Spyware Meets Its Match -- Almost

Check the 5th paragraph starting with "most users find…"
http://www.redmondmag.com/features/article.asp?editorialsid=535

How to run IE7 (Beta 1) alongside IE6
Sure, you knew IE7 Beta 1 was up on MDSN, but you don't have a free machine to test it on. Can't install it on your main work machine, because you can't afford to mess it up... plus, you need to be testing your work against IE 6, right?
You thought about setting up a Virtual PC image, but it seemed like too much trouble for a Beta 1. Still, it would be nice to click around in it for a few minutes here and there...
Fret no more! IE has a secret standalone mode which lets you run multiple versions side by side (thanks to Joe Maddalone for figuring this out).

It's pretty simple:

*Download the IE7 Beta 1 Install from MSDN
*Open the install file with WinRAR (yep, it's an EXE, but it's a self extracting EXE) and extract them to a folder. Alternatively, you can just run the EXE, make a copy of the files which are extracted in the first step, and cancel the install. I was too chicken to do this on my work computer.
*Look in the folder you extracted to for the file SHLWAPI.DLL. Delete this file.
*Create a new text file in the folder, then rename it to IEXPLORE.exe.local.

That's it. The .local file in the folder tells the IExplore.exe instance to run in local mode, which means it won't mess with your IE6 settings, registry, etc. It sounds complicated, but it takes less than 10 minutes and it goes just great with your Friday morning coffee. Of course, you can help your friends at work (who also have MDSN subscriptions, of course) by zipping the folder and sharing it with them so they don't have to go through this crazy mumbo jumbo.
Incidentally, there are archives of old IE versions converted to standalone mode over at browsers.evolt.org and at skyzyx.com. C'mon, spend a day with IE3 for old time's sake!

Troubleshooting the Recipient Update Service

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=288807 also

the Exchange team Blog - there is a 4-part series on troubleshooting RUS

http://blogs.technet.com/exchange/archive/2004/07/07/175444.aspx
http://blogs.technet.com/exchange/archive/2004/07/15/184356.aspx
http://blogs.technet.com/exchange/archive/2004/07/22/191513.aspx
http://blogs.technet.com/exchange/archive/2004/07/27/198662.aspx

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/286356/EN-US/

http://www.windowsitpro.com/Articles/Print.cfm?ArticleID=37540

http://winzenz.blogspot.com/2005/10/outlook-autocomplete-and.html

Controlling OWA 2003 Users' Logon Options

by Paul Robichaux, Exchange Editor, exadmin@windowsitpro.com

Q: We want to control which options users have when they log on to Outlook Web Access (OWA) 2003. What's the best way to do this?A: The answer depends on exactly what you're trying to accomplish by limiting users' options. When users connect to OWA 2003 via Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) for Windows, the OWA logon screen gives users two options: whether to use the Premium or Basic client interface and whether to log on from a public or private computer.If you want to control whether users can pick their client type, you have a couple of choices. First, be aware that OWA automatically detects the browser with which a user connects. If that browser is anything other than IE 5.01 or later for Windows, users don't get the option to choose a client type. For example, Mac OS X users running Apple Safari never see the Premium and Basic radio buttons. If you're trying to let non-IE users choose a client type, there's no way to do so. Second, you can use OWA segmentation to control which client types are available to users. By setting the appropriate flag value, you can force all users to get the Basic client experience. Segmentation also gives you finer-grained control over other features. For example, you can turn off all access to individual folder types (e.g., Calendar), disable individual features (e.g., Secure MIME--S/MIME--support, spell checking), and otherwise control what users can do once they log on. For more information about segmentation, see the Microsoft article "How to modify the appearance and the functionality of Outlook Web Access by using the segmentation feature in Exchange 2003" ( http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=1A1BE:228D0 ).If you want to control access from public or private computers, you can set timeout values that control how long sessions from each type of computer will remain active. To do this, set the PublicClientTimeout and TrustedClientTimeout values (under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeWeb\OWA registry subkey) to the number of minutes you want to apply to each timeout.In both cases, you can also modify the logon.asp form to restrict users' options. This is the most flexible route; by changing what appears on the logon page, you get ultimate control over which options users can choose (and over what the logon screen looks like--an important issue at some companies). The Microsoft white paper "Customizing the Outlook Web Access Logon Page" (http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=1A1B5:228D0 ) will guide you through the process of using JavaScript to customize the logon page. Remember that any customizations you make will be overwritten when you install Exchange Server service packs.

A Broken OWA or A Corrupted IIS

One of the unfortunate things that exchange administrators face from time to time is to have a broken OWA.
A broken OWA can be an indication for IIS courpption, Exchange depends heavily on IIS, not only for OWA but also for SMTP.

I will suggest trying the following; reset the virtual directories that are required to provide Outlook Web Access, using the step described in the article below

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=883380

If the above wont work for you and no fix was provided to solve your specific problem, then the only solution will be to reinstall IIS which means reinstalling exchange also.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;%5BLN%5D;320202

How to Determine Exchange Server Edition ,Version and Build number

Editions

Exchange 5.5
Check the event log for one of the following Event IDs will be logged to the Application Log when the Information Store service starts up

1216 is logged if the server is running the Standard Edition.
1217 is logged if the server is running the Enterprise Edition.

The above applies to all Exchange editions.

Exchange 2000

If you are running Exchange 2000, there is a very quick way. Simply open Exchange System Manager, and drill down to your actual server object. Right-click the server, choose Properties, and on the General tab, see if you have ‘This is a front-end server'. This option is only available in the Enterprise Edition of Exchange 2000.

Exchange 2003

Since Exchange 2003 Standard Edition can now be a front-end server, that's not a reliable method if you are running Exchange 2003

1. If you have more than one storage group (SG), more than one message database, or if your database is greater than 16GB (75GB if running SP2), you have Exchange 2003 Enterprise.
2.Another way to verify your Exchange edition is to open the Exchange Server Setup Progress.log file, which is located on the root of your system drive. Search for one of the following entries:

[16:53:50] This is a(n) Standard version of Microsoft Exchange Server

or

[16:53:50] This is a(n) Enterprise version of Microsoft Exchange Server

3. Check the event log for one of the following Event IDs will be logged to the Application Log when the Information Store service starts up

1216 is logged if the server is running the Standard Edition.
1217 is logged if the server is running the Enterprise Edition.

Version


1.Start Exchange System Manager (Exchange Server 2000 and later) or Exchange Administrator (Exchange Server 5.5 and earlier).

2.Click the Servers object for the Administrative Group or Exchange Site to which the server belongs.The Server Version column lists information for each server in the group.Note For Exchange Server 2000, the version is 6.0; for Exchange Server 2003, the version is 6.5.



You can use the Exchange monitor to see the version and build numbers of the Exchange Servers.
For further details of using the Exchange monitor visit

http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Look-Exchange-Monitor-2003-Tool.html

Build numbers and release dates for Exchange Server

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=158530

Exchange Disk Sizing

Here are some articles about disk sizing and general sizing for Exchange.

http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Art-Science-Sizing-Exchange2003-Part1.html
http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Art-Science-Sizing-Exchange-2003-Part2.html
http://blogs.technet.com/exchange/archive/2004/10/11/240868.aspx
http://blogs.technet.com/evand/archive/2004/10/14/242127.aspx
http://blogs.technet.com/exchange/archive/2004/11/03/251743.aspx

and a real world example

http://msmvps.com/ehlo/archive/2005/10/18/71487.aspx

Messages Size Limits

There are many places to set the message size limit in exchange. Miss configuring any of those will affect all the others as the most restrictive setting applies.

Mainly there are 4 levels

* Global settings
* The connector.
* SMTP Virtual server
* The individual user level

Here are some articles about this issue, while reading them you will get confused; having a look at the examples at the end will help a lot.

1- http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;322679
2- http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Set-Size-Limits-Messages.html
3- http://www.ftponline.com/wss/2003_09/online/exchangetip2/

Microsoft Exchange Server Analyzer Tools

New tools and new version of some old tools

http://tinyurl.com/aeda2

Windows Live

Still in Beta, but many new features worth trying.
Having your favorites on any pc isn’t a bad idea :)

www.live.com

enjoy !

Out of disk space !!!

had this problem in one of our branches , here are some useful links to solve this in case it happens to you.



http://www.msexchange.org/articles/Exchange-log-disk-full.html
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/240145