- 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!
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Outlook 2010 Contact Card hover over pop-ups... How to disable?
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Change your Windows 7 default logon background...
- 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!
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Enable Remote Desktop... Remotely!
- 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!
Is there anybody out there?
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Picked up some new letters the other day: MCITP
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...
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....
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Has it really been this long?! Renewing Exchange Certificates...
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.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Handy Dandy Exchange 2007 Cmdlet Guide
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!
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Exchange 2007 Monitoring with MOM 2005... Case of the missing cmdlet!
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.....
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Excited about Exchange 2007 SP1?
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....
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
"Notes" from the field... Send Connectors
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....
Friday, July 27, 2007
Where to begin? Again.... Hub Transport Install
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.....
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
My Exchange 2007 hardware choices....
- 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...
- 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!
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
TechEd 2007 - Here I come!!
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!
Thursday, March 8, 2007
Let the migration begin!
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.
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
Fun with 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...
Friday, March 2, 2007
More Exchange 2007 Documentation
Of particular interest was an available download for a standalone version of Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Help. The download is available here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=555F5974-9258-475A-B150-0399B133FEDE&mg_id=10110&displaylang=en
A handy resource for quick reference!
OT - My adventures in PSP
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)
Thursday, March 1, 2007
Exchange 2007 Documentation
- 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)
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!