Entries by Aaron Tiensivu

The redesign of the Office website at Microsoft has made a few of the older links related to download of the Live Meeting client and Conferencing Add-In invalid, as pointed out by Matt Wade and followers of his website.

The issue has been reported to Microsoft and will hopefully soon be resolved, and this blog entry will be removed from this site.

In the meantime, here are the direct download links until this issue has been resolved:
Live Meeting Client
Conferencing Add-In for Outlook

2 fixes since last year it looks like:

KB 978164 - A conversation window opens unexpectedly when you press ENTER in the Search box in Office Communicator 2007
KB 979145 - The Office Communicator 2007 user interface pops up for all users who log on to a terminal server that is running Windows Server 2008

I suspect the release is mainly for the terminal server update and maybe OCS v.Next support.

You can grab the update at here.

One of the most commonly misunderstood aspects of publishing OCS - the use of hardware load balancers. Thankfully there is a brand new document from Microsoft to help you out.

To quote the download page:
"This document explains infrastructure and system requirements for hardware load balancing of Office Communications Server Enterprise pools, Edge Server arrays, and Communicator Web Access. It also explains various networking concepts, such as one arm vs. two arm configurations, network address translation (NAT), VLAN tagging, and Mutual Transport Layer Security (MTLS) connection multiplexing, in the context of an Office Communications Server deployment."

Grab the document here.

It turns out that a little while ago I had discovered part of the puzzle to getting OCS 2007 R2 working on Windows 2008 R2. Strangely, a somewhat related blog entry I made around the same time was the other piece of the puzzle.

Namely, for 2008 R2 support, you need a Server 2008 R2 specific hotfix (KB 975858) and modify a few NTLM security settings that differ as defaults on Server 2008 R2 compared to Server 2008 R1.

Ideally, if you can support it in your environment, I would configure your servers and clients to be the most secure by default with use of a GPO or registry setting. That way, you are using the latest NTLM protocol with 128-bit encryption.

In the screenshot below, it shows the security setup on my laptop for client security:


Keep in mind, it is best to match these settings on the client side and server side.
If you configure the client side and do not configure the server side, you will still be able to connect.
If you configure the server side, and leave the client side at defaults, depending on the OS release, connection problems may happen due to the mismatch.

You can also read the official Microsoft guidance on Server 2008 R2 and OCS 2007 R2 here and here.

Update: I've discovered some additional issues that can be worked around. I have documented them in a new entry here.

You can file this one under 'Things you find while browsing recently posted downloads'.

Since this has been posted for download on Microsoft's download site, you know that a public beta for the OCS release can only be right around the corner.

It won't be useful yet, because this will be used for the LiveMeeting functionality of the upcoming OCS version. Interesting to see it posted already though.

You can check it out here.

The big news with this release is support for Windows 2008 R2 and workarounds for specific VOIP inter-op scenarios. I will be publishing some more info on both of these items later but wanted to get the word out because this update has been a long time coming!

Office Communications Server 2007 R2 CU5 Update
Office Communications Server 2007 R2 CU5 Database Update
Office Communicator 2007 R2 CU5 Update
Office Communicator Phone Edition 2007 R2 CU5 Update
Office Communicator Attendant Console 2007 R2 CU5 Update

Very interesting thread about a problem I haven't run into both others might if they have USB powered headsets with OCS. It looks like two possible models that it can occur with are the Polycom CX300 and some other handsets/headsets.

Basically, due to some of the 'green options' on some PCs, the USB power to the connected devices can be lowered when idle. If the OS/BIOS detects that the device has become active, it will fire up the juice. Unfortunately, at the start of a call, the voltage might not be high enough yet to experience full volume.

This explains the audio problem described here.

If at all possible, try not to disable ACPI and just try to disable the USB power-disabling green features in the BIOS or OS. If that is not an option, you could always use a powered (complete with wall-wart power adapter) USB hub to keep the phones/headsets powered up while your other devices can sleep normally on the 'green' USB ports.

I'm curious how widespread this problem is, because I think the Polycom CX300 is a fantastic little OCS handset.

It is handy to see what version levels are out there and what devices are in use. You can also use some SQL kung-foo to correlate the device with the user. A more detailed example is available from here.

By default, this is what the MMC shows for connected devices:

Exchange 2010 introduces a Calendar Assistant, which can be handy for automatically marking incoming meeting requests a tentative, and other very handy functions that can execute out side of the client side experience.

In this one particular scenario, embarrassingly, was my own mailbox for a few days.

I had no control over meeting requests. They were getting rejected and accepted without me ever seeing the request come in.
I checked my phone for any strange settings.
I checked over the Calendar Assistant and disabled it completely, from the Outlook Web App control panel and in Powershell just to make sure it was "super disabled".



Calendar items kept auto-answering for me so I had to dig deeper, into a section I rarely go into unless the mailbox is setup as a resource.

Lo and behold, somehow and at some point, all of these items had been clicked on within my Outlook profile.

I don't know if I did this on accident one night or my kids got into my Outlook settings (never underestimate the comedy gold that can come from smart 8 year olds) with that said:



As you can see, these options were what was killing my Calendaring. Very "stupid user" to not check this spot first but it was originally acting like something the Calendar Assistant was doing and I had forgotten about the resource room settings being buried in Outlook 2010.

So, I got to wear the dunce hat for the day. Maybe me posting this will avoid some other dunce hats getting passed out to others. It was definitely a 'palmface-slap' moment when I discovered the root cause.

Some new information about OCS "v.Next" came out today at VoiceCon. Unfortunately they are in press release form but I've distilled down some of the technical items.

#1. 3 new headsets/devices from Polycom, which will definitely help fill the gap for community area/kiosk phones and non-tethered scenarios. Read about it here.

Highlights from that announcement that I am excited about:
Polycom CX500 IP phone - designed for use in public areas such as lobbies, break rooms or hallways (No PC required!)
Polycom CX600 IP desktop phone - delivers rich presence and exceptional voice quality to a mid-range desktop phone ("Tanjay"-lite, sort of)
Polycom CX3000 IP conference phone -- provides outstanding voice quality and rich presence for more productive and efficient conference calls and is the only conference phone currently optimized for Microsoft Communicator "14" ("RoundTable"-lite, sort of)

The CX500 fills a gap I've experienced with OCS rollouts that required a common area phone without a PC attached to it. It could be a break room or conference room or security phone. Having a computer with a headset or full blown "Tanjay" phone didn't make sense in those scenarios.

I'd gladly review any of those phones if Polycom wants to send me a demo unit.

#2. Better branch survivability with the updated gateways, plus more. Read about it here.

Highlights from that announcement that I am excited about:
More partners joining the market making OCS products and solutions. Of particular note are the survivable branch appliances, which will definitely help remote office and branch office deployment scenarios greatly.

E911 service support - this can be a deal breaker under certain scenarios in the USA, so I'm happy to see support for this added. The way it ties into OCS is also very straightforward and clever.

Contact center, call accounting, and recording solutions - These 3 items have always been a weakness to the OCS voice platform. The products either didn't exist or they were in the early stages of production. It is great to see some more options and features for those companies that require these solutions for a full deployment.

As soon as I am able to, I will be posting plenty of OCS v.Next items - this is just the beginning!

I haven't been this excited about a new release of a Microsoft product in a long time and I have a feeling it is going to surprise a lot of people with the new capabilities!

It works slightly different than most .MSI/.MSP patches but it can be done.

1. Place "Communicator.msi" and "Communicator.msp" (from the latest RU download) in a directory called C:\Install\
2. Make a directory inside C:\Install\Communicator\
3. Run this with elevated rights: msiexec /a C:\Install\communicator.msi targetdir=C:\install\Communicator\
4. Run this with elevated rights: msiexec /a C:\Install\Communicator\communicator.msi /p C:\install\communicator.msp
5. Run this with elevated rights: msiexec /i c:\Install\Communicator\communicator.msi REINSTALL=ALL REINSTALLMODE=vomus UPGRADEEITHRECACHE=TRUE
6. Enjoy your newly installed and patched Office Communicators Server Client!

The communicator.msi inside the C:\install\Communicator\ is the patched and updated .MSI instance.

You will still need to use the "REINSTALL=ALL REINSTALLMODE=vomus UPGRADEEITHRECACHE=TRUE" parameters when installing that particular .MSI

Many tips and tricks about this came from this TechNet thread here.

The Exchange Pre-Deployment Analyzer performs an overall topology readiness scan of your environment and provides you with a list of decisions that need to be made before you deploy Exchange Server 2010.

The checks performed by ExPDA are similar to the pre-requisite checks implemented (via Exchange Best Practices Analyzer) in the Exchange 2010 Setup program; in fact ExPDA is based off the Exchange Best Practices Analyzer (ExBPA) engine. However, unlike Exchange 2010 setup, this tool focuses only on overall topology readiness and not the ability to run Exchange 2010 on the local computer. The scan also performs a deep analysis of each existing Exchange 2003/2007 server to verify that it has the necessary updates and configuration in-place to support Exchange 2010.

Another good thing to note that hasn't been documented very well, but I have seen happen a few times already:

If you plan on ever deploying Exchange 2007 portions with Exchange 2010, for instance if you are coming from an Exchange 2003 environment and need a few Exchange 2007 servers due to 3rd party applications not catching up to Exchange 2010 yet, make sure you run the schema update for Exchange 2007 before running the schema update for Exchange 2010.

If you run the Exchange 2010 schema update without ever having any Exchange 2007 schema in place, you can no longer install Exchange 2007. You can go back to AD backups and recover, and I have heard of some unsupported/daring changes to schema versions to force it to work, but for pre-deploying, make sure you take this into account.

A common scenario like this is with Cisco Unity or some archival products. Little by little, they are catching up to Exchange 2010 with support.

I know it is a work in progress but I believe that this hotfix will end up being a pre-req for installing on Server 2008 R2.

KB 975858 - An application or service that calls the InitializeSecurityContext function together with the ISC_REQ_EXTENDED_ERROR flag may encounter a TLS/SSL negotiation failure on a computer that is running Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows 7

Specifically due to this section of the article:
For example, a Transport Layer Security (TLS) negotiation fails when Microsoft Office Communicator Server 2007 R2 is installed on a computer that is running Windows Server 2008 R2. This problem causes some functions not to work in Office Communicator Server 2007 R2.

These type of blog entries were always popular in the Windows XP and Windows Vista time frame. You'll notice that this list is smaller than the Vista post-RTM / pre-SP1 list I made a few years ago. It isn't a coincidence. There were some major overhauls and redesigns in the Vista time frame.

Despite what the press might have said, and what users experienced during the early days of buggy Vista drivers, the end results have been mostly worth it. You see Windows 7 getting "rooted" must less often than XP, and the same can be said for malware especially if you leave UAC enabled. I tend to restart my laptop only when security updates come out, otherwise I put it to sleep or hibernate. Some of these fixes listed below are related to sleep and hibernation issues and have definitely helped me.

Keep in mind, if you aren't having issues with the items below, you can safely skip installing these. Many of these are corner cases or uncommon scenarios, but I happen to hit a few of them.

Core OS
KB 977346 - The Welcome screen may be displayed for 30 seconds during the logon process after you set a solid color as the desktop background in Windows 7 or in Windows Server 2008 R2

KB 977542 - A hotfix is available to block standard users from logging on to a Window 7-based or Windows Server 2008 R2-based computer in safe mode

KB 976746 - Error message when a Windows Server 2008 R2-based or a Windows 7-based computer enters hibernation: "STOP: 0x0000000A"

KB 975992 - After you enable large pages for a process in Windows 7 or in Windows Server 2008 R2, the process stops responding intermittently

KB 975680 - Virtual Disk Service (VDS) crashes when you try to extend a dynamic volume in an NTFS file system on a computer that is running Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, or Windows 7

IDE/SATA/Firewire
KB 976418 - After you change the SATA mode of disk devices to use the AHCI specification, the computer or certain applications randomly stop responding for 60 seconds or for longer in Windows 7 and in Windows Server 2008 R2

KB 977178 (newer than KB 976418) - You receive various Stop error messages in Windows 7 or in Windows Server 2008 R2 when you try to resume a computer that has a large SATA hard disk

KB 975500 - Low performance when you transfer a large file between an external IEEE 1394 device and a computer that is running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2

KB 977186 - Error message when you try to resume a Windows 7-based or a Windows Server 2008 R2-based computer from hibernation: "Stop 0x0000009F"

Multimedia
KB 975538 - Audio devices are missing or are displayed as "Not plugged in" after you restart a the computer that is running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2

KB 975450 - You may experience display corruption issues on certain Intel graphics processing unit (GPU) chipsets in Windows 7 (hardware bug - use driver 15.4.4 or higher)

KB 979303 - Audio playback and capture applications hang

KB 975806 - The video image flickers when you configure Windows Media Player 12 to display the subtitles of a DVD in Windows 7 or in Windows Server 2008 R2

KB 975617 - An update is available for the UDF file system driver (Udfs.sys) for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2

KB 976417 - High CPU usage in the Explorer.exe process when you open a folder that contains corrupted .wav files in Windows 7 or in Windows Server 2008 R2

Networking
KB 976658 - The memory of the nonpaged pool may leak when you enable IPsec on a computer that is running Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows 7

KB 975851 - When you resume a computer that is running Windows 7, WWAN devices do not automatically connect to the target 3G network

KB 978869 - Error message when you try to open a network-shared application on a client computer that is running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2: 0xc000000f

USB
KB 978258 - USB devices that are connected to a computer may not work after the computer is idle for more than one hour Windows 7 or in Windows Server 2008 R2

KB 974476 - The computer stops responding when an USB device resumes from the USB Selective Suspend state in Windows 7 or in Windows Server 2008 R2

KB 975599 - Stop error when you put a computer that is running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 to sleep or into hibernation, or when you restart the computer: "0x9F"

Virtual PC / Windows XP Mode
KB 977632 - A computer that is running a virtual machine in Windows Virtual PC may stop responding or restart when you resume it from sleep or from hibernation in Windows 7

This definitely the strangest bug I've ever encountered with Windows 7 but I have experienced it on numerous systems because on any system that I have control over, I typically set my background to black. No wallpaper. No pattern. Just black. I also do this on Windows 2008 R2.

I would typically hear some applications loading in my tray and "ding" me for UAC access to hardware, but would still be sitting at the Welcome screen.

I originally wrote it off as a fluke when it first happened but after installing the hot fix, there is a definitely a difference in behavior.

Consider the following scenario:

You have a computer that is running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2.
You set a solid color as the desktop background.
The Desktop Window Manager Session Manager service is running.
You log on to the computer locally.

In this scenario, the Welcome screen is displayed for 30 seconds during the logon process.

This issue does not occur when one or more of the following conditions are true:
You log on to the computer by using Remote Desktop Connection.
The Desktop Window Manager Session Manager service is stopped or is disabled.
You set an image file as the desktop background.

You can read about the issue and download the fix from here.