I am sorry I have not written many posts lately, what you may not know is that I just had my first child a few weeks ago and have been living the new baby life.  The good news is I now have a little assistant that I have already begun his training to assist with the site.  Let me introduce you to my new little helper and Exchange Genie Jr.

The next Exchange Genie

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=4c4bd2a3-5e50-42b0-8bbb-2cc9afe3216a

Whats new:

http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2009/05/11/451281.aspx

http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2009/05/13/451311.aspx

When a user accesses the  ECP directory https://mailurl.com/ecp or clicks the options button in the top right of OWA the below view is what the users will see.

one item I would like to point out, is the links “shortcuts to things you can do“. Most of these links take the user to other sections of the ECP however if you click “connect Outlook to this account” they will be directed to http://help.outlook.com .  In the current builds its unsupported to attempt to modify this information to point to internal faq’s

Accounts

The default page a users lands on is the Account sections, which by default will allow a user to update a number of their AD properties like Address, Phone Number, etc..

1. click edit at to bottom of the page

2. Modify attribute and click SAVE

Organize E-Mail

The next section Organize E-mail has 3 features that we can use 1. inbox rules, 2. automatic replies, and 3. delivery reports.

Inbox Rules

This is similar to the rules we had in Exchange 2007 however there are some new features available to us.

1. click New

2. Select create a new rule for arriving messages

3. On the menu select the drop down under the  section “When the message arrives, and:”

4. I am going to select apply to all messages

5. Under the “Do the following:” sections  I am going to pick “Redirect the message to”

6. When the address picker windows open I am going to select Jodie (if you want to redirect to an address not in the GAL just type the address in)

7. click OK

8.Click  More Options

9. Select move,copy, or delete and then Delete the message

10.  If you want to add an exceptions, select the Add Exception button

.

11. Select the exception that applies

12. Now that we have created the rule we want click the save button

Now we can see we have a rule that will redirect all messages to Jodie

Automatic Replies

The Automatic Replies section does not bring any new feature from Exchange 2007 but is the section that we use to set an Out Of Office message or for the old school exchange advocates OOF (Out of Facility)

The first section is set to internal away messages, this is determined by the Accepted Domains that are configured in your Exchange Org.

1. Click the button to Send automatic replies

2. Specify the date range you want to use

3. Enter the message

4. If you wish to set a message for external senders repeat steps 1.-3 for the External Senders section

5. Click the Save button

Delivery Reports

One of my personal favorite features is Delivery Reports which allows a users to perform self message tracking on messages to them or send by them. If enabled the user will also see that the message has been read even if a read reciept was not sent with the message.

* to enable the read tracking use Set-OrganizationConfig -ReadTrackingEnabled $true more can be found at   http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2009/06/25/451680.aspx

Unfortunately you must use the user picker feature and cannot just type in either  of the first two fields

Lets search for the 2 test messages that I sent out

1.  Click the radius button “Search for messages I have receieved from”

2.  When the address picker opens select the user (or just type in the address) and click OK

3. Click the Search button

4.  You can see I have 2 messages in the report, you can either double click the message or highlight it and click the details button

5. You can see in this report the date and time the message was submitted , that is was delivered and marked as read

Groups

A nice feature that was been made available is the ability for users to join groups that have been created. If you also choose to enable another feature users have the ability to create distribution groups from ECP as well.

1. Clikc the Join button

*I have created 3 groups Demo-Open, Demo-closed,Demo-ManagerApproval *

2.  A windows will open showing all the available groups that can be joined

3. Lets select the first group which is set to be closed and attempt to join it

You see we get a message stating we cannot join this group because its closed

4.  Lets select the next group which requires manager approval

You see we get a message back stating that we have to wait for the manager approval

As the group Owner you will get a message to approve the user

5.  Lets select the remain group which is open to everyone can join

You can see what receieved a message stating we have joined the group

6. Lets now leave the open group that we have joined, select the group Demo-OpenMember and click the Leave button

7. You are now presented with a validation that you want to leave the group, click Yes

Settings

Mail

The first section under the settings tab is Mail,  which is broken up into 5 subsections – 1. E-Mail Signature 2.Read Receipts 3.Reading Pane 4. Conversations 5.Message Format and 6. Message Options

                 Read Receipts

The Read Receipts section provide us 3 options on how to hande Read Receipts on messages

1. Ask me before snding a response <Default>

2. Always send a response

3. Never send a response

            Reading Pane

The next section is the Reading Pane section, which allows a user to configure how to handle a message that is viewed in the reading pane and provides us 3 options

1. Mark the item displayed in the Reading Pane as Read

2. Mark the item as Read when the selection changes <Default>

3.  Do not automatically mark the item as Read

  Conversations

By default in the OWA UI messages are placed into the new conversation view which does take a bit of getting user too.  This section controls how the conversation view is displayed

This section is broken up into 2 parts

1. Sort messages in the conversation Reading Pane in this order:

Choose how to sort the messages in List View in an expanded conversation.

E-Mail Signature

There is nothing really new in this section but provides a user a location to input an email signature, if you want this signature added to each out going message you need to select the check box at the bottom Automatically include my signature on messages I send

 Message Format

 The Message Format section allows us to modify the following

1. Always show Bcc

2. Always show From

If either of the above are selected when creating a new message you will see the from and BCC fields on each message

3.  Compose messages in this format allows us to set the default message type of HTML or Plaint Text

4. We can configure the default font type and size of messages 

6. Empty the Deleted Items folder when I sign out

Spelling

The spelling section allows us to configure a number of options for spell checking.  The ability to configure a custom dictionary is still not there however we do have the same options as Exchange 2007.

 Calendar

General

The General section allows us to configure two options

1. E-Mail name resolution

2. Accessibilty

Once common issue I have found over the years is a user enabling the accessibility options when they first logon to thier mailbx which will then force OWA Light.

Regional

Reginal settings allow a user to configure the following

1. Language

2. Date format

3. Time format

4.  Current time zone

Password

The password section allows a user to change thier current password however you must know the old password when using this feature.

S/MIME

The S/MIME button will only be avaiabled with IE7+ and is not a feature that is supposed with Firefox or Safari since this uses an active X control. When attempting to install this control you will need to have local Admin rights to the machine.

The S/MIME control allows a user to be able to digitally sign or encrypt a message

*Note : currently the control requires the user to have thier certificate published to the directory however there is no feature in the web UI that allows a user to publish thier certificate and there for an Outlook profile or automatic provisioning will be required to use send digitally signe or encrypted messages.

Phone

The phone section is broken down into 3 sub sections Voice Mail (only if your account has been UM enabled), Mobile Phones and Text Messaging.

Voice Mail

Exchange 2007 introduced a new server role called Unified Messaging which intergrates Exchange into systems like OCS and telephony devices.  The OWA web UI now allows a users the ablity to managed settings.

There are 4 sections that can be managed

1. Call Answering Rules

2. Outlook Voice Access

3. Notifications

4. Voice Mail Preview

Mobile Phones

Text Messaging

Another new feature of  Exchange 2010 is the ability to use text messages to send notification to your phone. If you are already using a phone like Windows Mobile, Iphone, Palm Pre etc.. that can sync with Exchange this is most likely not a feature that you would be using however for those users who do not have a phone that is capable of syncing with the system this feature provides you notification for email, calendar, and voicemail.  By default this feature is disabled.

Enabling Notifications

Click “Turn on Notifications”

Next we will be ask to select our country and cell phone provider

You may note if you carrier is not listed there is a link that will take you to the following information page http://help.outlook.com/en-us/beta/ms.exch.ecp.configureregionandmobileoperator.aspx?r=ia&l=0

Click Next

Now you are ask to input your cell phone number

Click Next

A text message will now be sent to your cell phone with a  pin code that will be used to complete the next section

Input the pin that was sent to you phone and click Finish

Once this process has been completed you will find a new rule that has been created to send copies of information to your phone.

Block or Allow

 Exchange provides users with a simple interface to allow user to configure junk filters for thier mailbox.

The first section that we come across is the ability to turn off or on the junk mail filtering

By enabling this feature you  allow the system to move messages into our junk email folder that meet your configuration. Please note that the system can be configured to move messages to the junk folder as well.

Under the Safe Senders and Recipients section we can add users to our safe list to these users to not get placed into our junk mail foler

We also have the option of trusting anyone in our contact list

After the allow section we find the Blcoked Senders information. If a user is added to this section it will not block email from them but tag this message to be listed as junk and move the message to the junk folder.

We can also specify to that all email is considered junk unless the users is explicity listed in our safe list.

If you attempt to add a user that is apart of  your email organization you will receive an error stating you cannot perform this action

http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2009/08/17/451974.aspx

A users can directly log into the ECP by hitting https://yoururl.com/ecp or after they logon to OWA by selecting the options button in to top right.

What you see in the graphic above is the default view that a standard user will receieve in ECP, but I want us to understand how this is controlled. I am not going to go into much detail in this article but users that have been delegated the appropriate rights have the ability to create mailboxes, groups, contacts, and other tasks via ECP

Exchange 2007 brought somthing new called Exchange Management Shell (EMS) and  Exchange has been based upon the shell since Exchange 2007. In Exchange 2010 we now have modifed how permissioning will be done, with Role Based Authentication Control (RBAC).  RBAC as we will see says which commands a user or Admin can execute.

Lets use an example:

 users now have the ability to modify certain directory properties like thier phone number through the  ECP.

When a user adds a city to thier properties they are executing the set-user command to be able to edit that AD property.

In the graphic above you notice that Las tName, First Name, Email Address, and Display Name are grayed out. This is because by default the users do not have the ability to execute those commands…..

How do I know what users can run?

Lets open a EMS windows and use the command get-mailbox brian.tirch  | fl role*

From this you can see that my mailbox is receiving the default policy.

Now lets take a look at this  policy  with the following commands Get-RoleAssignmentPolicy “default role assignment policy”

[PS] C:\>Get-RoleAssignmentPolicy “default role assignment policy”
IsDefault         : True
Description       : This policy grants end users permissions to set their Outlook Web App options and perform other se
                    f-administration tasks.
AdminDisplayName  :
ExchangeVersion   : 0.11 (14.0.509.0)
Name              : Default Role Assignment Policy
Identity          : Default Role Assignment Policy
RBAC-Policy

IsValid           : True

We do not get to much data from that command but we can see that this policy is set to be the default for all users

Now lets run the following command

 Get-ManagementRoleAssignment

The get-managementroleassignment will show us all the roles that have been assigned, through this we will see there are a number of roles that are assigned to the Default Role Assignment Policy

Lets narrow our scope with the following command (Get-ManagementRoleAssignment | where {$_.roleassigneename -eq ‘Default role assignment policy’}) | ft Name,RoleassigneeName

Name                                                                                    Role                                                                    RoleAssigneeName
—-                                                                                              —-                                                                    —————-
MyBaseOptions-Default Role Assignmen…          MyBaseOptions                                               Default Role Assignment Policy
MyContactInformation-Default Role As…           MyContactInformation                                Default Role Assignment Policy
MyVoiceMail-Default Role Assignment …           MyVoiceMail                                                    Default Role Assignment Policy
MyTextMessaging-Default Role Assignm…         MyTextMessaging                                            Default Role Assignment Policy
MyDistributionGroupMembership-Defaul…      MyDistributionGroupMembership           Default Role Assignment Policy

Wow…. now that we know there are 5 roles that combine to provide us with the Default Role Assignment Policy, but we still do not know what each one allows us to do.

We are now 1 step closer to finding out what allow a users to perform certain tasks….  We can use the get-mangementrole command to break things down….

PS] C:\>Get-ManagementRole  my*

name                                                                             RoleType
—                                                                                      ——–
myBaseOptions                                                        MyBaseOptions
myContactInformation                                       MyContactInformation
myDiagnostics                                                         MyDiagnostics
myDistributionGroupMembership                MytributionGroupMembership
myDistributionGroups                                       MyDistributionGroups
myProfileInformation                                        MyProfileInformation
myRetentionPolicies                                           MyRetentionPolicies
myTextMessaging                                                 MyTextMessaging
myVoiceMail                                                          MyVoiceMail

As you can see there are some additional roles that are not assigned by default to users but have been created by the Exchange team for us. I am only going to break down 1 of these role since there will be a lot of data to look at.

Lets run the following command: Get-ManagementRole myBaseOptions | fl

I have highliged the Role Entries section below, as this is the section that allows a user to change a number of properites 

RoleEntries                 : {(Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.E2010) Set-MailboxSpellingConfiguration -Check
                              BeforeSend -Confirm -DictionaryLanguage -ErrorAction -ErrorVariable -Identity -IgnoreMixe
                              dDigits -IgnoreUppercase -OutBuffer -OutVariable -WarningAction -WarningVariable -WhatIf,
                               (Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.E2010) Set-MailboxRegionalConfiguration -Confi
                              rm -DateFormat -ErrorAction -ErrorVariable -Identity -Language -LocalizeDefaultFolderName
                               -OutBuffer -OutVariable -TimeFormat -TimeZone -WarningAction -WarningVariable -WhatIf, (
                              Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.E2010) Set-MailboxMessageConfiguration -AfterMov
                              eOrDeleteBehavior -AlwaysShowBcc -AlwaysShowFrom -AutoAddSignature -Confirm -Conversation
                              SortOrder -DefaultFontColor -DefaultFontFlags -DefaultFontName -DefaultFontSize -DefaultF
                              ormat -EmptyDeletedItemsOnLogoff -ErrorAction -ErrorVariable -HideDeletedItems -Identity
                              -IgnoreDefaultScope -NewItemNotification -OutBuffer -OutVariable -PreviewMarkAsReadBehavi
                              or -PreviewMarkAsReadDelaytime -ReadReceiptResponse -ShowConversationAsTree -SignatureHtm
                              l -SignatureText -WarningAction -WarningVariable -WhatIf, (Microsoft.Exchange.Management.
                              PowerShell.E2010) Set-MailboxJunkEmailConfiguration -BlockedSendersAndDomains -ContactsTr
                              usted -Enabled -ErrorAction -ErrorVariable -Identity -IgnoreDefaultScope -OutBuffer -OutV
                              ariable -TrustedListsOnly -TrustedSendersAndDomains -WarningAction -WarningVariable, (Mic
                              rosoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.E2010) Set-MailboxCalendarFolder -Confirm -DetailLe
                              vel -ErrorAction -ErrorVariable -Identity -OutBuffer -OutVariable -PublishDateRangeFrom -
                              PublishDateRangeTo -PublishedCalendarUrl -PublishEnabled -SearchableUrlEnabled -WarningAc
                              tion -WarningVariable -WhatIf, (Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.E2010) Set-Mailb
                              oxCalendarConfiguration -Confirm -DefaultReminderTime -ErrorAction -ErrorVariable -Identi
                              ty -OutBuffer -OutVariable -RemindersEnabled -ReminderSoundEnabled -ShowWeekNumbers -Time
                              Increment -WarningAction -WarningVariable -WeekStartDay -WhatIf -WorkDays -WorkingHoursEn
                              dTime -WorkingHoursStartTime -WorkingHoursTimeZone, (Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerS
                              hell.E2010) Set-MailboxAutoReplyConfiguration -AutoReplyState -Confirm -EndTime -ErrorAct
                              ion -ErrorVariable -ExternalAudience -ExternalMessage -Identity -IgnoreDefaultScope -Inte
                              rnalMessage -OutBuffer -OutVariable -StartTime -WarningAction -WarningVariable -WhatIf, (
                              Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.E2010) Set-Mailbox -AcceptMessagesOnlyFrom -Acce
                              ptMessagesOnlyFromDLMembers -AcceptMessagesOnlyFromSendersOrMembers -DeliverToMailboxAndF
                              orward -ErrorAction -ErrorVariable -ExternalOofOptions -ForwardingAddress -GrantSendOnBeh
                              alfTo -Identity -Languages -MailTip -MailTipTranslations -OutBuffer -OutVariable -RejectM
                              essagesFrom -RejectMessagesFromDLMembers -RejectMessagesFromSendersOrMembers -RequireSend
                              erAuthenticationEnabled -UserCertificate -UserSMimeCertificate -WarningAction -WarningVar
                              iable, (Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.E2010) Set-MailUser -ErrorAction -ErrorV
                              ariable -Identity -MailTip -MailTipTranslations -OutBuffer -OutVariable, (Microsoft.Excha
                              nge.Management.PowerShell.E2010) Set-InboxRule -ApplyCategory -BodyContainsWords -Confirm
                               -CopyToFolder -Debug -DeleteMessage -DomainController -ErrorAction -ErrorVariable -Excep
                              tIfBodyContainsWords -ExceptIfFlaggedForAction -ExceptIfFrom -ExceptIfFromAddressContains
                              Words -ExceptIfHasAttachment -ExceptIfHasClassification -ExceptIfHeaderContainsWords -Exc
                              eptIfMessageTypeMatches -ExceptIfMyNameInCcBox -ExceptIfMyNameInToBox -ExceptIfMyNameInTo
                              OrCcBox -ExceptIfMyNameNotInToBox -ExceptIfReceivedAfterDate -ExceptIfReceivedBeforeDate
                              -ExceptIfRecipientAddressContainsWords -ExceptIfSentOnlyToMe -ExceptIfSentTo -ExceptIfSub
                              jectContainsWords -ExceptIfSubjectOrBodyContainsWords -ExceptIfWithImportance -ExceptIfWi
                              thinSizeRangeMaximum -ExceptIfWithinSizeRangeMinimum -ExceptIfWithSensitivity -FlaggedFor
                              Action -Force -ForwardAsAttachmentTo -ForwardTo -From -FromAddressContainsWords -HasAttac
                              hment -HasClassification -HeaderContainsWords -Identity -MarkAsRead -MarkImportance -Mess
                              ageTypeMatches -MoveToFolder -MyNameInCcBox -MyNameInToBox -MyNameInToOrCcBox -MyNameNotI
                              nToBox -Name -OutBuffer -OutVariable -Priority -ReceivedAfterDate -ReceivedBeforeDate -Re
                              cipientAddressContainsWords -RedirectTo -SentOnlyToMe -SentTo -StopProcessingRules -Subje
                              ctContainsWords -SubjectOrBodyContainsWords -Verbose -WarningAction -WarningVariable -Wha
                              tIf -WithImportance -WithinSizeRangeMaximum -WithinSizeRangeMinimum -WithSensitivity, (Mi
                              crosoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.E2010) Set-CalendarProcessing -AddAdditionalRespon
                              se -AdditionalResponse -AddNewRequestsTentatively -AddOrganizerToSubject -AllBookInPolicy
                               -AllowConflicts -AllowRecurringMeetings -AllRequestInPolicy -AllRequestOutOfPolicy -Auto
                              mateProcessing -BookingWindowInDays -BookInPolicy -Confirm -ConflictPercentageAllowed -De
                              leteAttachments -DeleteComments -DeleteNonCalendarItems -DeleteSubject -EnableResponseDet
                              ails -EnforceSchedulingHorizon -ErrorAction -ErrorVariable -ForwardRequestsToDelegates -I
                              dentity -IgnoreDefaultScope -MaximumConflictInstances -MaximumDurationInMinutes -Organize
                              rInfo -OutBuffer -OutVariable -ProcessExternalMeetingMessages -RemoveForwardedMeetingNoti
                              fications -RemoveOldMeetingMessages -RemovePrivateProperty -RequestInPolicy -RequestOutOf
                              Policy -ResourceDelegates -ScheduleOnlyDuringWorkHours -TentativePendingApproval -Warning
                              Action -WarningVariable -WhatIf, (Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.E2010) Set-CAS
                              Mailbox -ActiveSyncDebugLogging -Confirm -ErrorAction -ErrorVariable -Identity -ImapMessa
                              gesRetrievalMimeFormat -ImapProtocolLoggingEnabled -ImapUseProtocolDefaults -OutBuffer -O
                              utVariable -PopMessagesRetrievalMimeFormat -PopProtocolLoggingEnabled -PopUseProtocolDefa
                              ults -WarningAction -WarningVariable -WhatIf, (Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.E
                              2010) Search-MessageTrackingReport -Confirm -ErrorAction -ErrorVariable -Identity -Messag
                              eEntryId -MessageId -OutBuffer -OutVariable -Recipients -ResultSize -Sender -Subject -War
                              ningAction -WarningVariable -WhatIf, (Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.E2010) Rem
                              ove-MailboxFolderPermission -AccessRights -Confirm -Debug -DomainController -ErrorAction
                              -ErrorVariable -Identity -OutBuffer -OutVariable -User -Verbose -WarningAction -WarningVa
                              riable -WhatIf, (Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.E2010) Remove-InboxRule -Confir
                              m -Debug -DomainController -ErrorAction -ErrorVariable -Force -Identity -OutBuffer -OutVa
                              riable -Verbose -WarningAction -WarningVariable -WhatIf, (Microsoft.Exchange.Management.P
                              owerShell.E2010) Remove-ActiveSyncDevice -ErrorAction -ErrorVariable -Identity -OutBuffer
                               -OutVariable -WarningAction -WarningVariable…}
RoleType                    : MyBaseOptions
ImplicitRecipientReadScope  : Self
ImplicitRecipientWriteScope : Self
ImplicitConfigReadScope     : OrganizationConfig
ImplicitConfigWriteScope    : OrganizationConfig
IsRootRole                  : True
IsEndUserRole               : True
MailboxPlanIndex            :
Description                 : This role enables individual users to view and modify the basic configuration of their ow
                              n mailbox and associated settings.
IsDeprecated                : False
AdminDisplayName            :
ExchangeVersion             : 0.12 (14.0.451.0)
Name                        : MyBaseOptions

IsValid                     : True

Since the above is a lot of information to take in  let break down a few of the role entries :

Set-MailboxSpellingConfiguration -CheckBeforeSend -Confirm -DictionaryLanguage -ErrorAction -ErrorVariable -Identity -IgnoreMixe
                              dDigits -IgnoreUppercase -OutBuffer -OutVariable -WarningAction -WarningVariable -WhatIf,

Here we have a shell command called Set-MailboxSpellingConfiguration cmdlet which allows a users to modify Microsoft Office Outlook Web App spell checking options for a specified user. For example, you can set the dictionary language and configure the spelling checker to ignore mixed digits or words in all uppercase.

Since the users has the ability to run this command, when they are logged into ECP the user will be able to change the follwoing settings.

If we modify the allowed role entries, we can make it so a user cannot ignore words in upper case , this is done by removing the  switch  -IgnoreUppercase or we could even make it so that a user cannot change any of the spelling settings by removing Set-MailboxSpellingConfiguration and all the extentions.

You should not be able to see that everything in Exchange 2010 is now based on a shell command, those commands even for Admins are controled through RBAC.