Microsoft Online Services Team Blog : Hot Topics

Directory Synchronization Update

arvindsuthar — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 05:24:00 GMT

Windows Update recently released Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition Service Pack 3 as a high priority update. This update should be installed on all computers running the Microsoft Online Services Directory Synchronization tool. Click here for more information about this update. Follow your normal update procedures to install this high priority update.

After installing this update, you must restart the Directory Synchronization service. You can restart the service by restarting the computer or by following the steps below.

Open Control Panel, double-click Administrative Tools, and then double-click Services.
Right-click Microsoft Online Services Directory Synchronization Service, and then click Start.

Your next synchronization will begin three hours from the time you start the service.

If you want more information or if you have something you'd like to share, please feel free to share your thoughts and suggestions through our feedback form or in the comments below.

Microsoft Online Services Team

Pricing, Licensing, and Activation

Lori - Microsoft — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 06:17:00 GMT

Learn how to buy and activate Microsoft Online Services, and get pricing and licensing information.

Get Help Managing Your Profile, Service Subscriptions, and Free Trials

Lori - Microsoft — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 08:35:00 GMT

Need help managing your profile, subscriptions, and free trials? Here are some helpful resources to guide you through the Microsoft Online Services Customer Portal, the gateway to trying and buying Online services from Microsoft.

· Visit the Microsoft Online Services TechCenter

· Ask a Question in the Community Forum

· Enter a Request to Our Support Team

· General Support Information

Cannot Create a User in the Microsoft Online Services Administration Center

erikgun — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 21:48:00 GMT

There are currently two situations that may prevent you from creating a user account in the Microsoft Online Administration Center:

· You cannot access your company’s Live Meeting Conference Center.

· You are creating a user account with the same e-mail address as the one used to register with Microsoft Online Services.

Live Meeting Is Not Available

User account creation currently requires access to your company’s Live Meeting Conference Center. If the Conference Center is offline for maintenance or can’t be reached for some other reason, user account creation will fail. In this situation, please wait several hours before trying again to create the user account. This dependency will be removed before Microsoft Online Services is released.

User Account E-Mail Address Cannot Be Reused

Microsoft Online Services currently does not support creating a user account with exactly the same e-mail address as the one used to register with Microsoft Online Services. For example, if you use Jim@contoso.com when you register with the Microsoft Online Services Customer Portal and you try to create a new user account with the same e-mail address, creation of this user account will fail. If this occurs, contact Microsoft Online Services Technical Support. They will be able to help you create this user account. This issue will be resolved before Microsoft Online Services is released.

Service Administrator Passwords

erikgun — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 21:46:00 GMT

When your company’s technical contact receives their Microsoft Online Services credentials, they are given a service administrator account (for example, Admin@example1.microsoftonline.com), and a temporary password.

The first time your company’s technical contact signs in, they must change their temporary password. After changing their password, they are granted access to the Microsoft Online Services Administration Center.

The first action that the technical contact should perform, after getting access to the Administration Center, is to create a new user account with service administrator credentials. This new account can be assigned a mailbox and licenses for additional services.

Having more than one account with service administrator permissions provides a back-up in case you forget the password to one of the accounts. Any account with service administrator permissions can reset the password of any other Microsoft Online Services account for your company.

If you forget the passwords to your service administrator accounts, you can contact Microsoft Online Services Technical Support and ask for a password reset. The Support team will verify that you are trying to access the correct Administration Center, and then reset the password.