Outlook 2007 asks for a password everytime you open it

Scenario: SBS 2008
TS 2K3 - 30 users
Outlook 2007


Problem
OK, so to save a lot of people a lot of time!

I spent ages trying to diagnose this issue, we had 30 people all getting this message asking for a username and password whenever they opened outlook. I also noticed that if we setup a new user we had difficulty even getting it setup as autodiscovery seemed to keep failing.

Resolution
Weirdly enough I think it's linked to an update on SBS2008 Ex2007. Check your Exchange to see what rollup it's running (Under Server Configuration - Build No.) You should update it to Rollup V.9 if it isnt already which seems to clear the issue.

Link:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=55320be2-c65c-48bb-bab8-6335aa7d008c&displaylang=en

NOTE
A quick note to some people - when you download the rollup and try to install it you'll probably find you can't due to privelidges. I got it to work by opening CMD with run as administrator, renamed the setup to Exchange then just run exchange.msp in the cmd box.

your out of office settings cannot be displayed because the server is unavailable

I'm going to try my best to help anyone out stuck in this situation because it took me ages to sort out! BUT please note that my scenario may not be the best or the easiest or even the most accurate!

So my scenario was I had Server 2003 standard with Exchange 2007 VLK enterprise, all clients with Outlook 2007 couldnt enable OOF (Out Of Office) they had to go into Outlook Web Access to enable it.

After some initial digging I found out that I had to look at the certificate in exchange incase it was invalid as well as check the autodiscover service to make sure it points to the right place.

1. Check your certificate!

2. Check in outlook the autodiscover settings
what URL's are pointing to where by holding control and then right clicking on the outlook icon in the system tray then select test autoconnection. This will show you the URL's it is using.

3. Internal / External URL Check
Check your URL's for Outlook within the Exchange Management Shell
"Get-WebServicesVirtualDirectory | fl InternalURL,ExternalURL" run this command and make sure that the URL's are correct. You should change them if not, then try again.

Does this help anyone...?

Cannot start Microsoft Office Outlook. MAPI32.DLL is corrupt or the wrong

I installed Office 2003 from a disk and couldnt open Outlook after some issues with Access.

The error was as below:

Cannot start Microsoft Office Outlook. MAPI32.DLL is corrupt or the wrong
version. This could have been caused by installing other messaging software.
Please reinstall Outlook.

Reinstallation does not work so I'll save everyone some time here hopefully, the only resolution I've seen and used here is to rename a simple file at the following path:
C:\Program Files\Common Files\System\MSMAPI\1033

Which is MSMAPI32.DLL.

Please, please, please don't rename MAPI32.DLL this wont work, it is MSMAPI32.DLL just simply change the extension and it will 9/10 times be sorted.

SBS 2008 hangs on Applying Computer Settings

I have to admit, out of all server installs I have ever done, I have probably had one of the worst experiences ever recently with 2008 SBS.

I thought I would blog about this problem simply because I was in a mess and I'm sure anyone else in this scenario would want to get out of it just as quickly as I did!

My Scenario
At first the clients were complaining that the Exchange was down, I noticed that the store service wasnt running so quite rightly I tried to start it but it wasnt having any of it. I went to Event Viewer and it had items like "Cannot connect to Active Directory" and "Exchange topology not starting" amongst many others. My most stupid mistake at this point was to reboot the server which is where I ended up watching a spinning wheel at "Applying Computer Settings".

I couldnt think what it was until I found that it could be affected by IPv6 at which point it became clear that this definately was the problem, I had turned it off the day prior to troubleshoot a vista application issue.

I found one fix on the net but it didnt help my situation unfortunately, it may still work for others though. You simply go into the registry and navigate to the following:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip6\Parameters\
a.In the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD (32-bit) Value.
b. Type DisabledComponents, and then press ENTER.
c. Double-click DisabledComponents.

5.Enter "ffffffff" (eight f’s), and then click OK.

My Resolution
So I rebooted into Safe Mode with Networking and logged on as the Domain Administrator (The first time it told me there were no logon servers available to service my request) I tried again and it was fine!

Go into Network and Sharing Centre, Manage Network Connections, Go to Properties on the connection and tick IPv6.

You can then reboot the machine and it will boot up ok. (I will also add that it looked like it wasnt going to work, it still spun around applying personal settings for around 3 minutes before it booted so be patient.)

Good luck to anyone else who gets this problem and I hope the above helps!

Sophos Anti Virus not updating (could not contact server)

I found quite a neat little trick, whether or not the following technical processes are by design I dont know but I assure you this has worked for me loads of times.

If you see Sophos Anti Virus with a red shield in it, first thing I used to do is rename the Cache folder in Program Files and then click update. Job done, it updates we can all go home with a smile on our faces.

What I noticed recently was that this didnt fix the problem at all, it generally made a bit more of a mess.

So, if you find that the Cache folder has an update in there (Usually 68Mb+) Navigate to: C:\Program Files\Sophos\AutoUpdate\cache\savxp and click Install Sophos Anti Virus, this will run you through a quick WinInstaller and then update the program.

You will probably have to reboot at this point, you can choose to reboot, usually I just log off ;) (As im sure most IT pro's do)

Finally just re-enter the update credentials into the Sophos program and re-check for updates.

Works like a charm