You cannot close the EMC window on a computer that has Internet Explorer 9 installed

Microsoft released the official fix for: You cannot close the EMC window on a computer that has Internet Explorer 9 installed. Windows Internet Explorer 9 installed, you start the Exchange Management Console (EMC). After you make a change and then try to close the EMC window, the window does not close. Additionally you receive the following message:
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You must close all dialog boxes before you can close Exchange Management Console.

Download: KB2618444 Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer: December 13, 2011

MDT 2012 Beta 2 Released

The latest version of MDT is now available on Connect (Join the MDT 2012 Beta 2 Connect program here!)

MDT 2012 Beta 2 offers new User-Driven Installation components and extensibility for Configuration Manager 2007 and Configuration Manager 2012 as well as integration with the Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolkit (DaRT) for Lite Touch Installation remote control and diagnostics.

Key benefits include:

  • Full use of the capabilities provided by System Center Configuration Manager 2012 for OS deployment.
  • Improved Lite Touch user experience and functionality.
  • A smooth and simple upgrade process for all existing MDT users.

New features For System Center Configuration Manager customers:

  • Support for Configuration Manager 2012 (while still supporting Configuration Manager 2007)
  • New User-Driven Installation components for Configuration Manager 2007 and Configuration Manager 2012
    • Extensible wizard and designer, additional integration with Configuration Manager to deliver a more customized OS experience, support for more imaging scenarios, and an enhanced end-user deployment experience
  • Ability to migrate MDT 2012 task sequences from Configuration Manager 2007 to Configuration Manager 2012

New features For Lite Touch Installation:

  • Integration with the Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolkit (DaRT) for remote control and diagnostics
  • New monitoring capabilities to see the progress of currently running deployments
  • Support for deploying Windows to computers using UEFI
  • Ability to deploy Windows 7 so that the computer will start from a new VHD file, “Deploy to VHD”
  • Improved deployment wizard user experience

MDT 2012 the final release will be available download through to January 2012 I think.

VMware View XP persistent disk can not save outlook.ost c:\document and settings\…..

I’m busy with created a new a new pool with presentment disks.

The View desktops we’ve got setup are using linked clones and persistent disks which map to the D:\ in the users sessions. Of course this means the users profile is loaded to the D:\ instead of C:\ in the virtual desktops. My issue is, when a new users comes from our old environment into the test view setup, their Outlook is trying to find their OST file on the C:\ (c:\document and settings\…etc). The users data has been loaded to the D:\ though. The only way I’ve found to get around this is going into the Contol Panel in the users session, deleting their Outlook profile,

Solution:

Microsoft saves information about profile under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles\Outlook

So, within regedit, I right-clicked on HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles\Outlook then chose Export. For Save as Type, I changed the value to "Text Files (*.txt)". I then opened the text file I created with Notepad. You can’t just search for "Outlook.ost", since there are null, i.e. 00, characters stored between each character. They show up in an ASCII representation as dots. E.g. Outlook.ost would be O.u.t.l.o.o.k…o.s.t.

Since the "Outlook.ost" could be broken across multiple lines, I decided just to search for o.s.t. I found the following in the text file I had created.

Value 31

  Name:            001f6610

  Type:            REG_BINARY

  Data:           

00000000   43 00 3a 00 5c 00 44 00 – 6f 00 63 00 75 00 6d 00  C.:.\.D.o.c.u.m.

00000010   65 00 6e 00 74 00 73 00 – 20 00 61 00 6e 00 64 00  e.n.t.s. .a.n.d.

00000020   20 00 53 00 65 00 74 00 – 74 00 69 00 6e 00 67 00   .S.e.t.t.i.n.g.

00000030   73 00 5c 00 4a 00 69 00 – 6d 00 5c 00 4c 00 6f 00  s.\.J.i.m.\.L.o.

00000040   63 00 61 00 6c 00 20 00 – 53 00 65 00 74 00 74 00  c.a.l. .S.e.t.t.

00000050   69 00 6e 00 67 00 73 00 – 5c 00 41 00 70 00 70 00  i.n.g.s.\.A.p.p.

00000060   6c 00 69 00 63 00 61 00 – 74 00 69 00 6f 00 6e 00  l.i.c.a.t.i.o.n.

00000070   20 00 44 00 61 00 74 00 – 61 00 5c 00 4d 00 69 00   .D.a.t.a.\.M.i.

00000080   63 00 72 00 6f 00 73 00 – 6f 00 66 00 74 00 5c 00  c.r.o.s.o.f.t.\.

00000090   4f 00 75 00 74 00 6c 00 – 6f 00 6f 00 6b 00 5c 00  O.u.t.l.o.o.k.\.

000000a0   6f 00 75 00 74 00 6c 00 – 6f 00 6f 00 6b 00 2e 00  o.u.t.l.o.o.k…

000000b0   6f 00 73 00 74 00 00 00 -                          o.s.t…

I could also have searched in the .reg file I created when I exported the registry information from the other computer. But, again, you can’t just search for "Outlook.ost" in the .reg file you created, either, since the information in it is the hexadecimal representation of the binary data in the registry keys. You would need to convert a string, such as "ost" to hexadecimal form. You can do that at String – ASCII, HEX, Binary Converter. In the String field, I put in ost. The converter showed me the equivalent hex value is 6F 73 74. Note: the converter shows decimal/ASCII, binary, and hex values. Make sure you use the correct one. Also note that the hexadecimal representation of "OST" is not the same as "ost". Since the error message I received referred to Outlook.ost, I converted "ost" to hexadecimal. Again, it may be better to limit the length of the string to reduce the chance it will be broken across multiple lines in the file.

Once you have the hexadecimal equivalent of the ASCII string, you still can’t just search for it, i.e. a search for 6F7374 wouldn’t work. The hexadecimal numbers are stored in the .reg file with commas and the null character, 00, between them. I.e., I would need to search for 6f,00,73,00,74 instead.

In the .reg file found it among the following lines:

"001f6610"=hex:43,00,3a,00,5c,00,44,00,6f,00,63,00,75,00,6d,00,65,00,6e,00,74,\

  00,73,00,20,00,61,00,6e,00,64,00,20,00,53,00,65,00,74,00,74,00,69,00,6e,00,\

  67,00,73,00,5c,00,4a,00,69,00,6d,00,5c,00,4c,00,6f,00,63,00,61,00,6c,00,20,\

  00,53,00,65,00,74,00,74,00,69,00,6e,00,67,00,73,00,5c,00,41,00,70,00,70,00,\

  6c,00,69,00,63,00,61,00,74,00,69,00,6f,00,6e,00,20,00,44,00,61,00,74,00,61,\

  00,5c,00,4d,00,69,00,63,00,72,00,6f,00,73,00,6f,00,66,00,74,00,5c,00,4f,00,\

  75,00,74,00,6c,00,6f,00,6f,00,6b,00,5c,00,6f,00,75,00,74,00,6c,00,6f,00,6f,\

  00,6b,00,2e,00,6f,00,73,00,74,00,00,00

I noticed it was associated with a "001f6610" entry. When I had searched the text file, I had also seen Outlook.ost associated with "Name: 001f6610".

You can delete the following registry key with group policy preferences to disable using Offline Folders after disabling Use Cached Mode in Group Policy:

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles\Outlook\13dbb0c8aa05101a9bb000aa002fc45a\001f6610

Rollup 6 for Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 1

The Exchange CXP team released Update Rollup 6 for Exchange Server 2010 SP1 to the Download Center.

This update contains a number of customer-reported and internally found issues since the release of SP1. See ‘KB 2608646: Description of Update Rollup 6 for Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 1’ for more details.

This update contains a number of customer reported and internally found issues since the release of RU5.

The most Important Fixes:

  • 2627769 Some time zones in OWA are not synchronized with Windows in an Exchange Server 2010 environment
  • 2528854 The Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Replication service crashes on a computer that has Exchange Server 2010 SP1 installed
  • 2544246 You receive a NRN of a meeting request 120 days later after the recipient accepted the request in an Exchange Server 2010 SP1 environment
  • 2616127 "0x80041606" error code when you use Outlook in online mode to search for a keyword against a mailbox in an Exchange Server 2010 environment.
  • 2549183 "There are no objects to select" message when you try to use the EMC to specify a server to connect to in an Exchange Server 2010 SP1 environment

Other Fixes:

  • 2431609 An update is available that updates the message of a retention policy in OWA for Exchange Server 2010
  • 2449266 EWS drops the TCP connection to the EWS client application without any error message in a Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 environment
  • 2480474 A Users do not receive quota warning messages after applying SP1 for Exchange 2010
  • 2514820 An incoming fax message is not delivered to the recipient in an Exchange Server 2010 SP1 environment
  • 2521927 Disabling the Exchange ActiveSync Integration feature for OWA does not take effect in OWA Premium clients in an Exchange Server 2010 environment
  • 2535289 The Microsoft Exchange Information Store service crashes occasionally when you run an antivirus application on an Exchange Server 2010 Mailbox server
  • 2536313 Slow message delivery and mailbox access for journaling mailboxes on an Exchange Server 2010 server
  • 2548246 The Microsoft Exchange Information Store service crashes occasionally when a folder view is corrupted on an Exchange Server 2010 mailbox server
  • 2549289 A RBAC role assignee can unexpectedly run the Add-MailboxPermission command or the Remove-MailboxPermission command on an Exchange Server 2010 server that is outside the role assignment scope
  • 2555851 A mailbox does not appear in certain address lists after you run commands on the mailbox in an Exchange Server 2010 SP1 environment
  • 2559814 A user cannot add or remove delegates from a mailbox by using Outlook in an Exchange Server 2010 environment
  • 2561514 Exchange Server 2003 user cannot view the free/busy information of a user in a different federated organization
  • 2563860 You cannot create a new mailbox database if you already have 1000 mailbox databases in an Exchange Server 2010 environment
  • 2567409 Certain free/busy messages are not replicated from an Exchange Server 2010 server to an Exchange Server 2003 server
  • 2571791 Retention policies are applied to Contact items unexpectedly in an Exchange Server 2010 environment
  • 2572052 Certain properties of a recurring meeting request from external email accounts are missing in an Exchange Server 2010 SP1 environment
  • 2575005 You cannot start the EMC or the EMS in an Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 1 environment
  • 2578631 Certain users cannot send email messages to a mail-enabled public folder in an Exchange Server 2010 environment
  • 2579172 Items that are deleted or moved still appear in the original folder when you use Office Outlook in online mode to access an Exchange Server 2010 mailbox
  • 2579671 No results returned when you use the ExpandGroup method in EWS to retrieve a list of members of a Dynamic Distribution Group in an Exchange Server 2010 environment
  • 2582095 The SmtpMaxMessagesPerConnection property of a send connector is not replicated to the subscribed Edge Transport server in an Exchange Server 2010 environment
  • 2600835 The RPC Client Access service crashes when you delete an attachment of an item by using Outlook in online mode in an Exchange Server 2010 SP1 environment
  • 2601701 The memory usage of the MSExchangeRepl.exe process keeps increasing when you perform a VSS backup on Exchange Server 2010 databases
  • 2617126 The Store.exe process crashes when you send an email message that has attachments in an Exchange Server 2010 SP1 environment

 

General Notes

An issue with management of RBAC roles when RU6 is partially deployed in the organization: Due to changes shipped in this update, certain warnings can be displayed when managing RBAC roles, if RU6 is not yet deployed to all servers in the organization. Please see the following KB article for more information:

Managing RBAC roles might display warnings or errors if Exchange 2010 SP1 RU6 is partially deployed in the organization
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2638351

Note for Forefront users: For those of you running Forefront Protection for Exchange, before installing the update, stop all Forefront services.

DPM force removal agent from server

Error:

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How to Uninstall a Protection Agent

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb809113.aspx

Remove DPM agent from the DPM agent console

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff634203.aspx

Removing a Protected Computer

Remove-ProductionServer.ps1 -DPMServername [DPMServerName] -PSName [ProtectedComputerName]

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Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Capacity Calculator

lync-server-2010-logo2[1]

A handy spreadsheet for calculating a user’s hardware requirements based on information that the administrator supplies about number of users, types of communication and expected traffic has been made available by Microsoft. The download available by clicking here and the corresponding Microsoft Word document explains the tool and how to use it.

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Exchange Management Console & IE9 issue fixed

The Exchange team made a fix available a fix to solve the issues when using the Management Console of Exchange 2007 or 2010 in conjunction with Internet Explorer 9.

As you probably know, when using Internet Explorer 9 you can’t close the Exchange Management Console properly as it gives you the error “You must close all dialog boxes before you can close Exchange Management Console” having no dialogs open.

To solve this issue, you had to use the Task Manager to force closing the EMC process using

To properly install the hotfix:

  1. Request hotfix ID 2624899 from support here. For a direct download link click here.
  2. Download and install MS11-081 (2586448). You can retrieve this update here.
  3. Install the hotfix ID 2624899.

Microsoft states it expects to incorporate this fix in a future update of Internet Explorer 9.

While releasing a fix for the IE9 issue is great after all these month, I can’t help but wonder why the fix has not been made public.

Migrate from Exchange Public Folders to Microsoft Office 365

Exchange public folders are widely used in on-premises Exchange environments. However, Microsoft® Exchange Online does not support customer usage scenarios of public folders. If you or your customers are using Exchange public folders, there are special considerations for migrating to Microsoft Office 365. This document outlines these considerations, discusses the most common public folder scenarios and how they are represented in Office 365 services. It also provides the information you need to decide whether Office 365 is a good match for you based on your current public folder usage.

Download: Migrate from Public Folders to Office 365.docx

DPM Error 30126 DPM could not find find a valid recovery point on disk Or ‘Replica Inconsistent’ showing against System State and Bare Metal Recovery on Protected Server

This error normally occurs due to one of the following two possible causes:

  • Not enough disk space is available on the protected machine to store a backup of the system state files
  • The Windows Server Backup feature is not installed on the protected machine (Windows 2008 or Windows 2008 R2)

Solution:
Simply install the Windows Server Backup feature on to the protected machine from Server Manager. Installation of this feature doesn’t normally require a reboot.

If the protected machine doesn’t have enough disk space to store a backup of the system state files (you’ll need 10-12Gb free on the system drive by default to store these files) you’ll need to create some space on the system drive, or add another disk to the machine and modify the PSDataSourceConfig.xml file to allow DPM to use the new location.

The PSDataSourceConfig.xml file is normally located at %SystemDrive%\Program Files\Microsoft Data Protection Manager\DPM\DataSources. Modify the <FilesToProtect> section of the xml file to point to the new drive added. Maybe that you may need to remove protection for the machine from the DPM 2010 console and then re-enable protection to get DPM to read the new location for backup files from the PSDataSourceConfig.xml file.

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