsequent hotfixes and the update KB2553323 (November 8, 2011)

View: Full details and download information for KB2597061

Hotfix KB2597011 for Outlook 2010
This hotfix contains 22 fixes for specific issues. Most notable fixes are;

• Several fixes for calendar, scheduling, printing, permissions and reminder issues.
• Several fixes for searching issues with online mailboxes and online archives.  
• Outlook does not start correctly and does not show any windows. Additionally, there are Outlook.exe processes running in the Windows Task Manager task list.
• Outlook does not work correctly when the “Automatically adjust clock for Daylight Saving Time” check box for the operating system is cleared.

View: Full list of fixes and download information for KB2597011

Additional hotfixes for Outlook 2010
3 additional hotfixes were released which each solve 1 specific issue;

• KB2597001: CTRL+ALT+Q doesn’t insert the at sign (@) when using a German keyboard.
• KB2597051: Outlook Social Connector cannot connect to the My Site page in Microsoft Office 365 and therefore cannot update social data.
• KB2597012: When you define a custom action for a contact in Outlook 2010, the custom action is not displayed in the contact’s shortcut menu.

Obtaining the hotfixes
These are Hotfixes and not a regular updates. You can request them via the KB article pages.

The following hotfixes have been released for Outlook 2007 and apply to both Service Pack 2 and Service Pack 3 users;

Hotfix KB2596985 for Outlook 2007
This hotfix solves an issue where you cannot attach calendar information to an email message by using the “Send a Calendar via E-mail” feature in Outlook 2007.

This issue was introduced in hotfix KB2544404 (June 28, 2011) and is also included in subsequent hotfixes and the update KB2583910 (September 13, 2011)

View: Full details and download information for KB2596985

Hotfix KB2596993 for Outlook 2007
This hotfix contains 12 fixes for specific issues. Most notable fixes are;

• Several fixes for calendar, scheduling and reminder issues.
• Several fixes for searching issues with online mailboxes and online archives.
• When you open an Outlook Template (.oft) file that is saved in RTF in Outlook 2007, the .oft file is opened in HTML format.

View: Full list of fixes and download information for KB2596993

Obtaining the hotfixes
These are Hotfixes and not a regular updates. You can request them via the KB article pages.