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Outlook and the Internet Explorer security leak

The Internet Explorer security leak, for which a patch is now available, could also affect your Outlook security. This is only the case when you are working with Outlook 2003 and previous and have your Internet Security Zone for Outlook set to the Internet Zone. Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2010 Beta are not affected.

Currently there are no known exploits of this security leak that work via Outlook 2003 or previous. However, in order to protect yourself, make sure you have your Security Zone for Outlook 2003 or previous set to “Restricted sites”. This zone is also the secure default and the recommended setting. You can verify this setting by going to;

Tools-> Options…-> tab Security

This exploit could also surface via other parts of Windows (such as via Gadgets, Outlook Express, Windows (Live) Mail and the Help system) since they all rely on Internet Explorer components. So even when you are not using Internet Explorer as your Internet browser, it is still highly recommended to install this update as soon as possible.

You can get this update via Windows Update as well.

Message size issue in Outlook 2010 Beta

The Outlook Team has put out a warning about large message sizes when sending out a message with Outlook 2010. While working with a Beta version of software could always lead to unexpected results, this bug can also affect the recipient of the message.

The issue is related to using bullet lists. When you use bullet lists in your message, the CSS of the message (which controls the formatting of the message) does not get properly truncated and a small message could become quite big. This could even result in that the message may no longer be displayed correctly at the recipients end.

The current fix is to simply restart Outlook 2010 Beta (at least once every day). This issue will be fixed of course once Outlook 2010 gets released.

Preparing for the holidays with Outlook

It’s that time again; the last holidays of the year are coming up! If you are a planner, you probably have written your entire To-Do List in Outlook already, have scheduled all the family visits in your calendar and synchronized everything to your mobile device too; all things digital! ;-)

But why stop there? Outlook can be great to manage your list of Christmas cards to send out as well with the use of categories and a mail merge from your Contacts folder. Of course you can directly send a digital card from Outlook too but automating the addressing of envelopes for real cards can be done as well.

All the information you need and links to templates and images you can use can be found in this special Christmas guide.

Free e-book: “First Look: Microsoft Office 2010”

For a limited time, Microsoft Press is offering the e-book “First Look: Microsoft Office 2010” for free and without any required registration.

The main focus of this book is of course highlighting the new features in Office 2010. For Outlook that is for example, the new full-Ribbon-style interface, Backstage, the redesigned Conversation View, Conversation Cleanup, Quick Steps, the Social Connector/People Pane and the new Schedule View (which replaces the “Plan a Meeting” and “Group Schedules” feature).

Other applications that are being discussed are: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, SharePoint Workspace (this used to be called Groove), Publisher and Access. In addition, some “better together” scenarios are being discussed as well as the security and permissions features that are introduced or improved throughout Office 2010.

Download: First Look: Microsoft Office 2010

Developer information about the Outlook Social Connector

If you have taken the latest Office 2010 Beta for a spin already, then you probably have noticed the Outlook Social Connector as well. Currently the only provider that can be used for this is a SharePoint server. Microsoft will later develop a Windows Live connector as well which allows you for instance to pull contact and related content information from Windows Live Messenger and SkyDrive. LinkedIn is also working on a provider for the Outlook Social Connector.

If you are a developer, you can create a provider for your own web service as well. You can find more information about it in this blog post of the Microsoft Outlook Team.