Exchange

Found the soon-to-be-active download link to Office 2007 SP2 while reading a KB article published here about performance improvements in Outlook 2007 SP2. It looks like this is in addition to the speed improvements seen in the Feb 2009 and late 2008 Outlook updates.

Too long to list here overall but a good read.

If you haven't figured out by now, Exchange 2010 makes extensive use of PowerShell 2.0 and WinRM/WinRS to execute scripts and management tools. On a good note, this simplifies (in theory and so far, in practice) firewall exceptions/rules that need to be made for remote management of Exchange 2010 servers.

If you are like me, and tend to open multiple Exchange Management Consoles and/or remote PowerShell instances, it is very easy to hit the default limits set on Windows Server 2008 for WinRS/WinRM (based on the WS-Management standard).

A common error dialog that will pop once you hit this limit says:

"Connecting to remote server failed with the following error message : The WS-Management service cannot process the request. This user is allowed a maximum number of 4 concurrent shells, which has been exceeded. Close existing shells or raise the quota for this user."



For most applications, the defaults are fine, but if you want to enable more connections, it is just a matter of setting a few WinRM settings for remote shells (WinRM).

To check what the current WinRM/WinRS settings, run this from an administrative command line:
winrm get winrm/config/winrs

The output should look something like this:

AllowRemoteShellAccess = true
IdleTimeout = 180000
MaxConcurrentUsers = 5
MaxShellRunTime = 2147483647
MaxProcessesPerShell = 15
MaxMemoryPerShellMB = 150
MaxShellsPerUser = 5

To raise the limits a little bit, run the following commands:
winrm set winrm/config/winrs @{MaxShellsPerUser="25"}
winrm set winrm/config/winrs @{MaxConcurrentUsers="25"}

The output should now look like this:

AllowRemoteShellAccess = true
IdleTimeout = 180000
MaxConcurrentUsers = 25
MaxShellRunTime = 2147483647
MaxProcessesPerShell = 15
MaxMemoryPerShellMB = 150
MaxShellsPerUser = 25

Unless your server is undersized, these should be fairly sane limits.

All of this info is based off of Exchange 2010 Beta and WinRM 2.0 CTP3

Update: Well, that is a good method of raising the limits for WinRS, but it won't affect Exchange's limits. The proper, and much easier way, of achieving this goal is simply a matter of running this Powershell cmdlet:
Get-ThrottlingPolicy | Set-ThrottlingPolicy -powershellmaxconcurrency 25

Thanks go out to Robbie Roberts for the insight into this.

Update #2: So, the method in Update #1 is a little bit ham-fisted as pointed out by David Sterling from Microsoft.

"Be very careful about this. The Get-ThrottlingPolicy | Set-ThrottlingPolicy syntax will result in ALL throttling policies in the org being given the ability to have 25 open runspaces. If you really just want a single individual to have more headroom for this kind of stuff, the best way to accomplish this is to create a new throttling policy via New-ThrottlingPolicy and simply override the PowerShellMaxConcurrency parameter. Then explicitly assign that policy to the user in quesiton via Set-Mailbox "Foo" -ThrottlingPolicy $newPolicy."

Do you have a DAG IP address assignment question that has you stumped? Having trouble configuring the new built-in MWI options? Arbitration mailbox uninstall giving you the blues? Ask your questions over at the Exchange 2010 forums here. You might see me posting there from time to time too.

Well that didn't take long! You can download the beta here.

Want to know what is new in Exchange 2010? Go here.

This time-limited, free beta version of Microsoft® Exchange Server 2010 will end 360 days after installation.

Also available:
Exchange Server 2010 Beta UM Language Packs

As noted here at PC World, Exchange 2010 Public Beta will be available for download on US Tax Day if all things go as planned.

E14 the world!

This tool originally was a long fabled internal Microsoft tool that finally has a somewhat proper "official" release to the web with plenty of warnings and caveats. It is an add-in for Outlook 2000/XP/2003/2007 which removes unnecessary emails, on the assumption that most people reply to mail and leave the original intact, so you could keep the last mail in each branch of a thread, and remove all the others. You would be surprised how often this happens!

It reduced the size of my Outlook mailbox by almost 1/5th tonight. Down to nearly 400MB from the original 500MB size.

Keep in mind - this program can and will delete e-mail content!
If you're in any doubt about this, then do not use this add-in.



You can download the add-in from here and read more about it. The installation instructions might seem a little daunting, and it can act a little quirky on initial launch, but it is definitely worth running from time to time.

Original description rom the website with some history behind the plug-in:
Thread Compressor is an add-in to Microsoft Outlook, which removed unnecessary emails from a "thread" - reducing the amount of storage required (maybe keeping your mailbox within its size quota) and reducing the number of emails you need to read.

TC was developed inside Microsoft from 1999 onwards, and attracted a large following (up to 30,000 users) but has never (officially) been made available externally, due to the fact that it will delete data unless it is configured not to. I've decided to share it more widely now.

Originally spotted here.