News

A new Hotfix has been released for Outlook 2007 that solves a whole heap of issues.

Amongst others, it fixes a crashing issue that Exchange administrators were facing when importing pst-files via the import-mailbox cmdlet in PowerShell.

Another notable issue that got fixed is that since installing SP2, the Quick Click category was no longer saved.

As said, a lot of other issues got fixed as well and, interestingly enough, despite the update being language neutral, quite a few apply to the Hebrew language.

Since this is a hotfix and not a regular update, you won’t be offered this update via Microsoft Update but will have to request it. You can do this at the information page of the hotfix which also list all the other things that got fixed. If you are not (seriously) effected by any of these issues, it is recommended to wait for the next Service Pack or regular Rollup Update which will most likely contain all these fixes as well.

The Interoperability team at Microsoft announced that it will open up the pst-file format specifications to the public under the Open Specification Promise (OSP) license. This means that other developers would be free to use the pst-file format in their solutions and read/write to it without any restrictions. Currently it requires Outlook to be installed and using the Messaging API (MAPI) or the Outlook Object Model (OOM).

The documentation is still in the early development stages and the final version of the documentation is expected to be released in the first half of 2010.

More information about this can be found at the blog of of the Interoperability Team and at the blog of the Outlook Team.

I’ve released an updated version of OutlookTempCleaner. In short, I added support for Outlook 2010, fixed a bug and did some fine-tuning. Of course, OutlookTempCleaner still remains free.

Some more details;

• Outlook 2010 is now properly recognized (1.0 contained only preliminary support for Outlook 2010).
• Fixed a bug where a message box could pop-up when using OutlookTempCleaner in silent mode (via a logon script for example) and no version of Outlook is installed on that system.
• Tweaked the size display of the folder to report in KB instead of as 0MB when the folder is less then 1MB in size.

You can find more info about OutlookTempCleaner and download it here.

Several security updates have been released for Outlook 2002/XP, 2003 and 2007. More details about these security updates can be found in their respective security bulletins;

KB973965: MS09-060: Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Active Template Library (ATL) ActiveX Controls for Microsoft Office could allow remote code execution.

KB957488: MS09-062: Vulnerabilities in GDI+ could allow remote code execution.

In addition, there are updates for the Junk E-mail Filter of Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007.

The easiest way to get these updates and to install them is via Microsoft Update.

Note that if you are a home user and need support with these security updates, you’re entitled to no-charge support via your local Microsoft subsidiary.

The Microsoft Office Team has announced some changes in the way that it will make Microsoft Office available on machines that are pre-loaded with Office by an OEM. Two notable changes are;

• You can unlock a pre-loaded version via a Product Key Card. There is no need to uninstall any trial and then reinstall it with the CD/DVD that came with the boxed version.
• Microsoft Works will go away and will be replaced by the free Microsoft Office Starter 2010. It will only be available for shipment with new PCs and contain a reduced-functionality, advertising-supported version of Word and Excel.

Another change is in the way that you can try (and buy) Office 2010 on existing PCs via Click-to-Run.

The Exchange team announced that Exchange Server 2010 has been released to manufacturing. So this means they are now working to general availability and the launch will be at Tech·Ed Europe in Berlin in early November.

The Outlook team has announced some changes in the way that add-ins will be handled upon closing Outlook 2010. This is to ensure that when a you close Outlook, Outlook will also exit as fast as possible.

Several changes to this behavior had already been made with Outlook 2007 Service Pack 2 but they will take it a step further in Outlook 2010. Especially when your add-in does anything important in the OnBeginShutdown and OnDisconnection methods of the IDTExtensibility2 interface or the ThisAddin_Shutdown method for VSTO add-ins, it is advised to read their guide and apply the necessary changes.

If you are a developer of add-ins for Outlook, also note that in order to support the 64-bit version of Office 2010, you’ll have to recompile your add-in specifically as a 64-bit add-in; 32-bit add-ins will not work on the 64-bit version of Outlook 2010.

As of September 1st, the old way of making a connection to Hotmail (via a protocol called WebDAV) has been discontinued. This means that as of now, when you are trying to connect to Hotmail via the build-in HTTP method in Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007, you’ll get a “Forbidden” error.
The Outlook Connector is the new recommended method of connecting and can be downloaded here.

Several hotfixes have been released for Outlook 2007.

KB973404: Contains a big list of bug fixes including a fix for a printing bug that was reported via the newsgroups.

KB974489: Adds a new “Weekly Agenda Style” print style for the Outlook 2007 Calendar (File-> Page Setup).

KB973936: Fixes an issue where the calendar displays an incorrect date for Jewish Memorial Day.

Note that these hotfixes are not being offered via Microsoft Update. If you want to install any of the above hotfixes, you’ll have to request a download first (free). You can do this via the link at the beginning of the article. Updates that aren’t marked as “global” only apply to that specific language of Outlook; you cannot apply it if your language of Outlook isn’t listed.

Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 2 (SP2) has been designed specifically to help meet the challenges of any business and the needs of all the different groups with a stake in the messaging system. Exchange Server 2007 SP2 is a mission-critical communications tool that enables employees to be more productive and access their information anywhere and anytime while providing a messaging system that enables rich, efficient access to e-mail, calendar items, voice mail, and contacts. For the administrator, Exchange Server 2007 SP2 provides advanced protection options against e-mail security threats, such as spam and viruses, as well as the tools to help manage internal compliance and high availability needs. For an overview of the new features that are available in Exchange Server 2007 SP2, see "What’s New in Exchange Server 2007 SP2".

Download: Exchange 2007 Service Pack 2

View: Release Notes for Exchange 2007 SP2