Friday, December 20, 2013

Microsoft’s Top Solutions Content Blog

As part of Microsoft’s efforts to keep communities informed about the most relevant content that address the top questions or issues present in the forums and other support channels, Microsoft introduced the new Top Solutions Content blog.

In this blog, you will find valuable information about the Microsoft top support solutions for several of its popular products in the Server and Tools portfolio.

In the Exchange Server section, Top Support Solutions for Microsoft Exchange Server, some of the top Microsoft Support solutions to the most common issues experienced include:
  • How to temporarily deactivate the kernel mode filter driver in Windows
  • How to do performance tuning for NTLM authentication by using the MaxConcurrentApi setting
  • Troubleshooting long running MAPI connections to Exchange Server 2010 through Network Load Balancers
  • Configuring Kerberos Authentication for Load-Balanced Client Access Servers
  • Configure the Availability Service for Cross-Forest Topologies
  • Users in a source forest cannot view the free/busy information of mailboxes in a target forest in an Exchange Server 2010 environment
  • When, if and how do you modify Outlook Providers?

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Checking DirSync Version

If you need to check what version of DirSync you currently have installed, simply run the following PowerShell cmdlet:
(GP “hklm:SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\Microsoft Online Directory Sync”).DisplayVersion

Remember that you can use the Version Release History WiKi to keep track of the versions that have been released and the main changes introduced.

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Public and Private Computer Default Setting in OWA 2013

In a previous tip, How to Configure Public and Private Computer Settings in OWA 2013, I explained how to add the Private Computer option back to the OWA logon page in Exchange 2013.
 
When adding this feature back, the Private Computer checkbox always comes up checked:
 
 
However, some customers might want it unchecked by default. Unfortunately, there is no way to configure this through the Shell or EAC... We need to modify the logon.aspx file located at (...)\V15\FrontEnd\HttpProxy\owa\auth
 
Before you proceed, remember to create a backup copy of this file!
Open the file, scroll down to line 214 and delete the word checked.

This is how line 214 looks originally:
input id="chkPrvt" onclick="clkSec()" name="trusted" value="4" type="checkbox" checked role="checkbox" aria-labelledby="privateLabel"

And how it looks after deleting checked:
input id="chkPrvt" onclick="clkSec()" name="trusted" value="4" type="checkbox" role="checkbox" aria-labelledby="privateLabel"


After making this change, save the file, restart IIS and the Private Computer option will no longer be selected by default:

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Allow XML files in Office 365 OWA

With Exchange 2003 we had to make changes to the Registry in order to allow or block particular file types in OWA, and in Exchange 2007 we had to configure OWAs’ virtual directories. Since Exchange 2010 that this is done through Outlook Web App Mailbox Policies and this applies to the latest Exchange 2013 and Exchange Online.

To check which files are currently being block, and to change this is necessary, first connect to your exchange online service via powershell.
$cred = Get-Credential

$session = New-PSSession -ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange -ConnectionUri https://ps.outlook.com/powershell/ -Credential $cred -Authentication Basic –AllowRedirection

Import-PSSession $session

After successfully connecting, run the following cmdlet to check what file types are being blocked:
Get-OwaMailboxPolicy "policy name" | Select -ExpandProperty BlockedFileTypes | Sort

If you want to make changes and allow certain file types, such as XML files for example, you remove the .xml from the BlockedFileTypes and BlockedMimeTypes lists and add it to the AllowedFileTypes and AllowedMimeTypes lists:
Get-OwaMailboxPolicy | Set-OwaMailboxPolicy -BlockedFileTypes @{Remove = ".xml"}
Get-OwaMailboxPolicy | Set-OwaMailboxPolicy -AllowedFileTypes @{Add = ".xml"}
Get-OwaMailboxPolicy | Set-OwaMailboxPolicy -BlockedMimeTypes @{Remove = "text/xml", "application/xml”}
Get-OwaMailboxPolicy | Set-OwaMailboxPolicy –AllowedMimeTypes @{Add = "text/xml", "application/xml”

Remember to ensure the settings in the ECP at permissions -> Outlook Wep App policies -> file access match those in servers -> virtual directories -> owa (Default Web Site) -> file access in terms of Direct File Access which enables or disables direct access to all file types in OWA. If this parameter is set to $False, users will not be able to click on attachments in e-mails to open or save the files. The attachment is visible, but the link is grayed out.