On a previous entry , I described the URL parameter for accessing the dumpster via OWA. There are actually many many more URL parameters you can use directly or embed in other web pages. For example, all of the following can be retrieved...

If you're using IE6 SP1 with Outlook Web Access (or any web application that uses HTTP authentication), you don't need to have forms-based authentication enabled or an ActiveX control installed in order to make clicking logoff really log you off...

One of the advantages of RTF mail is that it supports inline attachments - you can attach a file and have it show up anywhere in the message, rather than in the 'attachment well' like it does with HTML and plain text messages. You can actually achieve...

For years, I've been using NLP in Outlook but something I read recently reminded me that not everyone may realize this capability exists. So today's tip is to illustrate the power of natural language parsing in date fields in Outlook. This is doubleplus...

I was asked in the comments on a previous entry  if the desktop alert display interval could be customized to longer than 30 seconds. The UI in Outlook 2003 ( Tools | Options | Email Options | Desktop Alert Settings) limits you to 30 seconds,...

Sorry for the hiatus, I've been OOF sick most of the week. Thus far, my son hasn't come down with my cold yet - I'm crossing my fingers. Jim asked in a comment on a previous entry if it was possible to color items automatically based on the category...

Today's tip reminded me of something: when I was a tester in the Outlook group and did interviews, testing NLP was one of my standard interview questions. I liked using it for interviews because it's something that you'd be able to grasp quickly...

I gave a presentation to our MVPs on how the Exchange team builds software yesterday. Assuming the participants aren't just stroking my ego, it went pretty well. Often customers are surprised why their pet DCR isn't implemented in the same release...

Search folders are a new feature in Outlook 2003. As I mentioned previously , a search folder is a special folder that contains a 'view' of items in other folders. That view is the result of a search request. One perhaps non-obvious use...

Aaron Overton, the Windows Server community guy, has a blog . I particularly liked his analogy of the state of microsoft communities compared to linux communities - we have a ways to go. I think that Microsoft-related communities will always...

One of my favorite online 'personalities', the Crabby Office Lady has a column on the difference between Outlook and Outlook Express , which is a common misunderstanding in the Outlook newsgroups. She writes about the rest of the office products as well...

The Exchange Intelligent Message Filter was announced today: http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/imf

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Fast company has an interesting article today about how mapping sites such as MapQuest.com maintain their data. There are folks whose entire job is to drive around, noting metadata about roads and rules that eventually gets pulled into databases tapped...

Fast Company has another great article today, about an innovative program in Des Moines. Local businesses donated space and some supplies, and the school board agreed to set up a school on the location. The school is connected via walkways to the local...

A friend of mine just looked up her parents' engagement announcement from the New York Times' online archive, from 1950. I thought to myself "how neat is that?"... but then I had to remind myself that by the time my son is old enough to use a computer...

I have Outlook 2003's junk mail filter set at the 'low' threshold - this catches a big chunk of my spam (I receive about 60-100 per day, 80-90% of them are caught by Outlook) and I have never had a false positive in the months I've been using it, so...

TechNet has just launched a site that lets you search through existing security bulletins based on criteria such as patch severity, affected products, etc. One of the niftiest parts is that it lets you search on patches that haven't been superseded...

Microsoft.com has a site about microsoft.com. Also see their archives.

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If you want to see the new tricked-out Outlook Web Access 2003 or test-drive the mobily features in Exchange 2003, sign up for a free trial account: http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/evaluation/trial/online.asp

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The Exchange 2003 SDK has a list of the technologies and information about each one (examples of when you would want to use it, whether or not it's managed, required permissions, etc). This is a nice high-level overview to help focus you decide which...

This is the first time I've heard of DVD sales making a network rethink a previous decision: http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2003-11-18-family-guy_x.htm Family Guy might come back. Hooray! Along these lines, I wonder if...

I stumbled on a new columnist recently, Martha Brockenbrough . She's got some interesting light reading: "There's a creeping "metricization" going on. And someday, you may finally have to admit that kilo for kilo, it really is a better system...