Outlook 2007 - Trying to have profile settings created/maintained

[John Fedor]

Working with a client that is deploying Exchange 2007 and Office 2007. They
currently have GroupWise 6.5 in place. The way their clients are setup is
that when they launch GroupWise, they log in and their settings are in place
(no roaming profiles, GroupWise just tracks settings). The extra wrinkle is
that they have an IMAP connection defined in this (and yes....GroupWise
stores this information in NDS so when they hop onto a different machine or
login as 1 person on a workstation and open GW as someone else, all their
settings come down).

So, naturally they want that in the new environment.

I could see doing just the outlook portion using the new features with
outlook 2007 & exchange, not quite as automatic as one would hope though.
However, it doesn't touch the IMAP requirements at all.

I was thinking of using the Office "Save My Settings Wizard", however that
apparently was cleverly removed in Office 2007.

I started to look at the USMT 3.0 product which is apparently the
replacement, but at first glance, it didn't look like it provided an easy
selection method for stating "just grab outlook settings" or anything
clever.

Another possibility it appears is the "outlook.exe /importprf" command line
option, but the office I'm running at the moment isn't a volume license
edition, so I can't create the profile to try to do the import. They'll have
volume license media in about a week.

I looked into the Outlook 2007 - ADM files, but didn't see any way of
pushing out the settings from there.

So:

1 - Will the /importprf option be a real solution, or will they still get
prompted for information at first run for passwords or ?

2 - Will the USMT to do trick and how do I limit it to just outlook? I was
thinking I could toss it into the logon/logoff script so that I could have
the option to save their current settings should they change any thing like
sort orders or views.

3 - Or am I stuck with roaming profiles? Client really doesn't like them and
kind of sees it as going backwards since they've had no need for roaming
profiles
for e-mail in over a decade.

Thanks


[Note: I got some feedback from a different MS forum, and the MS support
guy said that roaming profiles may not do the trick as it doesn't contain
outlook profiles -> I'm guessing the guy is mistaken as historically that WAS
the solution...unless something happened in Outlook 2007 that prevents that
from working].

Additional note: Came across this as an option as well,
http://www.slipstick.com/exs/olroam.asp, which lists some 3rd party tools.
Hoping to avoid that [especially if there are costs involved], would almost
prefer a simple backup solution [what registry & directory to copy if no MS
tool/method provided...then roaming profile as worse-case].

Thanks.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

I could see doing just the outlook portion using the new features with

outlook 2007 & exchange, not quite as automatic as one would hope though.
However, it doesn't touch the IMAP requirements at all.

Sure it does. Any mail provider can specify exactly what they want Outlook to set up the accounts. All the user needs to give is the address and password. There's a great white paper that explains the details: http://office.microsoft.com/search/redir.aspx?AssetID=AM102105061033.

Another possibility it appears is the "outlook.exe /importprf" command line
option, but the office I'm running at the moment isn't a volume license
edition, so I can't create the profile to try to do the import. They'll have
volume license media in about a week.

I don't think you need a volume license to create a .prf file. You can run OCT without it and just export a .prf. PRF files do not include password information. The user needs to know that.

Outlook + IMAP + roaming users = not pretty, because Outlook must create a local proxy .pst file to hold the data on each machine.
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

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

Working with a client that is deploying Exchange 2007 and Office 2007. They
currently have GroupWise 6.5 in place. The way their clients are setup is
that when they launch GroupWise, they log in and their settings are in place
(no roaming profiles, GroupWise just tracks settings). The extra wrinkle is
that they have an IMAP connection defined in this (and yes....GroupWise
stores this information in NDS so when they hop onto a different machine or
login as 1 person on a workstation and open GW as someone else, all their
settings come down).

So, naturally they want that in the new environment.

I could see doing just the outlook portion using the new features with
outlook 2007 & exchange, not quite as automatic as one would hope though.
However, it doesn't touch the IMAP requirements at all.

I was thinking of using the Office "Save My Settings Wizard", however that
apparently was cleverly removed in Office 2007.

I started to look at the USMT 3.0 product which is apparently the
replacement, but at first glance, it didn't look like it provided an easy
selection method for stating "just grab outlook settings" or anything
clever.

Another possibility it appears is the "outlook.exe /importprf" command line
option, but the office I'm running at the moment isn't a volume license
edition, so I can't create the profile to try to do the import. They'll have
volume license media in about a week.

I looked into the Outlook 2007 - ADM files, but didn't see any way of
pushing out the settings from there.

So:

1 - Will the /importprf option be a real solution, or will they still get
prompted for information at first run for passwords or ?

2 - Will the USMT to do trick and how do I limit it to just outlook? I was
thinking I could toss it into the logon/logoff script so that I could have
the option to save their current settings should they change any thing like
sort orders or views.

3 - Or am I stuck with roaming profiles? Client really doesn't like them and
kind of sees it as going backwards since they've had no need for roaming
profiles
for e-mail in over a decade.

Thanks


[Note: I got some feedback from a different MS forum, and the MS support
guy said that roaming profiles may not do the trick as it doesn't contain
outlook profiles -> I'm guessing the guy is mistaken as historically that WAS
the solution...unless something happened in Outlook 2007 that prevents that
from working].

Additional note: Came across this as an option as well,
http://www.slipstick.com/exs/olroam.asp, which lists some 3rd party tools.
Hoping to avoid that [especially if there are costs involved], would almost
prefer a simple backup solution [what registry & directory to copy if no MS
tool/method provided...then roaming profile as worse-case].

Thanks.

 

[John Fedor]

Thanks for the instant response.
I'll review the white paper you provided and test things out.
Regarding the volume license issue, whenever I try the setup /admin, I get
the message:

Files necessary to run the Office Customization Tool were not found. Run
Setup from the installation point of a qualifying product.

This is off a technet media. Googling around seemed to indicate that I
needed Volume License Media to do that trick. Might be I just need something
more 'real' than a technet copy.

I could see doing just the outlook portion using the new features with
outlook 2007 & exchange, not quite as automatic as one would hope though.
However, it doesn't touch the IMAP requirements at all.

Sure it does. Any mail provider can specify exactly what they want Outlook to set up the accounts. All the user needs to give is the address and password. There's a great white paper that explains the details: http://office.microsoft.com/search/redir.aspx?AssetID=AM102105061033.

Another possibility it appears is the "outlook.exe /importprf" command line
option, but the office I'm running at the moment isn't a volume license
edition, so I can't create the profile to try to do the import. They'll have
volume license media in about a week.

I don't think you need a volume license to create a .prf file. You can run OCT without it and just export a .prf. PRF files do not include password information. The user needs to know that.

Outlook + IMAP + roaming users = not pretty, because Outlook must create a local proxy .pst file to hold the data on each machine.
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

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

Working with a client that is deploying Exchange 2007 and Office 2007. They
currently have GroupWise 6.5 in place. The way their clients are setup is
that when they launch GroupWise, they log in and their settings are in place
(no roaming profiles, GroupWise just tracks settings). The extra wrinkle is
that they have an IMAP connection defined in this (and yes....GroupWise
stores this information in NDS so when they hop onto a different machine or
login as 1 person on a workstation and open GW as someone else, all their
settings come down).

So, naturally they want that in the new environment.

I could see doing just the outlook portion using the new features with
outlook 2007 & exchange, not quite as automatic as one would hope though.
However, it doesn't touch the IMAP requirements at all.

I was thinking of using the Office "Save My Settings Wizard", however that
apparently was cleverly removed in Office 2007.

I started to look at the USMT 3.0 product which is apparently the
replacement, but at first glance, it didn't look like it provided an easy
selection method for stating "just grab outlook settings" or anything
clever.

Another possibility it appears is the "outlook.exe /importprf" command line
option, but the office I'm running at the moment isn't a volume license
edition, so I can't create the profile to try to do the import. They'll have
volume license media in about a week.

I looked into the Outlook 2007 - ADM files, but didn't see any way of
pushing out the settings from there.

So:

1 - Will the /importprf option be a real solution, or will they still get
prompted for information at first run for passwords or ?

2 - Will the USMT to do trick and how do I limit it to just outlook? I was
thinking I could toss it into the logon/logoff script so that I could have
the option to save their current settings should they change any thing like
sort orders or views.

3 - Or am I stuck with roaming profiles? Client really doesn't like them and
kind of sees it as going backwards since they've had no need for roaming
profiles
for e-mail in over a decade.

Thanks


[Note: I got some feedback from a different MS forum, and the MS support
guy said that roaming profiles may not do the trick as it doesn't contain
outlook profiles -> I'm guessing the guy is mistaken as historically that WAS
the solution...unless something happened in Outlook 2007 that prevents that
from working].

Additional note: Came across this as an option as well,
http://www.slipstick.com/exs/olroam.asp, which lists some 3rd party tools.
Hoping to avoid that [especially if there are costs involved], would almost
prefer a simple backup solution [what registry & directory to copy if no MS
tool/method provided...then roaming profile as worse-case].

Thanks.

 

[John Fedor]

OK. Trying just the basic features at the moment (not doing the IMAP yet),
and running into a couple of snags.
One is the ADM template isn't quite right for Outlook 2007. That is fixed
via http://support.microsoft.com/kb/926537 incase anyone runs into the issue
while following alone.

Next, when I try forcing the setting to work automatically (so no prompts),
it has problems finding the server.

Policy looks like this:
Microsoft Office Outlook 2007/Tools | Account Settings/Cached Exchange Mode
Cached Exchange Mode (File | Cached Exchange Mode) - Disabled
Do not use Cached Exchange Mode for all new Outlook profiles - Enabled

Microsoft Office Outlook 2007/Tools | Account Settings/Exchange
Automatically configure profile based on Active Directory Primary SMTP
address - Enabled
Cached Exchange low bandwidth threshold - Disabled

When doing the automatic/silent profile setup, it complains the server name
is invalid. It kicks out to the 'check name' option and the server name is
listed as:

/o=D230/ou=Exchange Administrative Group
(FYDIBOHF23SPDLT)/cn=Configuration/cn=Servers/cn=S-D230EXB1

If I change it to:
S-D230EXB1
and do a check-name, it works fine.

If I change the policy so
Automatically configure profile based on Active Directory Primary SMTP
address - Enabled
is DISABLED instead, it works fine (but I need to click 'next' in the
wizard, etc).
So, not sure why the server name confuses it when doing it automatically.

Also, regardless of which option I have selected, it seems to force cache
mode. I'm thinking I have the right policies set for disabling cached mode,
but never tried it before so maybe there is a better option than the ones I
am pickng to disable it.

Thanks.

 

[John Fedor]

A bit more progress:
Found the option that while connected in outlook, that if you hold the CTRL
key and right-click the outlook system tray, you can test the autodetect
settings.
Noticed that the workstation was trying to talk to the load-balanced server
name (2 'front-end' servers with NLB here), and a host-record didn't exist
yet for the NLB name/IP. Added a host record and that cleared up the
autodiscover.xml issue.

Still have the issue of it being in cached mode.
And now, I get to try to get the autodiscover.XML file adjusted to push down
the IMAP settings as well....

 

[John Fedor]

The custom autodiscover.xml file doesn't appear to be working.
Doing the "test e-mail autoconfiguration" option, the log shows:

Attempting URL https://s-d230exf1.dist230.org/Autodiscover/Autodiscover.xml
found through SCP
Autodiscover to https://s-d230exf1.dist230.org/Autodiscover/Autodiscover.xml
starting
Autodiscover to https://s-d230exf1.dist230.org/Autodiscover/Autodiscover.xml
succeeded (0x00000000).

However, when I click on the XML tab and look at the settings, it only shows
protocol type EXCH and WEB. It doesn't list POP3 or SMTP (I copied the
sample XML config from the URL you sent me previouly for sample config).
I've rebooted the server to make sure changes take effect, doesn't seem to
read the file. If I stop the web service on the front-end box, then I get
failures, so I know it is pulling the file from the right server. If I
create a 'testing.htm' file in the folder where the autodiscover.xml file is,
and reference that file name instead of autodiscover.xml, that test file
opens, so I know I am using the right server and the right directory.
I just don't see what else I need to do for it to read the autodiscover.XML
file to add the POP3/SMTP settings (and once done getting the sample to
work...the IMAP settings).

My next item beyond this step will be to have the user account filled in (it
is different than the username) for the IMAP account. Is there a way to
specificy <LoginName>%FIRSTNAME.%LASTNAME</LoginName> or anything clever like
that so when it fills in the information, it pre-populates the info based on
settings in AD?

Thanks.

 

[John Fedor]

OK. Not sure if you watched the other parts of my replies below or not, but
I had a couple of open issues. One was that the group policy for disabling
cache mode on new profiles doesn't seem to work. To fix that I had to enable
the option "Do not allow an OST file to be created.". Apparently "Do not use
Cached Exchange Mode for all new Outlook Profiles", while being an obvious
choice, doesn't do the trick. Not sure of the logic behind that, but as long
as that is fixed...I'm happy.


So, now I'm still trying to get the profile to be created using information
from the autodiscover.xml, but it doesn't appear to use the information at
all. Plus, I need to know if there is a way to fill in some of the
information based on values in AD (ie,
<LoginName>%FIRSTNAME.%LASTNAME</LoginName>).

Thanks.

 

[John Fedor]

Some additional information that seems a bit perplexing to me.

I went back to the white paper you referred to originally.
I copied the autodiscover.xml file off the CAS server to the local computer,
did the registry tweak, shutdown the CAS servers and did the outlook
autodiscover test and it showed the XML for the test file like I expected.
So, the autodiscover.xml file appears to created correctly.
Did some more testing. Removed the autodiscover.xml file off the CAS
server, restarted the server. The outlook autodiscover test still finds the
autodiscover.xml file on the server, even though one does not exist! If I
stop the webservice on the CAS server then it doesn't find it on the server,
so I know it is talking to the right server. I'm guessing there is some
voodoo going on with the scripting created in that directory IIS virtual
directory for autodiscover, because it seems to find a non-existant file and
respond to it. Can someone shed some light as to how it is I'm supposed to
enhance the autodiscover.xml file when physical file has no meaning on the
CAS server?

Thanks.