Aaron Tiensivu's Blog

As seen on the Stephen Rose TechNet blog, win a copy of Windows 7 Ultimate

atiensivu@gmail.com (Aaron Tiensivu) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 21:17:10 -0400

As seen here, take a short survey before June 30th 12pm PDT for a chance to win a copy of Windows 7 Ultimate.

The survey link is here.

Free eBooks from MS Press for OCS for a limited time - OCS 2007 R2 Resource Kit and Programming for Unified Communications

atiensivu@gmail.com (Aaron Tiensivu) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 00:41:13 -0400

Normally $59.99 per book - free for a limited time!

Originally spotted here.

How to download the alpha builds of Digsby directly from the Digsby website

atiensivu@gmail.com (Aaron Tiensivu) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 00:35:46 -0400

Although you can use the tag.yaml to use the auto update mechanism inside Digsby, there have been times when the update process hasn't worked, or you want to download the latest build *right now*.

It isn't documented very well on the Digsby site, but you can download the latest alpha builds from here.

KB 968858 - Noteworthy post-SP2 Office 2007 hotfix - reduces the number of RPC connections to the Exchange server from Outlook

atiensivu@gmail.com (Aaron Tiensivu) — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 00:41:10 -0400

If you browse the long list of updates for this Outlook 2007 SP2 update (which can be applied to Outlook 2007 SP1 from the looks of it), you'll notice a fairly innocent looking fix:

"When you are running Outlook 2007 and Office Communicator 2007 on a client computer, Communicator unexpectedly creates persistent Outlook connections to Exchange Server."

This is a bit of an understatement because I've noticed a difference in the number of connections (logical and physical) even when Office Communicator isn't involved with Outlook 2007.

To give an example, this is what my connection status dialog box (outlook /rpcdiag) looks like before:

After:

Take into consideration, many times my Internet connection is over an EVDO Rev A data line and the importance of this change skyrockets. I want every little extra bit of bandwidth left for other applications if at all possible.

As pointed out by some of the Exchange gurus at Microsoft, the connections listed in those dialog boxes represent the 'logical' RPC connections back to the Exchange server. The actual amount of physical connections (as in, connections viewable by doing a 'netstat -a -n -o' and filtering for your Exchange client access server) will drop by a smaller amount.

Either way, this has sped up Outlook a considerable amount even compared to unpatched Outlook Service Pack 2, which is leaps and bounds faster than any previous Outlook 2007 version.

This has the potential of reduced bandwidth usage and reduced connection counts on your Exchange server and/or ISA setup. Overall, a great update so far.

Read more about the update and request the binaries here.

Thanks go out to Gary Cooper for pointing out this Outlook update.

Use FAT16 with 64K cluster size for best performance on <=4GB ReadyBoost devices, plus W7 Intel Turbo Ram drivers!

atiensivu@gmail.com (Aaron Tiensivu) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 22:27:04 -0400

This one might seem obvious but it actually makes a difference in performance numbers overall. You also avoid the journaling aspect of NTFS that is unneeded with a cache device.

If you dedicate the device to ReadyBoost, you will only have one file on the filesystem, so any slack/waste in the 64K cluster size will be made up from the lack of $MFT reservations.

Also noteworthy but often overlooked, you can multiplex ReadyBoost devices in Windows 7 so you can use multiple ReadyBoost drives if you really want. This helps out XP Mode on memory starved machines quite a bit.

If you are looking for a Windows 7 compatible version of the Turbo Memory driver from Intel, use version 1.10.0.1003 or higher. You can find a version of this on Station Driver's page here. I don't believe these have reached Intel's page yet, even though they are WHQL signed. The interesting side effect is that the new driver will enable ReadyBoost on the Turbo Ram without assigning a drive letter or file system to it. Pretty cool.

Exchange 2010 killer feature (for me) - voicemail transcription into an e-mail

atiensivu@gmail.com (Aaron Tiensivu) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 20:39:25 -0400

To give you some background without giving too much away, I've had my e-mail hosted on an Exchange 2010 server since around April. I also take advantage of Office Communications Server 2007 R2 quite a bit. I consider my OCS phone number my primary number. I also have a local office phone number and work cell phone. All in all, that's 3 voicemail "boxes" to keep track of.

Most of the time, I'm out of the office, but I still want people that call the office to reach me as long as I have cell signal. Many times while inside buildings or datacenters, cell signal is poor or you aren't allowed to bring your cell phone inside. Usually, if I don't have cell signal, I'll have some kind of Internet data connection, so this is a great example of using OCS for reach-ability while at a customer site. Of course, this assumes you have permission to connect into their network.

Where am I going with this? Unified Communications/Messaging. I know you probably hear that buzz word quite a bit, but this is a good example.

I forward my office phone to my OCS phone number.
I forward my work phone number to my OCS phone number, if there is no answer on the cell phone.

Why do I go through all this effort to get missed calls to my OCS number?

This:

I did edit this message to say "name" instead of the actual name of the person called. Ditto for the phone number involved.

If the person that left the voicemail spoke clearly and wasn't in a noisy environment, Exchange 2010 generates a decent text transcription. Many times, I don't have to listen to the actual voice message.

End result: I avoid having to remember 3 different set of voice mail PINs. I avoid having to remember to check the office voice mail system. If I am in a meeting and can't take a call, I can read the voicemail message inside Outlook without ducking out to check voicemail on my cell phone.

Please be aware that most cellular providers will charge you minutes for forwarded calls, which is the reason I have it setup to only forward the call if there is no answer or the phone line is busy.

As of 06/02/09, the phone codes to do this on the Verizon network are:

Conditional forwarding (only on "no answer" of cell phone):
*71 plus 10 digit phone number
*73 cancels

Unconditional forwarding (all calls forwarded):
*72 plus ten digit phone number
*73 cancels

Busy transfer:
*90 plus ten digit phone number
*900 cancels

As an example, if I wanted to conditionally forward my calls to 616-555-1234, I would enter in *716165551234 into my cell phone and hit [Send].

If you are not on a "home" Verizon tower/network, these codes will most likely not work. Not all phone numbers seem to work, and I do believe you need to have the 'Call Forwarding' option as part of your cell phone plan.

I am sure many other providers have the same type of functionality, but Verizon is the only provider that has a tower near my house.
Thanks go out to Britt Baubie for the Verizon information.

ATI/AMD Catalyst 9.3 seems to be the end of the line for updated drivers for many DX9 chipsets.

atiensivu@gmail.com (Aaron Tiensivu) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 20:20:30 -0400

I discovered this one by accident when trying to use Mobility Modder to update an older laptop running Windows 7 to run the latest Catalyst drivers. Unfortunately, you can install the new drivers but they will refuse to load with a cryptic "Driver reported a problem." message.

Wonder which graphics cards (desktop, mobile and AIW) should use Catalyst 9.3 with for now?
Radeon 9500, 9550, 9600, 9700, and 9800 Series
Radeon Xpress, X300, X550, X600, X700, X800, X850, X1050, X1200, X1250 X1300, X1550, X1600, X1650, X1800, X1900, and X2100 Series

Unfortunately, that is a pretty sizable group of graphics cards that came out not too long ago.

You can read more about it here.

Preconfigured Exchange 2010 beta VHD for use with Hyper-V

atiensivu@gmail.com (Aaron Tiensivu) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 20:16:29 -0400

This download comes as a set of preconfigured VHDs. This download enables you evaluate Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Beta VHD for 60 days.

Download it here.

Microsoft Surface comes to Windows 7 - Microsoft Touch Pack

atiensivu@gmail.com (Aaron Tiensivu) — Thu, 28 May 2009 22:38:14 -0400

In order to use the Microsoft Touch Pack for Windows 7 – you’ll need a Windows 7 PC that supports multi-touch. The Microsoft Touch Pack for Windows 7 will be available to PC makers (OEMs) who will have the option to pre-install some, none, or all of the applications available in the Microsoft Touch Pack for Windows 7 on PCs designed for Windows Touch (PCs that meet the logo requirements for Windows Touch) – so you should start to see these applications showing up on some touch PCs around the time Windows 7 is made broadly available. After general availability of Windows 7, we will look at making the Microsoft Touch Pack for Windows 7 even more broadly available based on feedback from customers and partners.

Read more about it here.

Vista SP2 and Server 2008 SP2 direct download links and information

atiensivu@gmail.com (Aaron Tiensivu) — Tue, 26 May 2009 20:29:25 -0400

Tons of sites have already announced it, but the links are not always easy to find, so here are the direct links:

Most of the users out there just need the "Five Language Standalone" version: x86 x64

To read what is new in SP2, go here.
To read what hot fixes and security fixes are included, go here.

Due to Server 2008 R1 and Vista sharing a common code base, the above links are for either Vista or Server 2008 R1.

Don't forget to reclaim hard drive space after installation with compcln.exe.

Microsoft Vine - If you want an invite, leave a comment.

atiensivu@gmail.com (Aaron Tiensivu) — Wed, 20 May 2009 18:57:49 -0400

No catch - I just need a valid e-mail address to send the invite to. Not sure what Vine is? I'm still figuring that one out myself at the moment.

You can read what Vine is about here and check out the FAQ.

If you are looking the the latest version, as of today (05-20-09), version 1.0.2151.0, download the binary from here.

Earlier versions (1.0.2150.2/older) would sometimes crash when the update to v1.0.2151.0 was offered. This avoids that situation, which could get annoying.

The Vine also has a dedicated TechNet forum located here.

I'm guessing there will be more to this program once it gets closer to a full blown public release.

Update: I've seemed to have run out of invites because when I invite people now, they get sent to the sign up page for the waiting list. Either they are at capacity right now, or I've given out all I can for now. I will update when I have more info.

Looking for download links for the Office Communicator Mobile? Just go to www.getcomo.com!

atiensivu@gmail.com (Aaron Tiensivu) — Wed, 20 May 2009 01:51:32 -0400

Finally a simple link that you can remember to grab the mobile edition of the Office Communicator, whether it is for your SmartPhone (WinMo Std), PocketPC (WinMo Pro), or a Java based phone.

Just go to http://www.getcomo.com.

Office Communicator 2007 R2 - version 3.5.6907.22 - May 2009 cumulative update - fixes AutoUpdate bug and Exchange 2010 compatibility

atiensivu@gmail.com (Aaron Tiensivu) — Tue, 19 May 2009 23:50:38 -0400

Although the description inside KB 971083 is fairly sparse, the update fixes an AutoUpdate bug and adds in proper Exchange 2010 inter-op fixes. Previously, if Exchange 2010 was handling the AutoComplete duties for your organization, you would receive a dreaded "Exchange Integration Error" after logging into Office Communicator. This update fixes that error.

The very unfortunate part about the previous update, to 3.5.6907.9, is that it breaks the client auto update functionality.

On a good note, you can work around this issue by placing a direct block with a URL redirect to the location of the updated communicator.msp from 3.5.6907.22.

If you want to force stragglers using Office Communicator 2007 R1 to upgrade to the new R2 version, you can place the CommunicatorVolume.MSI somewhere within the Updates directory on the Front End Server and set that URL as the static "Block with URL" to the R2 install media. Since it is using the built in authentication (at worst, offsite non-domain joined clients will have to enter in their Active Directory credentials), you don't have to worry about unauthorized users downloading the client because the URL is only given after they have logged into the Office Communicator client. No client authentication - no download allowed.

If you are curious how I have my client version filter setup, here is a screenshot:

All those individual version numbers are unnecessary for Office Communicator 2007 R1. You can use a * for the last number (QFE) if you want to catch all MOC 2007 R1 versions. For the curious, I did this originally to test out the blocking functionality with all the known 2007 R1 versions. Typically, most environments have either 2.0.6362.0 or 2.0.6362.129.

I placed the CommunicatorVolume.msi inside \\ocs-pool-fe\Updates\OC\ , so the resulting URL used for the R1 clients looks like this:
https://owc.contoso.com/AutoUpdate/Ext/Files/OC/CommunicatorVolume.msi

You might notice there is a specific block in there for version 3.5.6907.9. This is on purpose, because of the bug in 3.5.6907.9. Although it isn't as seamless as the automated update, it gets the job done by pointing users to:
https://owc.contoso.com/AutoUpdate/Ext/Files/OC/x32/fre/1033/communicator.msp

With those rules setup, we have Office Communicator 2007 R1 clients, of various patch levels, forced to upgrade to 3.5.6907.0, with an auto update to 3.5.6907.22. We also have the broken 3.5.6907.9 clients updating to the proper 3.5.6907.22 so that future auto updates will complete successfully without this workaround. Overall, this will help greatly with our Exchange 2010 rollout.

Windows 7 and Thinkpads - Wireless on and off switch with Intel My WiFi

atiensivu@gmail.com (Aaron Tiensivu) — Mon, 18 May 2009 19:45:25 -0400

There have been cases where the wireless chipset on Thinkpads have been disabled even though the hardware switch for wireless had been switched on. Before v12.4 of Intel's wireless drivers, there really wasn't a consistent way to re-enable the wireless radio inside the operating system.

If you only install the updated drivers for the Intel wireless chipset, you won't get the 'On/Off' functionality.

You need to install the 'MyWifi' aka 'Software mode Wireless AP' even if you don't plan on using that feature.

A nice side effect of the new My Wifi option is that there is a Wireless On/Off available from your taskbar.

If you are having trouble enabling the Bluetooth radio even though the hardware switch is 'On', you can use the workaround I detailed here.

A nice side note: The newer versions of the Intel Matrix Storage Manager and Intel Turbo Memory Panel seem to have support for Windows 7 out of the box. You no longer have to 'fool' the installers by saying that you are running Windows Vista.

I still get the CPU pegged from time to time from the Intel Application Pinning service, which is fixed with a simple service restart. It is as if the service is stuck inside a kernel mode loop. I still haven't been able to get the Turbo Ram (non-user pinning mode) to stay consistently enabled across reboots. I always end up with a 1.37GB partition that doesn't have a drive letter and isn't enabled for ReadyBoost, from what I can tell.

Paint.NET 3.5 Alpha available - fastest version yet

atiensivu@gmail.com (Aaron Tiensivu) — Mon, 18 May 2009 19:01:36 -0400

A great little program but was always a little sluggish on slower computers. I've noticed a huge difference in speed and performance compared to version 3.3x. Only for the daring, but so far I haven't run into any show stopping bugs for me. I even have it loaded up in my XP Mode VM so I can scan expenses with the old Epson USB scanner on my 64-bit host.

Changes since version 3.36:

Requires and uses! .NET Framework 3.5 SP1

Significant improvements to the installer. Prerequisites are now handled in a much more user-friendly fashion.

The auto-updater can now download in the background, and then install the update after you've exited Paint.NET. Compare this to v3.36 and earlier that jump in your face and require the download and installation to happen right now, and block you from using the program until it's done!

New effects: Blurs -> Surface Blur, Distort -> Dents, Distort -> Crystalize - by Ed Harvey

The responsiveness of effect dialogs has been greatly improved.

When zoomed-in, the rendering quality has been substantially improved.

When zoomed in, it is now much easier to correctly resize or move a selection.

Improved performance when opening multiple images, especially for systems with only 1 processor.

Memory usage has been greatly reduces when more than one image is open.

The selection outline is no longer animated, which substantially reduces CPU usage. It also uses XOR blending.

The middle mouse button can now be used to close an image tab.

Improved the Unfocus effect.

Fixed an issue with Gaussian Blur and its treatment of alpha values.

Fixed a crash with the "Units" selector in the toolbar area.

Added a "Utilities" menu, and moved the following menu items there: Check for Updates, Language chooser, and View Plugin Load Errors. For the alpha release, there are also menu items for "Force Crash" and "Perform Full GC" (you'll know what that means if you're a developer -- Otherwise it isn't interesting).

Installer now has a "Start Paint.NET" checkbox at the end. (On Vista and Win7 with UAC enabled, it will correctly start Paint.NET at non-elevated privilege.)

Renamed "Grid" to "Pixel Grid", to more accurately describe its functionality.

The DirectDraw Surface (.DDS) file type now allows you to select the resampling algorithm for auto-generated mip-maps.

Effect plugins now have access to a "Services" property which allows them to properly access certain internal Paint.NET functionality.

Fixed some very small memory leaks when opening many images.

Russian translation.

A processor that supports SSE is now required (almost all CPU's purchased this decade satisfy this).

You can read about it more and download it from here.

If you are going to be at TechEd 2009, stop by and say Hi at the STEP Springboard booth and presentations!

atiensivu@gmail.com (Aaron Tiensivu) — Fri, 08 May 2009 18:16:33 -0400

I'll be one of the few non-Microsofties helping out at the Windows 7 Springboard booth all week long. I may escape from time to time to see other sessions but overall I will be there to answer questions about Windows 7 and anything else that might be of interest to people.

I've never actually been to TechEd before, so for me to be a part of it for my first time is a bit of a daunting task, but I am excited!

I seem to be bouncing from coast to coast for the month of May, but it all will be worthwhile!

DirectAccess the world! Step by Step guide for DirectAccess lab

atiensivu@gmail.com (Aaron Tiensivu) — Thu, 07 May 2009 01:25:20 -0400

This is one of my favorite new features of Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2. Replace VPN in your enterprise with DirectAccess but still enjoy multi-factor authentication.

Wondering how to set it up to try it out? Download the step by step guide!

The official description:
This paper contains an introduction to DirectAccess and instructions for setting up a test lab to demonstrate DirectAccess with a simulated Internet, intranet, and home network.

DirectAccess is a new feature in the Windows® 7 and Windows Server® 2008 R2 operating systems that enables remote users to securely access intranet shares, Web sites, and applications without connecting to a virtual private network (VPN). This paper contains an introduction to DirectAccess and instructions for setting up a test lab to demonstrate DirectAccess with a simulated Internet, intranet, and home network using the Release Candidate versions of Windows 7 and Window Server 2008 R2.

Windows 7 RC public download link

atiensivu@gmail.com (Aaron Tiensivu) — Mon, 04 May 2009 23:58:26 -0400

TechNet and MSDN subscribers had it first. People on BitTorrent thought they had it before them, but the checksums/images are different.

Now, you can download the Windows 7 RC build from the Microsoft sites without a TechNet or MSDN subscription here.

RtcQmsAgent fails to start on OCS 2007 R2 server - and causes KB 967831 (April 2009 update for Front End Server components) install to fail

atiensivu@gmail.com (Aaron Tiensivu) — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 23:45:18 -0400

If you are not planning on using the Office Communications Server Monitoring Agent, which is fairly common assumption in lab environments, you likely never planned on installing MSMQ or knew that you had to. Unfortunately, the OCS 2007 R2 setup program does not check to see if MSMQ is installed, and assumes that it always needs to start up the RtcQmsAgent (Monitoring Agent) service on Front End servers. Unfortunately, if you do not install MSMQ, the service will never start up and will trigger service errors. Elan ran into this issue in his install tutorial for OCS 2007 R2.

It doesn't impede normal operation, assuming you are not using parts of OCS that rely on MSMQ (Archival/etc), until you attempt to install the April 2009 OCS 2007 R2 updates (QFE1).

In particular, KB 967831, will attempt to shut down the services to patch, install the new files and then attempt to start up all the updated services. Due to MSMQ missing, it will encounter a service failure and attempt to revert the patch.

On a bad note, this leaves your OCS Front End install with partial QFE1 (April 2009 - .9) files and RTM (Dec 2008 - .0) files. Even worse, the services will not start up even if you revert the other QFE1 updates for the Front End server.

On a good note, you can install MSMQ to get around the unfortunate "server killer" situation.

With Server 2008, you can run ServerManagerCmd -i MSMQ-Services and ServerManagerCmd -i MSMQ-Server.
With Server 2003 x64, it is a little more complex as an automation task but can be done using the details mentioned here.

The RtcQmsAgent service will no longer fail to start. At that point, you should be able to install all of the QFE1 updates successfully.

Also noteworthy, it is very important to pay attention to which updates are needed for which servers because these updates still don't seem to be on Microsoft Update and have to be requested individually. The KB article here details which updates are needed by which OCS server roles. Don't mix and match releases or else you might end up with unstartable OCS services.

Outlook 2007 improvements in SP2 - and Office 2007 SP2 download link - almost live as of 2am EST

atiensivu@gmail.com (Aaron Tiensivu) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 02:29:43 -0400

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.

Demystifying the Office Communicator 2007 R2 Client Auto-Update feature and how to setup it up

atiensivu@gmail.com (Aaron Tiensivu) — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 19:08:54 -0400

Following the release of the first Office Communicator 2007 R2 hotfix/update, which I wrote about here, I wondered exactly how to approve and install the release to the clients. The documentation surrounding this aspect has been hard to track down and vague at best. Even though there is a section specifically for Office Communicator client updates inside WSUS, it doesn't control the automated deployment of the updates.

Even though you might think the client update configuration would be buried inside the Device Updater portion of the OCS 2007 R2 server, the section you need to investigate is the Client Version Filter.

Depending on how your OCS environment is setup, you can either setup this filter at the Enterprise Edition pool level or at the Standard Edition server level. You can always test deployment on a Standard Edition server, and then later once you have verified that the update works properly, deploy it to your Enterprise Edition pool.

In the past, this section was primarily used to block older versions of software from connecting into the newer server pools. In OCS 2007 R2, this has been expanded upon to allow you to point users to a static URL page upon blocking, or better yet, offer up the updated client bits.

Because the recent update takes the OC version from 3.5.6907.0 to 3.5.6907.9, you'll want to add a version filter to match 3.5.6907.0. Select Allow and Upgrade as the action, and type in a directory name that makes sense for your organization. I tried to specify a multi-level directory, such as OC\3.5.6907.9\ and OC/3.5.6907.9/ in order to maintain version control inside the file share, but I could not get those to work properly. I relented and just used OC as the folder name.

Here is what the Client Version Filter editor looks like while you are setting up the new version entry:

Here is what the Client Version Filter editor looks like once you have set up the entry:

The Client Version Filter editor automatically filled out the directory structure as \\AutoUpdate\OC\x32\fre\1033. The fre relates to the licensing edition and the 1033 refers to the locale. I would have expected the use of x86 instead of x32, and I wasn't sure where \\AutoUpdate needed to be on the OCS server. After a bit of trial and error, here is what I figured out.

On a Standard Edition server, the location is %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2\Web Components\AutoUpdate\Files. The folder to place the communicator.msp file into is %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2\Web Components\AutoUpdate\Files\OC\x32\fre\1033\.

On an Enterprise Edition server, the location is inside the file share you specified for Device Updates, for instance, \\OCS-EE-POOL\Updates. Assuming your Device Updates file share is located at C:\OCS\Updates\, the folder to place the communicator.msp file into would be C:\OCS\Updates\OC\x32\fre\1033\, which in theory maps to \\OCS-EE-POOL\Updates\OC\x32\fre\1033\communicator.msp.

Why do I say in theory? Originally, I could not get the Enterprise Edition to work as expected. The IIS request that comes in from the Office Communicator client when it tries to request an update looks something like this:
POST /AutoUpdate/Ext/Handler/OCUpgrade.aspx folder=OC&lang=1033&mode=non-ui&arch=x32&flavor=pm&build=fre

The Office Communicator clients were receiving a 401 error and not even attempting to authenticate to the server. After digging through IIS failed trace logs, I figured out that the IIS code was trying to contact the file share as the Enterprise Edition pool name (\\OCS-EE-POOL\Updates) and not the server name of the Front End server (\\OCS-FE1\Updates). Browsing from the Run dialog box on the front end server, I could get to \\OCS-FE1\Updates\file share path just fine, but I could not resolve or get to \\OCS-EE-POOL\Updates\.

After thinking about it a while, it made sense to me. There isn't a file share resource registered anywhere in Active Directory with the OCS EE pool name, because there isn't a clustered file share involved or an actual server registered as OCS-EE-POOL.

Although there probably is a better solution than this, I ended up registering cifs/OCS-EE-POOL and cifs/OCS-EE-POOL.contoso.com as additional SPNs for the computer object of the Front End server (OCS-FE1). You can do this using SETSPN or using ADSIEdit. If you're looking for a good example of how to do this, check out this blog post related to Communicator Web Access here. Make sure to remember to register the entries as cifs/ and not http/ on the Front End server's computer account. I'm only using that blog entry as a reference on how to add a SPN entry with ADSIEdit.

As soon as I did that, I could access the file using the EE pool name like how the AutoUpdate code tries to do. The HTTP 401 errors went away and the internal clients could download the update successfully.

With that accomplished, I attempted to update an Office Communicator client connected to the Internet and not the office network. I only saw Address Book Service requests coming into the Front End server. After a few minutes, I remembered that I had not updated our ISA reverse proxy to accept /AutoUpdate/ requests. /AutoUpdate/ did not exist until OCS 2007 R2 and should be added to your ISA configuration if you are updating from OCS 2007 R1.

Once that configuration change was in place, external clients were able to update to 3.5.6907.9. Even computers that were not joined to the domain updated correctly. The mystery had been solved!

Some additional debugging/troubleshooting tips:

The telltale sign that you have set up the updates correctly is that your IIS logs on the Front End server should start showing BITS requests for /AutoUpdate/Int/Files/OC/x32/fre/1033/communicator.msp and /AutoUpdate/Ext/Files/OC/x32/fre/1033/communicator.msp and have a HTTP status code of 206 and not 401.

Your internal clients will use the /Int/ URL and external clients will use the /Ext/ URL.

You can also "fake" requests from a web browser by requesting the same path. Assuming your reverse proxy server was published to https://owc.contoso.com, you could simply request https://owc.contoso.com/AutoUpdate/Ext/Files/OC/x32/fre/1033/communicator.msp and be able to download that file.

On a client computer that is in the process of downloading the update after Office Communicator launches, you can check the status that computer by running bitsadmin /list, assuming the client is Vista SP1 or higher.

Using a trick gleamed from this blog entry here, you can also check to see if an Auto-Update has been offered and the overall status of that update. Much like the Outlook [Ctrl]-Right-Click tray icon trick, you can press [Ctrl] on your keyboard and right click on the Communicator icon in your system tray to access an additional option called Configuration Information... This is a brand new option in Office Communicator 2007 R2, but offers some great debugging information for problematic client computers.

With all of this information, hopefully this clears up some of the confusion over Office Communicator 2007 R2 Client Auto-Updates!

I wouldn't have been able to figure all of this out without the help of John Fedor! Many thanks again!

Update: Corrected "HOST" SPN to "cifs" SPN, thanks to Robert Lacroix! Also, I have since found out that there is a tool inside the Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Resource Kit that will automatically setup the file paths for you inside the updates folder - CvcMsiUploader.

Exchange 2010 Beta - "The WS-Management service cannot process the request"

atiensivu@gmail.com (Aaron Tiensivu) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 20:55:48 -0400

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."

Exchange 2010 TechNet Forums are live!

atiensivu@gmail.com (Aaron Tiensivu) — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 23:45:35 -0400

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.

71-680: TS: Windows 7, Configuring - beta exam registration code

atiensivu@gmail.com (Aaron Tiensivu) — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 20:21:57 -0400

Beta exam 71-680: TS: Windows 7, Configuring
Registration begins: April 27, 2009

71-680: TS: Windows 7, Configuring counts as credit towards the following certification: MCTS: Windows 7, Configuration

Registration begins: April 27, 2009
Beta exam period runs: May 5, 2009 – May 18, 2009

Prometric: http://www.register.prometric.com/ClientInformation.asp

Please use the following promotional code when registering for the exam: WIN7J

Read more about it here.

Edge Planning Tool for Office Communications Server 2007 R2

atiensivu@gmail.com (Aaron Tiensivu) — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 22:58:08 -0400

The Edge Planning Tool asks questions about your proposed or current edge server deployment. The tool uses your answers and Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 best practices to generate the following reports:

Settings that you can use to configure your certificates, DNS services, and firewalls
Custom documentation for configuring your edge servers, reverse proxy, and next hop server
A comparison of your answers to Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 best practices

Download it from here.

Also don't forget to check out the Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Capacity Planning Tool, recently released too.

Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Beta - build 14.00.0482.020 - download link

atiensivu@gmail.com (Aaron Tiensivu) — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 22:25:13 -0400

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

Here comes Exchange 2010 - public beta tomorrow! (US Tax Day - April 15th)

atiensivu@gmail.com (Aaron Tiensivu) — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 20:41:48 -0400

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!

Office Communications Server 2007 R2 updates - April 2, 2009

atiensivu@gmail.com (Aaron Tiensivu) — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 02:42:23 -0400

To go along with the Office Communicator 2007 R2 April update mentioned here, we have a server side update that brings the build to v3.5.6907.9.

Most of them seem to involve certificates, Response Group, and the Conferencing Attendant related. The Conferencing Attendant issue listed below has been particularly annoying for some users, so I'm glad to see it listed.

KB 967832 - Application Host

When you configure the Communications Server 2007 SIP Proxy to listen on a port other than the default SIP TLS port, SIP connections cannot be initiated by Response Group Server or by Conference Auto Attendant

KB 967833 - Application Sharing Server

When you try to import configuration settings into Communications Server 2007 R2, the Application Sharing multipoint control unit does not register the new media relay for the pool

KB 968280 - Administration Tools

Response Group Service cannot start if you assign a certificate that has a wildcard in the Subject Name to Office Communications Server 2007 R2

Response Group Service cannot start if you assign a certificate that contains a SAN list, and the last name on the list is not the pool FQDN to Office Communications Server 2007 R2

After you restart the Communications Server 2007 R2 Response Group Service, the service does not send calls to agents

The Communications Server 2007 R2 Response Group Service does not update its list of trusted hosts at run time

KB 967827 - Core Components

Error message when you open an audit log file for Office Communications Server 2007 R2: "The process cannot access the log file because is being used any another process"

KB 967836 - Communicator Web Access

The Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Dial-in Conferencing Settings page will not display the user's conference ID when the global meeting policy is set to disallow anonymous users

When a Communications Server (OCS) 2007 user clicks an OCS 2007 R2 audio conference join link, the user receives an incorrect error message

A Communicator Web Access user who joins a conference as a federated user cannot share the computer desktop in Office Communications Server 2007 R2

When a user uses Office Communicator (OC) or Communicator Web Access (CWA) to send an IM message to a federated or Public IM Connectivity user, OC or CWA may give an incorrect notification of the IM delivery status

The selected language is not used when a user on a localized version of Communications Server 2007 R2 signs in to the dial-in conferencing page by using Integrated Windows Authentication and then selects a language from the drop-down list

The logo at the top of the Communications Server 2007 R2 Dial-in Conferencing Settings page is only in English, even after the Communicator Web Access language pack is installed

Users who have special characters in their names cannot sign in to the Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Dial-in Conferencing Settings page

KB 968913 - Conferencing Attendant

Enterprise users can have a conference call without the Presenter/Leader and without realizing that Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) users are on hold in Communications Server 2007 R2

KB 967837 - Monitoring Server

Communication Monitoring Server 2007 R2 cannot support more than 100 instances of Mediation Server or of A/V Conferencing Server

KB 967675 - Mediation Server

Fixes not listed yet on Microsoft's site.

KB 967835 - Outside Voice Control

The Outside Voice Control service rejects connections from a new server as non-trusted connections in a Communications Server 2007 R2 deployment

KB 967829 - Response Group Service

Response Group Service cannot start if you assign a certificate that has a wildcard in the Subject Name to Communications Server 2007 R2

Response Group Service cannot start if you assign a certificate that contains a subject alternate names (SAN) list, and the last name is not the pool FQDN to Office Communications Server 2007 R2

After you restart the Communications Server 2007 R2 Response Group Service, the service does not send calls to agents

The Communications Server 2007 R2 Response Group Service does not update its list of trusted hosts at run time

KB 967831 - Enterprise Edition Server

You cannot forward a call between federated users in Communications Server 2007 R2

Communications Server 2007 R2 - A/V Edge Authentication Server does not recognize a token request if the locale for RTCProxyService is not en-US/409

Communications Server 2007 R2 does not detect the changes when Unified Messaging dial plans or UM servers are added

KB 967674 - Unified Communications Manager API 2.0 Core Redist 64-bit

Fixes not listed yet on Microsoft's site.

KB 967830 - Web Components Server

Error message when you open an audit log file for Communications Server 2007 R2: "The process cannot access the log file because is being used any another process"

Response Group Service cannot start if you assign a certificate that has a wildcard in the Subject Name to Communications Server 2007 R2

After you restart the Communications Server 2007 R2 Response Group Service, the service does not send calls to agents

The Communications Server 2007 R2 Response Group Service does not update its list of trusted hosts at run time

You can read about the complete list of fixes here.

The easiest way to get these updates on to your server(s) is to use Microsoft Update, and update all servers so that there is isn't a mix of v3.5.6907.0 servers and v3.5.6907.9 servers.

Outlook Thread Compressor - saved 100MB of redundant e-mail for me! Use with care!

atiensivu@gmail.com (Aaron Tiensivu) — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 01:28:14 -0400

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.

Looking for Windows 7 mobile broadband drivers and/or support? Go to the MS Mobile Broadband Team Blog!

atiensivu@gmail.com (Aaron Tiensivu) — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 01:39:57 -0400

This is a relatively new blog site and has a lot of great information about drivers and applications for EVDO/UTMS/3G adapters in Windows 7. Having a hard time getting proper support from Sprint/Verizon/AT&T/HP/Dell/etc? Go to this site first!

And on an even better note, there are actions underway to do away with most of the 3rd party connection software tools that seem to be the root cause of most of the Windows 7 connection issues.

The following manufacturers are on board: Acer, Asus, Birdstep Technology, Dell, Ericsson, HP, Fujitsu Siemens Computers, Huawei Communications Technologies, Option, Qualcomm, Sierra Wireless, Smith Micro, T-Mobile International, and ZTE.

You can read more about this announcement here.

Thanks go out to Patrick Elliot for the heads up on both links.