Cached Exchange Mode Terminal Services Error

[Dennis Procopio]

Outlook will not load properly with Cached Exchange Mode enabled when we
apply an Outlook Group Policy to our OU of new Exchange users :

- If we remove cached exchange mode but retain the policy Outlook will load
properly.

- If we remove the policy and enable Cached Exchange Mode Outlook will load
properly

The policy:

-Dictates that users cannot setup pop/http accounts, etc, but Exchange
account setup is configured.

-Sets the archive path to a predetermined destination

We're not seeing anything in this policy that should cause a problem, but
when we remove it cached exchange mode works. When attempting to configure
the user we receive an error indicating that the user will need to log on to
the box with mstsc.exe /console, but these are XP workstations and not
Terminal Services sessions.

Any ideas?

Thanks!
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Cached Exchange mode shouldn't be used on TS environments.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Dennis Procopio]

Thank you for your reply. The only thing Terminal Server about the
environment is that the exchange servers have it turned on for
administration, but the Outlook client is installed local to the machine....
any other ideas/

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Sorry, you made that clear in your earlier message, but I missed that part.

I don't know why those policy settings would cause the behavior you're seeing and haven't heard of any other reports of that problem. If you really need those policy settings + Cached Exchange mode, it might be worth filing an incident with Microsoft.

In the meantime, it might be interesting to see if the same settings applied as user preferences rather than policy settings cause the same problem. I expect they will, but the only way to confirm that is to try it. You might also test to see whether just one of those policy settings is the culprit.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Dennis Procopio]

Thank you,

I am investigating further. It may be due to the package being installed
from an administrative point via group policy with a transform applied. The
"Microsoft Default Settings" applied in the transform may have conflicted
with our group policy. When I make the same settings in the transform file
as I do in group policy it still triggers the error. Someone (the only
person I could find) had this in the Exchange newsgroup but it doesn't look
like they resolved it. I'll let you know if I find an answer.

 

[alexlu]

I got the same error message too when I enable cached exchange mode. I
did the exact same thing. I performed the install from the
administrative installation point, and certain policy is applied to all
workstations. It gave me the same error message saying, "Unable to
open your default email folders. This error can occur if you attempt
to run Outlook from a Terminal Server session when the OST file is in
use by the console session. To access this instance of Outlook, exit
the current Terminal Server session and start a new session by using
the following Run command (click Start, then click Run):
mstsc.exe /CONSOLE"

I'll check on microsoft knowledge base to see what i can find.

 

[Dennis Procopio]

We've actually made some headway on this....we kept cached exchange mode on,
but removed the policy that changes the default location of .pst files. We
no longer receive the error. For the time being we are manually changing
their archive path. That policy, if you have it applied, modifies the
ForcePSTPath registry entry. ForcePSTPath does not change the default
archive path anyway, and the confilict may have something to do with .OST
files (cached exchange mode..) We are also using folder redirection which
may add to the problem. We are seeking an alternative to archive management.
Remove the .pst default policy and things should get better. Real kicker of
an error, isn't it

 

[alexlu]

Dennis, can I have your contact information so I can work with you on
this issue. I haven't tried your suggestion yet, but I'm going to
change some of the settings in the installation point to see if that
makes a difference or not.

(e-mail address removed)