There are two common password scenarios that occur:

1. When a users password has expired and they attempt to logon to OWA the user fails to logon and receive a generic error message.

2. When a new user account is created and an administrator wants to force the user to change their password at next logon, however the user will not be able to logon to OWA

Exchange 2007 SP3 and Exchange 2010 SP1 have remedied the two issues above by creating a new module in IIS that detects a user has an expired password or the user account is set to “user must change password at next logon”. 

You may ask what do I need to do?

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff607232(EXCHG.80).aspx

1. Log on to the Exchange server that is running the CAS role by using an account that has local administrator rights

2. Start Registry Editor, and then locate the following registry subkey:

3. HLKM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchange OWA

4. Create the following DWORD value if it does not already exist:

5. Value name: ChangeExpiredPasswordEnabledValue type: REG_DWORDValue data: 1

6. Exit Registry Editor

7.  From a command window perform an IISReset

Let walk through some tests:

1. Create a new user called PwdTest

a. Open EMC

b.  Expand Recipient Configuration and select Mailbox

c. From the actions pane select New Mailbox

d. On the new Mailbox wizard select “User Mailbox” and click Next

e. Select New User and click Next

f.  Input PwdTest for the userId information and validate the check box “User must change password at next logon”

g. On the Mailbox Settings page leave the default and click Next

h. On the Archive Settings check the radius button “don’t create an archive” and click Next

i. On the New Mailbox page click New

j.  Click Finish to complete the mailbox creation

2. Now that we have created our new mailbox and have the account set to force a password change for our user we need to attempt to logon to OWA

a.  Open the OWA logon Page and attempt to logon with our new user PwdTest

b.  Notice we receive a generic password error message

3.  As we see the logon fails until we modify the Registry of our CAS server

a. Start the Registry editor : Start – Run –RegEdit
b. Expand to  HLKM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchange OWA

c. Create the following DWORD Value: ChangeExpiredPasswordEnabled

d.  Set the value to 1

e. Exit Registry Editor

f.  From a command window perform an IISReset

4.  Now that we have created the appropriate Registry key we can attempt to logon to OWA again

a.  Open the OWA logon page and attempt to logon with the PwdTest user

b. We are now presented a change password form

c. After completing the form you will receive and successful change message

d. You are now presented the OWA logon form again. Attempt to logon with the newly created password

e. you now have a successful OWA logon

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

Get-MailboxDatabase -Status | fl name,databasesizes

Name         : DB001

DatabaseSize : 141.8 GB (152,220,270,592 bytes)

 Name         : DB002

DatabaseSize : 98.17 GB (105,412,362,240 bytes)

One of the biggest advantages to RU1 is allowing functionality with RIMs BES servers, however RIM is suppose to release an MR1 soon for Exchange 2010 intergration that will be required on the BES servers

Changes http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=976573

RIM information to configure Exchange 2010 and BES

http://na.blackberry.com/eng/services/server/exchange/2010support.jsp

Today Oct. 8th the best versions of Microsoft Exchange has been offically released!

http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2009/10/08/452775.aspx

Exchange 2010 is Code Complete and on its way to General Availability

We are happy to announce that Exchange 2010 is Code Complete!  Our senior leadership team has signed off on the final code, and it has been sent to our early adopters for one final look before its public release. This Release to Manufacturing (RTM) milestone means we are on our way to general availability and the launch at Tech·Ed Europe 2009 (http://www.microsoft.com/europe/teched/) in early November.

For those of you attending Tech·Ed in Berlin this year, be sure to check out the Unified Communications track, which is packed with technical content on Exchange 2010. And be sure to visit us at the Exchange product booth in the Exhibition Hall and let us know what you think of the product. Crystal Flores, who interviewed some of you on video at Tech·Ed North America earlier this year, will be on-hand in Berlin in a few weeks, armed with a camera and interview questions.  A group of us are also marching to Las Vegas for Exchange Connections the same week where our fearless leader Rajesh is giving the keynote.

We hope to see you in Berlin or Vegas, but if you can’t join us in person, tune in via the Web (www.thenewefficiency.com) to be part of the launch.

- The Exchange Team

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