Lee's Adventures in Exchange

Outlook 2010 Contact Card hover over pop-ups... How to disable?

2010-10-27T11:16:00.000-07:00

I don't know about you, but I don't always find the newest features in software to be that helpful, or really even necessary.

One example is the new Outlook 2010 contact card feature, especially the pop-ups when you hover over a name. I'm sure someone out there finds it handy, but to me it was mostly annoying. Yeah, I occasionally used it, but I could just as easily right-click the person and go to see their properties that way too. However, most times, I would manage to just ever so briefly do a hover over a name and then the pop-up appears and wouldn't always go away nicely. That is what I found annoying, not that it would pop up, but that it often required a click to go away.

I finally decided I wanted to turn it off. So I start going through Outlook settings to find where to disable the feature. But I don't find the option to do so. A quick search on Bing (or Google, take your pick) does, however, turn up some complaints from others that this "feature" is not only annoying, it is crashing Outlook. Yet nobody had any good answers to what was going on or how to disable the pop-ups...

Delving into it a bit deeper revealed a TechNet article discussing how to enable or customize Office 2010 features using the Office Customization Tool (OCT) and Group Policy. This did confirm it was possible to disable the hover over pop-ups. Following some links in there lead to the download page for the Office 2010 Administrative Template files and Office Customization Tool. There you will find an .XLS file with all the available settings along with the corresponding registry entries for those settings...

Ok, I know you're only reading this if you really want to disable the pop-us, so here's how:

While logged in as the user you want to disable this feature for, go to the registry.
You will need to go to the following key (NOTE: you may have to create some keys in this path): HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Common\ContactCard
In there, create a new DWORD Value of: TurnOffHoverFunctionality
Set the value to: 1
Restart Outlook and the pop-ups will no longer appear when you hover over a name!

Now, to me, it would seem that something as invasive as pop-ups should be configurable through the normal menus. I don't know why MSFT didn't expose that in the options. But, if you want it turned off you now have the means to do so...

Change your Windows 7 default logon background...

2009-12-17T13:32:00.000-08:00

In Windows 7 it is possible to change your default logon UI background image. This can be done by following these simple steps:

On your computer, open regedit. (proceed at your own risk...)
Find the following key: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\Background
In there look for a value named: OEMBackground and set the value to 1. (It may or may not be there, if it isn't just create a new DWORD value with that name and set a value of 1.) Close regedit.
Browse to the following path in your Windows directory: %windir%\system32\oobe\info\backgrounds (note: you may need to create the 'info' and 'backgrounds' directories)
Drop in your desired image file and name it: backgroundDefault.jpg (NOTE: the file size must be less than 256Kb for it to be used)
Now hit CTRL-ALT-DEL or WIN-L and you should see your new background!

Enjoy!

Enable Remote Desktop... Remotely!

2009-12-16T12:30:00.000-08:00

Have you ever installed a new server, either locally in a server room or perhaps even in a datacenter far far away, and only later realized you forgot to enable Remote Desktop?? I hate it when that happens... So how can you enable Remote Desktop connections without having to get out of your chair and go to the console?

Use this simple registry modification to make it happen:

Disclaimer: Don't mess up your registry, or you will hose your server!!! This is a blog, not a support service, so if you follow my advice here you do so at your own risk!!! That being said....

Make a remote network registry connection to the server you need to enable it on.
Once connected, browse the remote machine's registry and find the following key: HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server
In there, find the following value: fDenyTSConnections.
Double click it to edit the value, and change the setting from 1 to 0.
Disconnect from the remote registry and close regedit.
You should now be able to successfully connect to the server in a Remote Desktop connection!

And with that simple change you can save the long walk into the server room, or the embarrassment of having to call someone at the remote location - again...

Is there anybody out there?

2009-12-16T08:53:00.000-08:00

Hey you... I know what you must be thinking about my blog: "Nobody home... This blog has died and now is just waiting for the worms..." Right??? I must admit, I had become comfortably numb regarding it - as evidenced by my making only a single post for the year. And perhaps even now you're wondering if I'm really back - in the flesh?? Yes, I am... I know my repeated neglect must put me on the thin ice, but all I can ask of you is: Don't leave me now... Please don't think of my absence as just empty spaces, but as another brick in the wall... But now, I truly realize that the show must go on! I will do better, even if takes shameless "re-blogging" just to get something out there. I guess to sum it up, the best way to express what I'm trying to say is: Wish you were here....

Okay, for those of you who aren't die-hard Pink Floyd fans, I do want to acknowledge that the previous paragraph might seem a bit odd, as I was trying to use as many song titles from their "The Wall" album in that paragraph (as well as the post title) as I possibly could... NOT that there is anything weird about "The Wall" itself... ;-) But there at the end I broke from it and used the album title (and song too for that matter...) from "Wish You Were Here"... Yeah, I know - it was a real stretch....

In all seriousness, however, I am fully aware this is not the first time I've said I'd do a better job of keeping up with the blog. So no more empty promises on that front - just action! So stay tuned! Good stuff coming up. (I hope...)

Picked up some new letters the other day: MCITP

2009-01-06T14:01:00.000-08:00

On December 30, 2008, I finished up on my testing for MCITP: Enterprise Messaging Administrator for Exchange 2007. As with most things, I put it off much longer than I should have, and I'm glad to be done with it. But for anyone contemplating going through it, here's my take on it:

Exam 70-236 for MCTS on Configuring Exchange 2007 - This was by far the hardest exam of the three required for MCITP. Of course passing just this one gives you MCTS, so that's something. But hopefully without giving away too much to violate any NDA's, I'll say that when you sit this one, you need to know where you do things in Exchange, what permissions you need to do it, and know your Powershell cmdlets in the Exchange Management Shell.

Exam 70-237 for MCITP on Designing Exchange 2007 - To me this seemed to be the easiest of the exams. If you have working knowledge of what it takes to setup Exchange 2007 and what the roles do and why you need them, then this one shouldn't be too difficult.

Exam 70-238 for MCITP on Deploying Exchange 2007 - I thought this one was a bit tougher than 237, however I scored the highest on this one. It really expanded on what was included in 237. It seemed to require you to think through the questions a bit more.

Of course, with Microsoft exams, not every question will always make perfect sense. That is just the way it is. Overall though, I didn't think these exams were half bad. Just wish I hadn't put it off for so long...

As far as study materials go, I used the following study guides:

MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-236): Configuring Microsoft Exchange Server 2007
Orin Thomas, Ian McLean, Microsoft Press, Hardcover, Bk&CD edition, Published November 2007, 896 pages, ISBN 0735624100

MCITP: Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Messaging Design and Deployment Study Guide (70-237 and 70-238) Rawlinson Rivera, Sybex, Published 2008, Bk&CD edition, ISBN 047018146X

For the most part, I would recommend either of these books. Both had a lot of useful information, and were good as review material. There were some minor errors here and there, but nothing to really throw you off for the exams.

Now on to Microsoft Certified Master. If only....

Time for my yearly post! Blogging again...

2009-01-06T13:43:00.000-08:00

No, I'm not even going to talk about how long it's been since I posted something - anything for that matter. I know, I'm a horrible blogger... I would say I'd make a resolution to do better, but I've already got my New Year's resolution: 1920x1200. Get it? Resolution, as in display settings??

I saw that somewhere, the exact location now forgotten, and had to use it. Sorry. I'll try not to make lame jokes like that again. But maybe you can understand why I'm in IT based on my prowess as a joke teller. I don't expect to be able to quit my day job any time soon...

Ok, onto a real post....

Has it really been this long?! Renewing Exchange Certificates...

2008-04-24T08:47:00.000-07:00

On a couple of fronts there has been some passing of time... First, I admit that, yet again, I've sorely neglected my blog... I'll truly try to start doing better! :-)

It's also been around a year since I installed Exchange 2007. As such, I started to get MOM notifications about the certificate on my Hub Transport server expiring. So, I dig around and find a couple of blogs from others that cover the subject to start reading up on it. Then I head to the Exchange Help to see what it has to say. Ultimately, I come up with the following:

In this instance, my certificate renewal deals only with the certificate for SMTP services on the HT server. This is the original automatically generated certificate from the install. (Side note: My CAS server has a cert I installed from our internal CA, and it's good for another year.) So, from my reading I determine that I need to renew, or more specifically, replace, by running the following cmdlet in the shell:

New-ExchangeCertificate

This prompts me to confirm that I want to overwrite the existing default SMTP certificate, which I do. And that pretty much does it...

Except... I now start to notice my outbound edgesync queue starting to grow. Once that initial "Oh crap!!" feeling passes I start to investigate why this is occuring. That leads me to my Edge server which is reporting that it doesn't have any information about the certificate now in use on the HT server. So, I decide to go back to the HT server and run a quick Start-EdgeSynchronization. So the sync runs (successfully!) and the configuration information is updated on the Edge server. As soon as that takes effect, my queue clears right up!!

Job done.

Handy Dandy Exchange 2007 Cmdlet Guide

2007-09-18T15:10:00.000-07:00

Want a quick reference for the most common Exchange 2007 Powershell cmdlets? Check out this download available from Microsoft that fits the bill: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=01a441b9-4099-4c0f-b8e0-0831d4a2ca86&displaylang=en&tm

Want more Exchange management shell goodness to read about? Then check out the whitepaper here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/c0743a9c-8434-437f-8911-6e38f7ccdac3.aspx

Enjoy!

Exchange 2007 Monitoring with MOM 2005... Case of the missing cmdlet!

2007-08-08T10:46:00.000-07:00

Being that I work with "THE" John Hann (MOM MVP), there never was any question as to which management product I would use to watch over my Exchange servers. And, so, we finally installed the MOM agents on them and watched the events roll in....

For a nice read and a detailed description of how to get MOM 2005 working with Exchange 2007 and what MOM will do for you, check out Anderson Patricio's article series at MSExchange.org:
Monitoring Exchange Server 2007 using MOM 2005 - Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3

Well, in the events, we come to find that the MOM scripts are failing in trying to test connectivity to OWA, ActiveSync, and the like. So as directed I run a PowerShell script called New-TestCasConnectivityUser.ps1 from the Exchange 2007 scripts directory. This creates a system test mailbox for just this purpose. However, the messages continue to come in and now direct you to run a cmdlet called Set-CasConnectivityCredentials in order "to store this user's credentials for use in testing the Client Access services." Sounds easy enough, except this cmdlet seems not to exist, anywhere......

After basic troubleshooting on the issue (like making sure I spelled it correctly), I start digging in to figure exactly what is going on and why it's calling for a missing cmdlet. I decide to run a couple of the test- cmdlets manually that MOM is having a problem with. Upon doing so, it basically tells me that it has authentication issues with the user I created via the script. I end up checking the account in Active Directory and find it locked out. I unlock it and yet the test cmdlets still fail. And now when all else fails, I do what the error in the cmdlet output tells me to do, which in this case is to run the script again to verify the user exists.... Which of course makes no sense because it created it successfully and I can see it in AD, but I do what it says anyway. So when I re-run it, it does a reset on the credentials of the test account created previously. And wouldn't you know that fixes the problem!! Now the test- cmdlets will run when done manually and after clearing the events in MOM, they don't come back!

The point here isn't that the solution was that difficult to find or figure out, but rather it is difficult to understand what direction you're supposed to go in when you're being told by the product itself, in this case MOM, what to do but are completely unable to do so because it doesn't exist. Lesson learned is: Sometimes you just have to think outside of the box, the MOM alert box that is.....

Excited about Exchange 2007 SP1?

2007-08-02T10:58:00.000-07:00

I know I am, and you should be too. Why? Because it really adds to the feature set and functionality of the RTM version. Like what? Well, the OWA improvements are going to be fantastic. And then there is the new cluster model for Standby Cluster Replication, or SCR, which will be a great feature for disaster recovery scenarios.

For more info on some of the features, check this writeup at the Exchange Team blog:
Talking Exchange 2007 SP1....

But one feature that I think is really going to help on the install of Exchange 2007 are the changes in the AD requirements for the setup and domain prep processes. Basically, the setup process would fail if it couldn't reach a domain in the forest, or if it ended up trying to talk to any Win2k DC/GC in a domain even when there was an available Win2K3 SP1 DC/GC available. This was even in domains where you weren't even trying to prepare them!?! With E2007 SP1, however, it will simply ignore these "problems." These scenarios and the SP1 improvements are described in detail here: A Setup Prerequisite Change in Exchange 2007 SP1

Boy do I wish the RTM version had worked like that!!! This was something that caused some major headaches in trying to get E2007 installed in my AD environment. Now, as it just so happened, we were already in the works on doing an AD infrastructure upgrade anyway. We were able to expedite that process and were finally able to get our AD prepped and Exchange installed. Of course in the middle of all that, when we did the schema updates it broke replication between the remaining Win2k servers and the 2003. It's a known issue and is addressed with a hofix as described here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/824873/en-us. I throw this out there so you can be aware of this as a potential side effect you could encounter.... For us the install worked out OK in the end. But there are going to be many environments where for either technical or monetary reasons the AD environment cannot be adjusted so quickly.

This really begs the question then as to whether someone considering Exchange 2007, either as a new install or a migration from 2003, should do it now or wait for at least SP1???? I can't answer that, it's totally dependent on your environment and circumstances. All I can say on the matter is that even though my install of Exchange 2007 brought many challenges, I am very glad we moved forward on it as early as we did. I'd do it all over again if given the chance! But that doesn't make me any less excited about SP1....

"Notes" from the field... Send Connectors

2007-07-31T07:17:00.000-07:00

Lotus Notes, that is.... You see, I recently headed up a project to assist a subsidiary company of ours who had requested help with a migration from Lotus Domino/Notes to Exchange/Outlook. This was very interesting for me, especially as I'd never really used Notes or worked on a Domino server. But it felt very good to assist these folks in getting off of that platform and migragting them over to Exchange 2007.

To do the actual mail migration we ended up using a combination of the Microsoft Transporter and then BinaryTree's CMT Universal product. Both products work, and work very well. The only reason we had to go beyond MS' product was because some of the users had items with problems that Transporter just couldn't get past and would fail on. CMT would hit the items and just skip them and move on. For our case this was ok, as most of the problems were with very old calendar appointments anyway. If anyone would like more information about these products please leave a comment and I'll get back to you.

What I really wanted to talk about in this post wasn't so much the actual Notes migration itself, but a rather interesting side item regarding message size restrictions on Send Connectors..... To get to that I need to let you know that as part of the overall project, we also had to setup a new network fax solution as well. To this end, I chose to go with GFI Faxmaker. This was essentially another first for me as I've not dealt with a fax server product since about 1997 which was RightFax and it was running on NT 3.51.... So in setting up GFI Faxmaker (which I must say seems like a pretty good product, thus its' many customer choice awards) to work with Exchange 2007, I had to create two send connectors for Exchange to route faxes to the fax server. And don't get me wrong, that all worked like a champ.

The issue came when everyone was back to work and started trying to send emails (normal SMTP emails, NOT faxes) with attachments. Anything over 10MB wouldn't send. So of course I start looking at message size limits. I check the mailbox settings for the user in question and there are no limits imposed. I then check the default Internet SMTP connector in the Exchange Management Shell and notice that of course the 10MB default setting for MaxMessageSize is what it's showing. So I bump that up to 150MB and try sending again. Still doesn't work. From there I start bumping any maximum sizes for messages or attachments in receive connectors and at the organization level. Nothing works. I'm stumped. So, as I do when I find myself in that situation, I call in to MS Support. I finally get connected to the support engineer who starts going through all of the settings that I previously mentioned with me, to which he says "It should be working, but hold on and let me check on this." When he gets back on the line he recommends that we now also go and change the MaxMessageSize on the send connectors that I had setup to work with GFI Faxmaker. And don't you know that as soon as I upped those settings as well, the attachments started flowing.

I was aware that whole time that the fax connectors had the 10MB setting, but I just didn't see how they could be affecting trying to send out to the Internet, or even to another local Exchange user for that matter. I now understand this is the default behavior and know how to work around it. And knowing is half the battle....

Hope this helps someone else oneday. And if not, then I at least hope it kept your interest....

Where to begin? Again.... Hub Transport Install

2007-07-27T07:48:00.000-07:00

If anyone was actually following this blog, I am sorry for ignoring it as I have. It's odd that when I've done and seen so much that would have made great posting material, I've let it slip right through and done nothing with it....

So what nugget of Exchangey goodness can I now share to get back on track with things???

Well, I thought it might be good to post on the comment I received off the last post. Actually, the comment was really off a comment/question I left on the Exchange Team Blog. It had to do with problems I encountered installing the Hub Transport server role into my environment.

While I had successfully installed the HT role in lab settings, when it came time to bring up the real thing, on the first run of Setup it would fail with an error of "Access Denied" in trying to read a path that was supposed to be within the install bits. This would happen whether using the downloaded code or the actual product DVD.

I eventually called Microsoft PSS and worked through the issue, or should I say around the issue. Basically the solution was to run the initial install and let it fail. Then run the install again and it would finish. Sounds great, but the install then never created the routing group connectors between the 2003 and 2007 systems, you had to do that manually. My problem with this solution was that if the install wasn't doing that part like it was supposed to, then what else was it not doing??

I got no good answer from MS on why this problem was occuring, just some random "could be problems reading from the media blah blah etc..." which did not answer the question of why the install is looking for a path on the media that doesn't exist. It also didn't explain why I never saw the issue in a lab using the exact same DVD. My theory is that there was something in the install code that because of the AD and network setup in my production environment was being called, or was trying to be called, that wasn't needed in the lab in a single subnet and domain environment. I do know I was not the only person to have this issue, and for that reason I'm posting about this issue.

I'm not saying the solution is a good one, but it does appear to work. And so I hope this helps someone avoid the headache with this issue that I endured.....

My Exchange 2007 hardware choices....

2007-04-24T12:21:00.000-07:00

What a great time I had with this phase of my Exchange 2007 project. I studied, and studied, and studied the guidance from the online TechNet Exchange documentation as well as from the Exchange team blog. Here's a couple of the particularly helpful articles...

Exchange 2007 Processor and Memory Recommendations

Configuring, Validating and Monitoring Your Exchange 2007 Storage

Understanding Exchange Server 2007 I/O Improvements from 64-bit

Exchange Server 2007 High Availability Storage Considerations

I finally came up with the following as my hardware solution for this installation:

Mailbox server - I will be setting up a CCR Mailbox using locally attached SAS storage. I went with 2 HP DL585 (quad processor AMD Opteron 8220SE 2.8GHz; 32GB RAM) with 3 MSA 70 SAS storage enclosures per server with 25 2.5" SAS drives per enclosure. Two of the enclosures on each server are filled with 146GB 10K drives which will be the database LUNs, and the other is filled with 72GB 15K drives which will be the Log LUNs.

Hub Transport server - For this role I chose the HP ML370R (dual processor Intel 5150; 16GB RAM) with 16 internal 2.5" SAS drives.

Edge Transport server - For this role I chose the HP DL380 (dual processor Intel 5160; 8GB RAM) with 8 internal 2.5" SAS drives.

Client Access server - And for this one I chose the HP DL360 (dual processor Intel 5160; 10GB RAM) with 4 internal 2.5" SAS drives.

For all of my servers I will be using RAID 10 (1+0) in some form or fashion. This seems to be Microsoft's new general recommendation for storage where possible. It is a costly RAID setup, as you lose half the drives to redundancy, but the performance benefits should be worth it - especially considering it is for Exchange 2007, and that deserves nothing but the best!

This was a massive amount of hardware, not just monetarily, but physically as well. However, it all condensed down very nicely into a single rack. And so, without further delay, may I present my Exchange 2007 system hardware....

I've been a bad blogger...

2007-04-24T12:08:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's true, I've neglected my blog. But it is only for what I feel are good reasons. Here's why:

In my last post I promised to discuss hardware. Well, I finally finished speccing out the hardware. I've also ordered, received, and assembled all said hardware.
To be as well prepared for this installation and migration as possible, I've worked on (and re-worked on) a lab environment to get some hands on with the product and process before going live.
I'm lazy. Ok, maybe that's not a good reason as much as an excuse....

I'm sure nobody out there was holding their breath for the latest updates in my continuing saga with Exchange 2007, but now that I've got this post under my belt I think I can get back in the swing of things.

And after all that went into reasons one and two listed above, there is plenty to post about!

TechEd 2007 - Here I come!!

2007-03-14T07:33:00.000-07:00

I booked a spot into TechEd this morning.

I'm especially looking forward to it this year, for a couple of reasons. First, there should be some really good content with the recent release of products such as Exchange 2007 and Vista, as well as "Longhorn" and the new System Center suite of products being on the horizon. Second, it is back in Orlando!

If you've never been to TechEd or haven't seen the details for this year's event, check it out here: http://www.microsoft.com/events/teched2007/default.mspx

I hope to see you there!

Let the migration begin!

2007-03-08T13:00:00.000-08:00

I finished DST updating - it's done, or I'm done.... Either way it's behind me now. This is important, not only because I'm out of the nightmare which DST was (mostly anyway), but it means I'm free to move on to bigger and better.... Thus, in the words of wise old Rafiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafiki) I am happy to announce: It is time!

Yes, my long awaited time to begin migrating to Exchange 2007 has arrived! This really gets back to one of my main reasons for starting this blog anyway: tracking and posting about my plans, progress, trials, and accomplishments in migrating to Exchange.

Since first seeing Exchange 2007 in action at TechEd 06 I've been looking forward to putting it into production. Now the expectation becomes reality.

My first step from here will be getting the hardware to run it. Next week I'll give some info on what I'm looking at for servers and how/why I've specced them out.

Fun with DST

2007-03-06T11:24:00.000-08:00

Yes, I'm still working on DST updates. If you haven't seen it yet, it's probably too late now, but here's the link to Microsoft's "Daylight Savings Time Help and Support Center" from which you can take the appropriate path: http://support.microsoft.com/gp/cp_dst

So far, I've addressed the:

OS updates for Windows 2003 - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/931836/en-us
Exchange 2003 SP2 updates - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/926666/en-us
Applied the same CDO update as above for Exchange to the BlackBerry Enterprise Server and sent out the updates for the Blackberry devices that needed it - http://www.blackberry.com/select/dst2007/

Now all I've got left to tackle, before week's end of course, is:

Updating appointments in the mailstores using Exchange Calendar Update Tool - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/930879/en-us
Updating Windows Mobile devices - http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/daylightsaving/default.mspx

This whole process is truly a headache. And while I've heard some complaints against Microsoft (and other vendors) for making this process so complicated, I don't really blame them nor think that it's their fault. I just don't think enough thought was given in regards to the impact that the changes in DST would have for so many things and the work that would be involved to make corrections and/or adjustment for it before it became a law. Just my take on the matter...

OT - My adventures in PSP

2007-03-02T09:23:00.000-08:00

Ok, so after a whole 2 days of hardcore blogging, I thought it would be a good time to go into something off topic from the main technical arenas this blog was started to discuss.

And so I've chosen to talk about gaming. I'm not a huge or extreme gamer by any means. But I do enjoy the diversion every once in a while. I've got an XBOX console at home, which I do play some, but my wife likes it to stay put away so usually I'm not in the mood (too lazy) to go through the trouble of taking it out and hooking it up and then putting it away. I don't really do any PC gaming (other than an occasional round of Pinball or Minesweeper), that died out for me after we had to take our Half-Life server down, yes the one at the office of course. I did find that I was inclined to take out my PocketPC and get in a quick game here and there, which led me to think of going down the mobile gaming path. Now, my daughter has a Nintendo DS and is quite happy with it, but I wanted something a little more. That really only left the Sony PSP. So after much contemplation (or what my good friend "The" John Hann calls obsession) I finally caved and got one last year.....

I bought the Entertainment Package which included a 1GB memory stick, the ATV Offroad Fury game, and the UMD Lords of Dogtown movie. If I had to do it over again, I must say I'd go with just the base package and buy a memory stick. I ended up buying a 2GB stick to go with it as well, which was a great deal from Best Buy during the one of their one day sales during the holidays for $39. I should have bought two at that price!!

As far as games go, I've got:

ATV Offroad Fury (Ok game, if you like racers)
Lumines (cool game, I could probably do better at it if I hadn't played so much Tetris)
Gradius Collection (love it, but it still kicks my butt)
Ghosts N Goblins (great game, still working on it)
X-Men Legends II (pretty decent I guess, took a bit to get used to and now feels a bit repetitive like you're just doing the same thing over just on different levels)

My opinion of the PSP overall?? I like it. I enjoy the games and I like being able to transfer movies from DVD to the memory stick and watch them. It's not something I'm addicted to as I probably only play games a few hours a month. But what is really nice about it is that when I'm ready to play, so is my PSP. Enough said.

Exchange 2007 Documentation

2007-03-01T06:37:00.000-08:00

I know a couple of books have been put out on Exchange 2007 already, such as:

Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Unleashed by Rand Morimoto, Michael Noel, Andrew Abbate, and Chris Amaris (Paperback - Jan 23, 2007)
Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Administrator's Pocket Consultant (Pro Administrator's Pocket Consultant) by William R. Stanek (Paperback - Jan 31, 2007)

I intend to get my copy of these books soon. However, in the meantime the premier source of documentation and reading material comes from Microsoft directly on the TechNet website:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa996058.aspx

This, of course, includes documentation on Exchange 2003 as well.

Personally, I have used the TechNet documentation extensively in preparing and planning for a migration to 2007. I feel that it's a great place to start if you're looking to just dig in and do some solid reading on the product. Check it out and I think you'll agree!

Welcome to my blog!

2007-02-28T09:20:00.000-08:00

Thanks for stopping by! I know there are a lot of sites out there you could be at, but you've chosen (or at least mercifully agreed to my nagging and repeated requests) to visit my site.

Through my posts I intend to share my thoughts and experiences with you on numerous things, including but not limited to:

Exchange 2003 and 2007
Outlook 2003 and 2007
Microsoft OSes and products
Microsoft Certification
Other general IT interest items
And of course the occasional OT special interest items.... ;-)

If any of this is of interest to you, I encourage you to visit the site again soon. And please share any comments or questions or requests you may have.