Outlook 2007 SP2 & Desktop Alerts

As I reported in a previous issue, after installing Office 2007 SP2 some users are having problems with desktop alerts not working.

Some users discovered that disabling the "Outlook Change Notifier" add-in appears to have solved the Desktop Alerts issue. This add-in is from Apple and used with their mobile device service. If you need the add-in for syncing, you'll need to wait for an update to the add-in.

If you don't have this add-in installed, our usual troubleshooting advice stands: start Outlook using the /safe switch. If the problem goes away, enable and disable add-ins until you identify the culprit. While the /safe switch does more than just disable add-ins, few users are affected so it’s more likely an add-in causing it. In fact, in a case like this, I would probably skip safe mode and disable all non-Microsoft add-ins and see if the problem goes away. Re-enable the add-ins one at a time based their importance to you and see if the problem returns.

Exchange Quick Tip: Open Other Users Calendar with OWA

OWA doesn't provide a way to open other user's folders directly from the interface, as you can from Outlook’s File, Open, Other users folder menu, but this doesn't mean it’s not possible. You can use the following URL format to open folders you have permissions on.

https://owa.your_domain.com/owa/otheruser@domain.com/?cmd=contents&module=folder_name

This opens the folder without the navigation pane and can be used to open any folder you have permission to open, provided you know the username and folder. When you have permission to the entire mailbox, you can use just the OWA URL and mailbox address:

https://owa.your_domain.com/owa/otheruser@domain.com/

This opens the other user's mailbox with the navigation pane. Using this URL requires permission to access the entire mailbox; if you don't have the correct permissions this URL will fail with a permissions error.

If you use OWA 2007, there is a dialog box you can use to open other users folders. Click on your name on the upper right side of the screen to access it.

Spell check doesn't work?

We're seeing complaints that spell check doesn't seem to be functional in Outlook 2007. The users are reporting that after running spell check, either manually or automatically, a dialog reports that spell check is complete, but the spelling errors are not corrected.

Assuming the spell check options are set correctly, this is caused by one two possible issues. The first is that you are typing in the signature field. You can confirm this by right clicking on the misspellings - if you see the signature selector, you're typing in it. The fix is to add 2 dashes (--) as the first line of every signature so you can see where the signature begins and type above it.

The second cause is an errant registry key. Delete or rename
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Shared Tools\ProofingTools\1.0\Override\en-US.
I don't know why this key gets created, but deleting it should fix the problem.

Follow-up: Tentative Appointments and Saving Sent Items

In last week's issue we had a question from users who don't want Outlook automatically adding tentative appointments to the Calendar. I said you can't prevent this.

Martijn said "I think you can"

Assuming you use Exchange Server 2007, Martijin is correct and the following cmdlet will prevent tentative appointments from being added to the calendar.

set-mailboxcalendarsettings <mailbox> -AddNewRequestsTentatively:$False

End users who don't use Exchange 2007 (or if administrator won't run the cmdlet) are stuck with what they can control from Outlook and this is not an option you can disable in Outlook.

In "Exchange: Saving Sent items to a Shared folder" the question was how to save sent items to a shared folder. Martijn mentioned that its possible with the UniSent COM Add-in for Microsoft Outlook (http://www.ivasoft.biz/unisent.shtml) This will work, as will rules if the message contains keywords (after sending rules don’t have a From address condition). Unfortunately the person wanted a solution that didn't involve a utility or keywords.

Can't start Outlook?

We're seeing a number of people reporting they are receiving the dialog "Cannot Start Microsoft Office Outlook. Cannot open the Outlook Window" when they try to start Outlook.

This may be caused by a corrupt navigation pane and starting Outlook with the /resetnavpane switch should fix it.

To do this, close Outlook. Press Windows Key+ R to open the Run command and type:
Outlook.exe /resetnavpane

For troubleshooting tips, see
Outlook 2007: Troubleshooting Outlook Crashes
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=2000071