Deployment changes in Exchange 2003 SP1

Exchange 2003 SP1 brings us a lot of new features that customers have been requesting, as well as product fixes since Exchange 2003 was released. Here is a list of major features that SP1 is bringing with some descriptions. Please do ask questions on this as we can discuss this in more detail too :)…


Announcing the release of Exchange Server Remote Connectivity Analyzer

Have you ever installed an Exchange server and wanted to verify your Internet facing services were setup and configured properly? Things like Exchange ActiveSync, AutoDiscover, Outlook Anywhere (RPC/HTTP), and inbound email. Sure there are cmdlets included in Exchange 2007 like test-ActivesyncConnectivity and test-OWAConnectivity, but these tests can only be run inside your network and effectively…


Tell us what you think: Silverlight for Exchange management UI?

The Exchange UI team is investigating possible technologies we could use in future releases of management tools. One potential technology we could use is Silverlight. This would provide the ability to offer rich management features in a web-based interface, but would require that Silverlight be installed on PCs that were used to run those web-based…


Controlling Exchange ActiveSync device access using the Allow/Block/Quarantine list

What is the Allow/Block/Quarantine list? In Exchange 2010 we added a feature called the Allow/Block/Quarantine list (or ABQ for short). This feature was designed to help IT organizations control which of the growing number of Exchange ActiveSync-enabled devices are allowed to connect to their Exchange Servers. With this feature, organizations can choose which devices (or…


A script to troubleshoot issues with Exchange ActiveSync

ActiveSyncReport script Download The Exchange support team relatively frequently receives cases where mobile devices using Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) protocol send too many requests to Exchange server resulting in a situation where server runs out of resources, effectively causing a ‘denial of service’ (DOS) attack. The worst outcome of such a situation is that the server…


Re-released Exchange 2010 and Exchange 2007 update rollups

Earlier today we re-released the following Rollup Updates. These updates address an issue in which digital signatures on files produced and signed by Microsoft will expire prematurely, as described in Microsoft Security Advisory 2749655. Also see Security Advisory 2749655 and timestamping on the Security, Research & Defense blog. Update Rollup 4-v2 for Exchange Server 2010…


Servicing Exchange 2013

Six years ago Exchange took a bold step forward in product servicing. With Exchange Server 2007 we shifted to a cumulative model to deliver customer rollup updates (RU’s) instead of a traditional hotfix model. A primary benefit to customers was a simplified delivery mechanism where many updates could be delivered in a single package. Tracking…


Address Book Policies, Jamba Jokes and Secret Agents

Update 10/3/2014: This article was updated to include new defaults/limits information for Office 365 for Enterprise. Since we added the Address Book Policy feature in Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 2, one of the questions I frequently hear (related to ABP’s that is) is, “when are you adding ABP’s to Office 365?” Well dear reader,…


Now Available: Exchange Server 2013 Deployment Assistant

We’re excited to announce the availability of the Exchange Server 2013 Deployment Assistant at http://technet.microsoft.com/exdeploy2013. The Exchange Deployment Assistant is a web-based tool that helps you deploy Exchange 2013 in your on-premises organization, configure a hybrid deployment between your on-premises organization and Office 365, or migrate to Office 365. It asks you a small set…