Eileen Brown's WebLog

Starting the new year with a clean Outlook

It's the end of our financial year today, we're starting FY07 tomorrow, and I'm tidying out my mailbox.  I do this every year, to keep myself in some sort of structure, although my Inbox gets a bit chaotic for the first couple of weeks in July.

At the end of the FY each year, I move all of my folders into a .pst for the last FY, and I delete, Yes, I said DELETE the .pst for the year before (FY05).  Not once, since I've joined Microsoft have I needed to actually return to one of these older mails.  Moving all of these mails into the .PST breaks all of my rules too.  So I delete all of my rules too.  Yup.  All of them.  So I never get to that message telling me I've run out of space for rules

So for the next few days, my Inbox is inundated with mails, some of which are to Distribution Lists that I never read any more.  So instead of actually archiving irrelevant information, I go and unsubscribe from the DL.  I don't need to create a rule, and my mailbox fills up more slowly.

So I start the year in a little bit of chaos, but in a couple of weeks I'll be all sorted out, with a clean set of Inbox rules, less subscriptions to the DL's, and fewer mails to get through every day.  It's a bit like spring cleaning (only in summer).  I'm almost as brave as Allister really, only I do this every year, not every time I change my job.  And doing this also gives me the chance to create a completely new folder list, and stop those annoying (customised) messages telling me I'm over my limit.  At least I'm free of them for another 8 months.

Go on be brave.  Do you REALLY need all those mails in your Outlook folders?  Honestly?  Go on - do some spring cleaning and have a fresh start...

Machine cinema - will it catch on?

I've been really remiss.  Steve, who works in my team, has been really creative with Machinima (Machine Cinema) and released a little clip onto Youtube last week and I didn't notice.  I have loads of excuses though - things like the roadshow and End of year reviews.  But it's really no excuse. My other Steve blogged about it yesterday and it still passed me by.  Oops...

Anyway, he's done a little clip about the horrors of not keeping your systems up to date - so from the smallest business to the largest empire, look at the consequesnes if you dont patch your equipment.   Rod, your chaps over in windows Management had better take note!

Anyway - the link to the video is here, and you can read more about Machinima on Kevin's blog, and Steve will answer any of your comments on his blog too.  Nice one Steve.  What's the next Machinima clip going to be about?  Any suggestions for a story for him to do next?...  

2007 Office system: Take it for a test drive and send us a smile...

Well you can't wait for the beta.  You've heard all about the ribbon and how it changes the way you work.  you've heard about the XML file formats and how your Developers will thank you as they develop applications for Office.  You've registered for the beta and are waiting,  And waiting.  And waiting.

Well, how about taking Office for a test drive without installing it.  If the system is busy when you click the link, just go theough the checks, loading the plug ins if you need to, then register with Windows Live, and you're away with the feature set. 

I've also installed the "Send us a smile" application - to send feedback (Good and Grumbling) to the Office team.  This puts fierce looking smileys onto your taskbar which allow you to smile or frown directly to the product team - with a screenshot of whats happening at the time of your feedback.

Now thats neat - Move over Dr Watson - the smileys are out to get you.  I hope they make it into the final product too.  Beats clippy anyday!

Moving towards truly Unified Communications

***edited with working link***

I had to miss the live streaming show from San Francisco last night as I had to sit  on an online Chat between the IT Evangelists and the UK MVPs.  My participation in the chat kept me too busy to truly multi task so I had to watch the recorded stream today instead.  We've been getting hints internally about the announcements for some time now, and as I've got a foot in both camps technically so to speak, the news made a lot of sense.  We've been working towards this announcement for some time now.  Remember earlier on this year when the Exchange team merged with the Real Time Collaboration Team? well, the convergence (can I use that word without offending the purists?) of the 2 teams led to us speculating internally about an announcement like this. And it's good news - as most of the posts I've read today seem to confirm..

As Dave and Deepak and several others put it:

It doesn't matter whether you are the chairman of the world's largest software company, a salesperson at a medium-sized manufacturer or the receptionist at a small startup, there's one workplace scenario we are all familiar with. It starts when you need to reach a colleague quickly. First you look up their phone extension and give them a call, only to be directed to their voicemail. After you leave a message, you find their mobile phone number and leave a second message. Next, you send an email. If you happen to be in a meeting when your colleague gets your messages and tries to reach you, the process repeats itself, but from the other direction.

 I don't agree with Alec's comment about renaming of Microsoft Exchange to "Communications Server" however.  We've just gone through the process and hassle of renaming Exchange 12 to Exchange 2007 and wouldn't want to go through that again.  We'd have just stayed with Exchange 12 wouldn't we? (see the press release for all of the official titles)...

And blending phones with computers?  We've been doing that for some time now :-) You need to see the UM demo again.  If you want to watch the stream from yesterday - here's the link to the event...

You know, I always knew I had a really interesting technology to look after - now my job is going to get even more interesting.  And I'm really looking forward to it...

Customising Quota messages in Exchange 2003

There have been loads of questions about customising that message that gets sent out automatically when you reach your quota in Exchange, so we've released a tool that allows you to do just that.  You need to download and install the tool onto your Exchange server.  If you're running Exchange 2000, you'll need to apply the hotfix first though.  You then need to edit the registry and add these keys:

1.Locate and then click the following registry subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeIs\<servername>\<mdb guid>.
2.Create a REG_DWORD value named Local System Ignores Quota and set the value to 1. This value must be set on each <mdb guid> entry. Without this, the quota service will not be able to save messages to users who are over  their shutoff (prohibit send and receive) quotas. If the Exchange server does not use shutoff quotas, this value can be set to 0, or omitted.
3.Click OK.
4.Locate and then click the following registry subkey: HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeIs\servername>\<mdb guid>.
5.Create a REG_DWORD value named Disable Quota Messages and set the value to 1. This value must be set on each <mdb guid> entry. This value prevents the MSExchangeIS process from generating internal quota messages.
6.Click OK.

Then you need to stop and restart the Information store.  You can then start to modify the Quota messages which are in the QuotaMessages folder in the root of the mailbox.  The parent messages for quota template messages have the subjects: Warning, NoSend, and NoSendReceive.  The embedded message in each of these contains the quota template message which will be used to populate properties of the generate quota messages.  This is the part you can modify to suit your organisation.  But don't change this bit...
The body of the quota message template can contain references to insertion strings (below) that will be replaced with information about a mailbox.
%1 - current mailbox size
%2 - size at which mailbox will receive warning messages
%3 - size at which the mailbox will no longer be able to send
%4 - size at which the mailbox can no longer send or receive
%5 - difference if any between warning threshold and current mailbox size
%6 - difference if any between send prohibited threshold and current mailbox size
%7 - difference if any between send and receive prohibited threshold and current mailbox size
If a limit is not set, do not reference it in the quota message template. No limit is displayed as -1.

You also need to have an account for the Quota Message Service with an associated mailbox on each server. This mailbox should be monitored so that responses to quota messages can be viewed, or the quota message template should clearly instruct the user not to respond or reply. Limitations must be set on this mailbox so that no messages can be sent to it.

Oh, how I wish that this tool had been around for Exchange 5.5 when I was the Exchange admin - I would have been able to keep my users under some sort of control with varying fierce and doom laden messages warning of dire things that would happen to them! 

Maybe I'm safer now I'm not in support any more...

My best Microsoft things - in a list...

Following on from Steve's blog entry the other day, after listening to James' musings at the roadshow on Wednesday, because it's Friday, I'm winding down to a wonderful sunny weekend, and completed my urgent tasks - I thought I'd add my thoughts to the list of great things (features etc.) that we've done.  So here goes...

• The Microsoft mouse.  Who would EVER want to navigate their way around using the Alt Ctl and Tab keys again?
• The hibernate feature - cos I'm always in a hurry
• Ink - doodle and make notes, and IM with one stylus
• The wireless searching thingy.  It just finds the wireless and connects.  Perfect for the "less than gifted" user in your life
• DHCP in Windows - so I don't need to fiddle around with hosts files and BIND any more
• Autosave in Word.  For everyone who has "inadvertantly" closed the wrong window - yup that means me too!
• Ctrl Z, Ctrl C, Ctrl V - I've used these for years and years and would be devastated if we dropped it... Even works here as I'm typing this - pure genius
• Exchange Unified Messaging.  Totally brilliant for people like me who are always on the move.  This is going to be a classic for future top 10's
• The Smartphone.  I have to agree with Steve here - I can't do my job without it...
• USB plug and play.  Can you manage without your memory stick?

When typing this,I noticed that I was focusing on bits of the completed product - the technologies and srvices which go into making a product really great.  It's often the little things and the peripherals that make my life so easy.  There's my list.  Did I miss anything out? 

SharePoint User Group - talking about Office...

Nick from the SharePoint User group has let me know about their next event in July - with a couple of interesting speakers...

This is being organised with Combined Knowledge (the chaps who presented at the first user group meeting) on Thursday 20th July.
Bill English and Todd Bleaker (they wrote the SharePoint Resource Kit) are flying over from the US and will be presenting along with a few others. All together we’ve got 3 rooms and 7 or 8 different speakers to cover Office 2007 stuff. We’ve space for between 200-250 people and we reckon we can fill it up!

I need to get up to speed a little bit faster with SharePoint 2007 - especially with the events that we're planning for the latter part of the year around the 2007 Office system launch and things like that.  Or maybe I'll just get Nick to deliver the sessions for me as he already knows the product really well... It'll save me a job anyway!   The link to the registration site is here...it would be nice to see you there too :-)

Exchange questions from the TechNet tour

We're at Bristol at the final leg of the roadshow, and the final time for a couple of weeks that I'll be demoing the Unified messaging demo (apart from amazing my non technical friends with the demo of a voice controlled interactive email system - it really blows their minds...)

So here's a few of the resources I talk about during my Exchange 2007 session, and some answers to the questions I get asked every time I present.

64-bit.  Yes, we will release ONLY in 64 bit.  32 bit is only here whilst Exchange 2007 is in beta.  Read the rationale behind this over on the Exchange team blog.

Unified Messaging: How does it actually work under the bonnet (hood for you if you're in the US).  Read Marks excellent blog post on the techy bits and keep up to date with the Exchange team blog as they'll be releasing info on UM soon...

Server roles.  Edge server must be installed on a seperate server to the other server roles. it uses ADAM (Active Directory Applicaton mode) for access to AD.  See these features for Edge in the beta 2 release notes

You can install all the other server roles on the same server.  All Exchange Server 2007 server roles—except for the Edge Transport server role or, when clustering, the Mailbox server role—can be deployed on a single physical server.  have a look at the FAQ for more info..

Exchange 2003 SP2 allowed you to increase your mailbox store on standard edition to 75GB.  It's a registry key. Read this article that shows you how to do it.

When will it be available for Small Business Server?  That I don't know... I suppose it depends when evey component of SBS is also available in 64 bit....Unless you know different...?

Live messenger 8.0 available to download

I blogged about the Live Messenger beta availability a couple of months ago, and I'm amazed at how many people still refer to this as MSN messenger 8.0!  We're obviously not doing our marketing to the right audience if most of my referrals to the blog post are about MSN massenger / MSN Messenger or even MSM Mssenger!  Aah the typo's...

Well here it is... so go and download and enjoy the benefits of shared folders and voice.  You'll soon also be able to talk to your Yahoo buddies too -

Thank goodness for the automated bots that now are my friends (Smarterchild and Encarta to name some).  So now I'll have 8 friends to talk to (including Yahoo...!) 

Office Webcasts for July

Microsoft Office System Webcast: Be One of the First to See Tips and Tricks for the 2007 Office Release (Level 200)
Tuesday, July 18, 2006 - 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM Pacific Time
Stephanie Krieger, Author and Document Production Expert, arouet.net
Join us as noted author and Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Stephanie Krieger takes you through a behind-the-scenes look at the 2007 Microsoft Office system. Stephanie previews what's new and what's cool about the upcoming 2007 Microsoft Office release and tells you how to get more information. Be one of the first to see the new functionality and cool, easy-to-use new interface in action as she shows you the top ten must-have features in the 2007 Office system.
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032301353&Culture=en-US

Microsoft Office System Webcast: Advanced Top Ten Tips and Tricks to Save Time in Outlook 2003 (Level 200)
Thursday, July 20, 2006 - 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM Pacific Time
Andrew Reed, Senior Training Specialist, Pacific Technical Consulting (PTC)
Feel comfortable with the basics of Microsoft Office Outlook 2003? This webcast focuses on some of the product's more advanced capabilities. Learn how to work with the organize pane, create and organize flags, use information with Information Rights Management, and more. Improve the way you manage information, communicate with others, and organize your work, all from one place with Outlook 2003.
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032301256&Culture=en-US

Momentum Webcast: Using the Microsoft Office System to Better Manage and Protect Business Information (Level 100)
Monday, July 10, 2006 - 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM Pacific Time
SST TBD, Technology Specialist, Microsoft Corporation
Companies often collect a huge amount of potentially useful data, but without effective tools and processes, it can be tough to capitalize on the information buried deep within documents and databases. In this webcast, we explore the information management tools and technologies included in Microsoft Office 2003, including Microsoft Office InfoPath, XML, and information rights management (IRM). Join us to find out how these tools and technologies can help improve the way your organization gathers, organizes, reuses, and protects its critical business information.
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032301632&Culture=en-US

Sharepoint webcasts for July

MSDN Webcast: Developing SharePoint Workflows Using Visual Studio 2005 (Level 200)
Tuesday, July 18, 2006 - 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM Pacific Time
Eilene Hao, Program Manager, Microsoft Corporation
This webcast covers the basics of workflow development for Windows SharePoint Services and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 using the Microsoft Visual Studio development system and the Visual Studio 2005 Extensions for Windows Workflow Foundation. During the presentation, we develop a "hello world" sequential workflow from start to finish. Learn how to model your workflow with SharePoint tasks in the Windows Workflow Foundation designer, create and bind data to Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007 forms, deploy to SharePoint sites, and debug on the live server.
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032301595&Culture=en-US

Microsoft Office System Webcast: Top Ten Advanced Tips and Tricks for Windows SharePoint Services (Level 200)
Thursday, July 13, 2006 - 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM Pacific Time
Andrew Reed, Senior Training Specialist, Pacific Technical Consulting
Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services is a key feature of Microsoft Windows Server 2003 that helps to increase individual and team productivity. Windows SharePoint Services takes file storage to a new level by providing community Web sites for team collaboration, and by making it easy for users to work together on documents, tasks, contacts, events, and other information. In addition, all of the collaborative content on a SharePoint site can be read and edited from within the 2003 version of Microsoft Office Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Join this informative webcast to learn ten ways you and your team can get more out of Windows SharePoint Services and power your team productivity through collaboration.
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032301364&Culture=en-US

Mobility webcasts for July

TechNet Webcast: How Microsoft IT Does Mobile Messaging (Level 300)
Tuesday, July 18, 2006 - 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM Pacific Time
David Wilson, Microsoft IT Service Manager, Microsoft Corporation
This webcast describes how Microsoft IT used Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 with Service Pack 2 and Windows Mobile 5.0 with the Messaging and Security Feature Pack to enhance its mobile messaging infrastructure. By implementing these new technologies, Microsoft IT was able to manage mobile devices more easily, better secure mobile devices, and enable end users to take advantage of a richer mobile messaging experience.
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=64090

MSDN Webcast: Building a Windows Mobile 5.0 Line-of-Business Application (Level 200)
Wednesday, July 05, 2006 - 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM Pacific Time
Maarten Struys, Windows Embedded Product Manager, PTS Software bv
Do you want to learn how to develop a full-functioning line-of-business (LOB) application for different Windows Mobile powered devices such as Pocket PCs and smartphones? This webcast covers using the Microsoft Visual Studio development system for devices, the .NET Compact Framework 2.0, SQL Server 2005 Mobile Edition, the Windows Mobile 5.0 managed APIs, and much more. Find out how to create a complete LOB application, written entirely in managed code, which runs on a Windows Mobile powered device.
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032300789&Culture=en-US

MSDN Webcast: Tablet PCs and Smartphones: Working Hand-in-Hand to Enable Your Mobile Workforce (Level 300)
Thursday, July 06, 2006 - 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM Pacific Time
Nickolas Landry, MVP, Senior .NET Architect / Trainer, Infusion Development
Mobile workers need the right tool to do their job effectively, and sometimes one single device cannot do it all. Join this webcast to learn how to give users the power of a rich Tablet PC application with the real-time, mobility, and convenience attributes of a Windows Mobile powered smartphone. This session, complete with insightful demonstrations, explores some of the techniques mobile .NET developers can use to bring powerful mobile applications to life using a combination of Tablet PC and Windows Mobile powered smartphone.
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032301601&Culture=en-US

Messaging Webcasts for July

TechNet Webcast: Exchange Server 2003 Tips, Tricks, and Tools (Level 300)
Friday, July 07, 2006 - 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM Pacific Time
Chris Avis, TechNet presenter, Microsoft Corporation
This webcast introduces you to some of the new tools that are available from Microsoft to help make your Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 administration tasks easier and less time-consuming. We also share some tips to help you administer your Exchange Server 2003 installation more efficiently and effectively. Learn about the Microsoft Exchange Server Best Practices Analyzer, a tool that makes recommendations for improving Exchange Server performance and reliability. We also cover several other tools for Exchange Server 2003, such as the Disaster Recovery Analyzer Tool, the Performance Troubleshooting Analyzer Tool, the Microsoft Office Outlook Web Access Administration Tool, and the Exchange Server User Monitor. Finally, we explain how to simplify the configuration of Microsoft Operations Manager using the Exchange Management Pack Configuration Wizard.
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032301712&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: How Microsoft IT Does Mobile Messaging (Level 300)
Tuesday, July 18, 2006 - 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM Pacific Time
David Wilson, Microsoft IT Service Manager, Microsoft Corporation
This webcast describes how Microsoft IT used Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 with Service Pack 2 and Windows Mobile 5.0 with the Messaging and Security Feature Pack to enhance its mobile messaging infrastructure. By implementing these new technologies, Microsoft IT was able to manage mobile devices more easily, better secure mobile devices, and enable end users to take advantage of a richer mobile messaging experience.
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=64090

Momentum Webcast: What Is Microsoft Antigen? (Level 100)
Monday, July 10, 2006 - 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM Pacific Time
Peter Eicher, Senior Product Manager, Microsoft Corporation
Microsoft Antigen products provide server-level antivirus, anti-spam, and content filtering solutions that help businesses protect their e-mail and collaboration environments against viruses, worms, spam, and inappropriate content. Attend this webcast to learn about the new Microsoft-branded versions of Antigen e-mail security products (based on the acquisition of Sybari Software) now available, along with new and improved Microsoft pricing and licensing options. Discover how content and file filtering technologies help organizations control compliance with corporate content policies, eliminating inappropriate language and dangerous attachments from internal and external communications.
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032301485&Culture=en-US

Exchange - going small or large?

A lot of the questions I get when I'm out at the roadshow are about Exchange and what Exchange 2007 can do for organisations. I get questions asking how the Unified Messaging System really works behind the scenes, and whether we have plans for SIP integration (I don't know the answer to this one at the moment by the way).   My favourite question (and one that's asked regularly at the roadshow) is whether we can stop the UM lady asking us to press the pound key.  (Note to my colleagues in the US.  THe pound is our British currency and whilst it appears above the number 3 on my Laptop keyboard, it doesn't appear on the phone dialler!).  We, and lots of other countries call this symbol the hash key.  So could we put in the option to change the word "pound" to the word "hash".  It must be an easy option if we do the UK English install of the UM system instead of the US install?  Come on Exchange team... is this possible?

Its fairly obvious that I'd get these questions from time to time when I've been presenting some of the new features - I'd naturally expect these sorts of questions.  But the questions that I've been getting over the last two days have got me wondering if the TechNet roadshow is actually delivering the right sort of content for the majority of the audience.  When I decided on the content this year, I went for topics that I thought would appeal to people wanting to know about up and coming technologies.  An overview of the new features in 2007 Office System, Exchange 2007 and Vista, with the new features of Windows Server R2, and ISA Server too.

But I reckon that 75% of the questions that I've had this week concern Small Business Server and various aspects of SBS architecture.

So my question is...Should we include an SBS track in future events?  and if so, what do you want us to cover on this potential SBS track?  Should we deliver this event in conjunction with Partners at their offices (which may mean smaller events and audiences) or carry on with larger events that hold an SBS track.  I'd love to know your thoughts.  Add your comments, and let me know as our planning for next year has just started...

Bill Gates stepping down

There's a webcast going on at the moment over in Redmond with some significant news.  Bill Gates has decided to step down from his current position and work part time, concentrating on his charities.  I can see the headlines bouncing all over the blogosphere announcing that Bill has actually resigned.  No he hasn't.  He's transitioning to a part time role.  I said a part time role.  And he's not going yet.  He's not even thinking of doing this until July 2008, 2 years from now.(and even then he will continue as Chairman). 

I was walking back to my hotel room when I heard that there was going to be a joint announcement hosted by both Bill and Steve, and guessed that it would be that Bill would be stepping down to focus more on his charities - especially those concerning vaccines.  So How did I know in advance?   A month or so ago, I'd read a really interesting article about the work that Melinda Gates had been doing for the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, and the key things that made them move into their charity work.  They'd been on holiday to Africa a couple of years ago, and had gone on safari, and both of them were horrifed that children were dying of easily treated diseases like diarrhoea and they both decided there and then that this was a cause really worth pursuing.  So their immunisation program for children was created.  It was really really obvious from reading this article about Melinda that both Bill and her were incredibly compassionate and caring people who wanted to use their wealth for improving the quality of life for those who need it most.  The children.

So, amidst all of the hype and the hysteria that will be reported on the business impacts to Microsoft (which may or may not happen over the next two years).  I for one, am happy that Bill and Melinda have followed their heart and are doing something fantastic and worthwhile, and I, for one, salute them...