Felipe Gonçalves

Locate an Exchange Public Folder from its Email address

2013-10-29T11:32:00.001-02:00

Open the Active Directory Users and Computers tool from Control Panel \ Administrative tools or running below command from Start > Run...

 dsa.msc

Under Active Directory Users and Computers, Right click on the domain and click on Find

In the find window click on the Find choice and pick Custom Search; Click on the Advanced tab; Enter in the LDAP Query that follows this syntax:
(proxyAddresses=SMTP:User@domain)

Make sure that the columns in this window include the Distinguished Name. In order to customize the view, click View > Choose Columns.

Now open ADS Edit tool and Right click on the top ADSI Edit folder and choose "Connect to".

Type in the Connection Point the Distinguished name of the folder; Click OK
Example: CN=User,CN=Microsoft Exchange System Objects,DC=domain,DC=com

Expand out the last entry that you just added in this window; Right click on the CN name and open the properties.

From this window you will have access to all properties of the folder. Including the path of the folder you are looking for. The attribute name you're looking for is folderPathName, this will contain the path to the folder you want to check.

Use caution when using ADSI Edit!!

Missing Folders in Outlook

2013-10-29T10:20:00.001-02:00

This is a very common issue in my current work. Out of the blue, a folder in user's Outlook vanishes, simply gone. There are two possibilities here: Start Outlook with resetfolders switch parameter or find the hidden folder and bring it back.

For the first option, you may check this post with info about all Outlook switches or just follow example below.

 outlook.exe /resetfolders

But this doesn't always work, so here's a more hardcore way to fix it. You'll need to use MFCMAPI tool, which I've already presented in a previous post, in order to find the folder.

Once you have MFCMAPI downloaded, you can just execute it - no install needed - Skip the first window by clicking OK, and in the main window click Session, Logon and Display Store Table.

Choose a profile previously created or create a new one.

Double-click the Mailbox in the list.

In the new window that will show up, you'll be able to browse the entire content of the mailbox. Be very careful!!! There's no "undo" for any mess you do here.

In the left pane, browse to the Top of Information Store, and then you'll probably find the folder under it - if you don't find the folder here (and you previously checked the Deleted Items folder and Recover Deleted Items), it's probably gone indeed - nothing you can do. If you find the folder, select it, and find the property in the right pane named PR_ATTR_HIDDEN, double-click it.

You'll very likely find this attribute set as True (Boolean checkbox will be checked as depicted below). In order to bring the folder back, you just need to make sure this checkbox is unchecked.

That done, have the user to restart Outlook and voilà :)

You might also like...

2013-10-29T09:52:00.000-02:00

I've been searching for a Blogger plugin that would add links related to each of my posts at the end of them, and today I found this one I found really cool, and easy to use, it's called LinkWithin.

All you need to do is to access www.linkwithin.com, and fill the form with simple info about your blog:

Next, it will give you a really easy way to add the plugin to your blog.

And finally, you'll just need to drag the widget from the rigth-bar (default place) to the position just below your posts:

Aaand done, you'll have a list with related topics by the end of each of your posts - With thumbnails, if it's your blog's case, or just in text like mine as I don't post too much images.

Outlook Switches

2013-10-29T09:13:00.003-02:00

Today I'll talk about a very useful tool provided by Outlook that has saved me in several different issues. I'm talking about the startup parameters for Outlook, or Outlook Switches.

You may not notice, but every time you start Outlook, you're invoking (probably always using the desktop / start menu / taskbar shortcuts) Outlook.exe command. This command can be executed in several different ways, by using the available switches. I'm listing all of them below, first the most important ones in my opinion and then the rest of them.

Most commonly used:

/resetfolders

Restores missing folders at the default delivery location. Very useful whenever users have any missing folders.

 outlook.exe /resetfolders

/resetfoldernames

Resets default folder names (such as Inbox or Sent Items) to default names in the current Office user interface language.
For example, if you first connect to your mailbox in Outlook by using a Russian user interface, the Russian default folder names cannot be renamed. To change the default folder names to another language, such as Japanese or English, you can use this switch to reset the default folder names after you change the user interface language or install a different language version of Outlook.

 outlook.exe /resetfoldernames

/cleanautocompletecache

Removes all names and e-mail addresses from the Auto-Complete list.

 outlook.exe /cleanautocompletecache

/cleanfreebusy

Clears and regenerates free/busy information. This switch can be used only when you are able to connect to the server that runs Exchange.

 outlook.exe /cleanfreebusy

/cleanrules

Starts Outlook and deletes client-based and server-based rules.

 outlook.exe /cleanrules

/cleanserverrules

Starts Outlook and deletes server-based rules.

 outlook.exe /cleanserverrules

/cleanclientrules

Starts Outlook and deletes client-based rules.

 outlook.exe /cleanclientrules

/cleanreminders

Clears and regenerates reminders. Used many times when users couldn't get rid of reminders.

 outlook.exe /cleanreminders

/profiles

Opens the Choose Profile dialog box regardless of the Options setting on the Tools menu. Useful for troubleshooting more than one profile.

 outlook.exe /profiles

/profile profilename

Loads the specified profile. If your profile name contains a space, enclose the profile name in quotation marks (" "). Useful for quickly switching between profiles when troubleshooting.

 outlook.exe /profile NewProfile

Other switches:

/c messageclass

Creates a new item of the specified message class (Outlook forms or any other valid MAPI form).

 outlook.exe /c ipm.note          --> new email

 outlook.exe /c ipm.appointment   --> new appointment

 outlook.exe /c ipm.activity      --> new journal entry

 outlook.exe /c ipm.contact       --> new contact

 outlook.exe /c ipm.stickynote    --> new note

 outlook.exe /c ipm.task          --> new task

Creates an item with the specified file as an attachment.
If no item type is specified, IPM.Note (new email message) is assumed. Cannot be used with message classes that are not based on Outlook.

 outlook.exe /a "c:\my documents\labels.doc"

 outlook.exe /a "c:\my documents\labels.doc" /c ipm.appointment

/altvba otmfilename

Opens the VBA program specified in otmfilename, instead of %appdata%\microsoft\outlook\vbaproject.otm.

NOTE

This command line switch is only available if the following Windows registry DWORD value is set to 1. HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Outlook\Security\EnableAltVba

 outlook.exe /altvba AlternativeVPAProject.otm

/checkclient

Prompts for the default manager of e-mail, news, and contacts.

 outlook.exe /checkclient

/cleancategories

Deletes any custom category names that you have created. Restores categories to the default names.

 outlook.exe /cleancategories

/cleanconvongoingactions

Deletes the Conversations Actions Table (CAT). CAT entries for a conversation thread usually expire 30 days after no activity. The command-line switch clears all conversation tagging, ignore, and moving rules immediately stopping any additional actions.

 outlook.exe /cleanconvongoingactions

/cleandmrecords

Deletes the logging records saved when a manager or a delegate declines a meeting.

 outlook.exe /cleandmrecords

/cleanfinders

Resets all Search Folders in the Microsoft Exchange mailbox for only the first profile opened.

 outlook.exe /cleanfinders

/cleanfromaddresses

Removes all manually added From entries from the profile.

 outlook.exe /cleanfromaddresses

/cleanmailtipcache

Removes all MailTips from the cache.

 outlook.exe /cleanmailtipcache

/cleanroamedprefs

All previous roamed preferences are deleted and copied again from the local settings on the computer where this switch is used. This includes the roaming settings for reminders, free/busy grid, working hours, calendar publishing, and RSS rules.

 outlook.exe /cleanroamedprefs

/cleansharing

Removes all RSS, Internet Calendar, and SharePoint subscriptions from Account Settings, but leaves all the previously downloaded content on your computer. This is useful if you cannot delete one of these subscriptions within Outlook 2010.

 outlook.exe /cleansharing

/cleansniff

Overrides the programmatic lockout that determines which of your computers (when you run Outlook at the same time) processes meeting items. The lockout process helps prevent duplicate reminder messages. This switch clears the lockout on the computer it is used. This enables Outlook to process meeting items.

 outlook.exe /cleansniff

/cleansubscriptions

Deletes the subscription messages and properties for subscription features.

 outlook.exe /cleansubscriptions

/cleanviews

Restores default views. All custom views that you created are lost.

 outlook.exe /cleanviews

/embedding

Used without command-line parameters for standard OLE co-create.

 outlook.exe /embedding

/f msgfilename

Opens the specified message file (.msg) or Microsoft Office saved search (.oss).

 outlook.exe /f MessageName

/finder

Opens the Advanced Find dialog box.

 outlook.exe /finder

/hol holfilename

Opens the specified .hol file.

 outlook.exe /hol HolFileName

/ical icsfilename

Opens the specified .ics file.

 outlook.exe /ical ICSFileName.ics

/importNK2

Imports the contents of an .nk2 file which contains the nickname list that is used by both the automatic name checking and Auto-Complete features.

 outlook.exe /importNK2 NK2FileName.nk2

/importprf profilename

Starts Outlook and opens/imports the defined MAPI profile (*.prf). If Outlook is already open, queues the profile to be imported on the next clean start.

 outlook.exe /importprf Profile.prf

/launchtraininghelp assetid

Opens a Help window with the Help topic specified in assetid displayed.

 outlook.exe /launchtraininghelp AssetID

/m emailname

Provides a way for the user to add an e-mail name to the item. Only works together with the /c command-line parameter.

 outlook.exe /c ipm.note /m EmailName

/nopreview

Starts Outlook with the Reading Pane off.

 outlook.exe /nopreview

/p msgfilename

Prints the specified message (.msg).

 outlook.exe /p MessageFile.msg

/promptimportprf

Same as /importprf except that a prompt appears and the user can cancel the import.

 outlook.exe /promptimportprf

/recycle

Starts Outlook by using an existing Outlook window, if one exists.

 outlook.exe /recycle

/remigratecategories

Starts Outlook and starts the following commands on the default mailbox:
Upgrades colored For Follow Up flags to Outlook 2010 color categories.
Upgrades calendar labels to Outlook 2010 color categories.
Adds all categories used on non-mail items into the Master Category List

NOTE

This is the same command as Upgrade to Color Categories in each Outlook mailbox properties dialog box.

 outlook.exe /remigratecategories

/resetformregions

Empties the form regions cache and reloads the form region definitions from the Windows registry.

 outlook.exe resetformregions

/resetnavpane

Clears and regenerates the Navigation Pane for the current profile.

 outlook.exe /resetnavpane

/resetquicksteps

Restores the default Quick Steps. All user-created Quick Steps are deleted.

 outlook.exe /resetquicksteps

/resetsearchcriteria

Resets all Instant Search criteria so that the default set of criteria is shown in each module.

 outlook.exe /resetsearchcriteria

/resetsharedfolders

Removes all shared folders from the Navigation Pane.

 outlook.exe /resetsharedfolders

/resettodobar

Clears and regenerates the To-Do Bar task list for the current profile. The To-Do Bar search folder is deleted and re-created.

 outlook.exe /resettodobar

/restore

Attempts to open the same profile and folders that were open prior to an abnormal Outlook shutdown.

 outlook.exe /restore

/rpcdiag

Opens Outlook and displays the remote procedure call (RPC) connection status dialog box.

 outlook.exe /rpcdiag

/safe

Starts Outlook without the Reading Pane or toolbar customizations. Both native and managed Component Object Model (COM) add-ins are turned off.

 outlook.exe /safe

/safe:1

Starts Outlook with the Reading Pane off.

 outlook.exe /safe:1

/safe:3

Both native and managed Component Object Model (COM) add-ins are turned off.

 outlook.exe /safe:3

/select foldername

Starts Outlook and opens the specified folder in a new window. For example, to open Outlook and display the default calendar, use: "c:\program files\microsoft office\office14\outlook.exe" /select outlook:calendar.

 outlook.exe /select outlook:calendar

/share

Specifies a sharing URL to connect to Outlook. For example, use stssync://URL to connect a SharePoint list to Outlook.

 outlook.exe /share feed://URL/filename

 outlook.exe /stssync://URL

 outlook.exe /web://URL/filename

/sniff

Starts Outlook, forces a detection of new meeting requests in the Inbox, and then adds them to the calendar.

 outlook.exe /sniff

/t oftfilename

Opens the specified .oft file.

 outlook.exe /t OFTFileName.oft

/v vcffilename

Opens the specified .vcf file.

 outlook.exe /v VCFFileName.vcf

/vcal vcsfilename

Opens the specified .vcs file.

 outlook.exe /vcal VCSFileName.vcs

See ya!

More info:
Command-line switches for Outlook 2010

Public Folders Permissions on Exchange 2007/2010

2013-10-22T10:51:00.000-02:00

I used to work with Exchange System Manager when managing permissions on Exchange Public Folders, but last week got in trouble when in need to do it on our recently migrated to Exchange 2007 PFs. Turns out that Exchange Management Console doesn't seem to have any feature to manage the Public Folders permissions, so we need to use Power Shell in order to do it. Below are the cmdlets that will help us with that:

To add administrative permissions:

  Add-PublicFolderAdministrativePermission -Identity "\FolderPath" -AccessRights ACCESSRIGHTS -User USERNAME

-AccessRights parameter value may be:

None
ModifyPublicFolderACL
ModifyPublicFolderAdminACL
ModifyPublicFolderDeletedItemRetention
ModifyPublicFolderExpiry
ModifyPublicFolderQuotas
ModifyPublicFolderReplicaList
AdministerInformationStore
ViewInformationStore
AllExtendedRights

To add client permissions:

  Add-PublicFolderClientPermission -Identity "\FolderPath" -AccessRights ACCESSRIGHTS -User USERNAME

-AccessRights parameter value may be:

ReadItems
CreateItems
EditOwnedItems
DeleteOwnedItems
EditAllItems
DeleteAllItems
CreateSubfolders
FolderOwner
FolderContact
FolderVisible

To add send as permissions (for mail enabled public folders):

  Add-ADPermission "\All Public Folders\FolderPath" -User "USERNAME" -Extendedrights "Send As"

Here comes the complicated part...

In order to recursively add permissions to a folder and its subfolders, we'll need to use a script we'll find in Exchange Server: AddUsersToPFRecursive.ps1, however, this script will remove the user's permissions before adding the new ones, and that will require confirmation, which will be a pain if we're talking about too many subfolders (believe me, in my case there were hundreds of them). So I've made a small change in the script and renamed AddUsersToPFRecursive-No-Confirm.ps1 to keep the original.

All you need to do in order to remove the confirmation is to find this line:

  $permission | remove-PublicFolderClientPermission -identity $_.Identity -server $_.OriginatingServer

And add "Confirm:$false" in the end.

  $permission | remove-PublicFolderClientPermission -identity $_.Identity -server $_.OriginatingServer -Confirm:$false

Then save the script with a new name as I did, or one you prefer.

Once you have it done, you just need to call the script from the Shell console as usual:

  AddUsersToPFRecursive-No-Confirm.ps1 -TopPublicFolder "'\Europe\France'" -User "LAURENT_BARONI" -Permission Owner

** Note that I've put quotes " and an apostrophe ' on the parameter -TopPublicFolder. That's not a typo, don't ask me why, but this was the only way I could make it work. But it works, I promise :)

More info:
Add-PublicFolderAdministrativePermission cmdlet

Add-PublicFolderClientPermission cmdlet

Add-ADPermission cmdlet

AddUsersToPFRecursive.ps1 script

Moving Mailboxes in Exchange 2007 and 2010 via PowerShell - What is different?

2013-10-22T09:25:00.000-02:00

Exchange 2010 treats quite differently mailbox moves than 2007 version. We were used to use Move-Mailbox cmdlet in order to move mailboxes across servers/databases instantly, however with the mailbox disconnected (offline). Now we must use New-MoveRequest cmdlet to queue up a request which will be completed in background, which means the user will still be able to use it during the operation.

Exchange 2007 syntax:

 Move-Mailbox -Identity USERNAME -TargetDatabase DATABASE -BadItemLimit INT

Exchange 2010 syntax:

 New-MoveRequest -Identity USERNAME -TargetDatabase DATABASE -BadItemLimit INT

You can get updates about the move request by using Get-MoveRequest cmdlet:

 Get-MoveRequest -Identity USERNAME

More info:
Move-Mailbox cmdlet
New-MoveRequest cmdlet
Get-MoveRequest cmdlet

Delegate cannot create online meeting on behalf

2012-04-03T14:48:00.000-03:00

Lync is designed to be used as a complete platform for communications, including instant messaging and voice over IP, so this feature will have some problems when being used for people enabled only for PC-to-PC communication as the delegate settings are on a page shown only for users enabled for enterprise voice.

First you must enable the user for Enterprise Voice on Lync Server Control Panel:
Start > Programs > Microsoft Lync Server 2010 > Lync Server Control Panel
On Users tab, search for the username, double-click the user's record in the results pane
On Telephony, select "Enterprise Voice"
Click Commit

Then, after waiting about 1 hour for full propagation the user's Lync client will have the Call Forwarding Settings page and on user's computer, you'll need to follow below steps:

Expand the menu, Tools > Call forwarding settings *
Click Edit my delegate members
Click Add…
Find the user you want to grant delegate rights
IF you want your delegates to receive calls on your behalf, check the box under Receive calls and select your preference on “Ring your delegates after this many seconds”. Otherwise, uncheck the box under Receive calls.
Click Ok; Click Ok.

* If the user doesn’t have the option Call Forwarding Settings, restart the computer and try again.

How to show recent contacts in Lync

2012-03-29T14:33:00.000-03:00

As a former Communicator user, I've always complained about this "new contacts list" in Lync, where are shown only the "Frequent Contacts" instead of the "Recent Contacts" I used to have in Communicator...

Today as per requested by an user, I've made some research and found an article in Technet that showed me the way to have my recent contacts back.

You just need to right-click any contact in your list and then click on Pin to frequent contacts and it will be shown at the top of the list permanently. The pinned and unpinned ones will appear separated by a gray line. You may pin as many contacts as you want.

More info in: http://blogs.technet.com/b/lync/archive/2010/11/19/the-new-and-improved-contact-list.aspx

Hope this helps,
Felipe

How to Disable Outlook’s Junk E-mail Filter

2012-03-28T10:41:00.000-03:00

Open the registry editor: go to Start > Run and type “regedit”, no quotes.

In Outlook 2007, set the following key (create the keys in the path if they do not exist *):
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook
DWORD: DisableAntiSpam
Change the value to 1 (Hex)

If you use Outlook 2010, the key is (create the keys in the path if they do not exist *):
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\14.0\outlook

Restart your computer once you have the key set.

* To create the key in case it doesn’t exit:
1. In the folder you want to create it, click Edit > New > DWORD (32-bit value)
2. Name the key “DisableAntiSpam”, no quotes
3. Double click the item and set the value to 1 and check Hexadecimal radio button. Click OK.

See ya!

Script to change Site Collection Administrators in SharePoint 2007 with PowerShell

2011-10-19T21:26:00.000-02:00

Where I work, we receive several requests for site collection admin change per week, so that's something that always bothered me, since it's not a quick task to be done when you take care of a huge number of sites. That's why I managed to create this script today, it will help me (and my team) to save some time to do other more important (and more interesting) things. Here we go:

First of all, you need to create a ps file named Set-SiteCollectionAdmin.ps1 and paste the code below. You must have another file to put the sites which will have their SCA changed, let's name this one as Site-CollectionAdmin-List.txt.

Here's how the file should be formatted:

 http://mysite1,user1@company.com,user2@company.com  
 http://mysite2,,user3@company.com  
 http://mysite1,user4@company.com,

Note that on the first line, we are changing both the primary and the secondary SCAs, on the second one we are changing only the secondary SCA and on the third one only the primary.

Below is the source code, commented.

 # Declaring SharePoint assembly so PowerShell can use the SP object model  
 # Read more about Developing a PowerShell Script for SharePoint 2007  
 [void][System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("Microsoft.SharePoint")  
   
 # Getting the info from the file Set-SiteCollectionAdmin-List.txt  
 # Read also about Batch process in PowerShell - Get-Content and Import-CSV cmdlets  
 get-content Set-SiteCollectionAdmin-List.txt | foreach {  
      # Splitting the row by the commas and assigning each part to one variable  
      $row = $_.split(",")  
      # Site URL  
      $url = $row[0].Trim()  
      # Primary SCA email/username  
      $prim = $row[1].Trim()  
      # Secondary SCA email/username  
      $sec = $row[2].Trim()  
        
      Write-Host ""  
   
      # Creating an URI variable to be used on the next method  
      $uri = New-Object Uri($url)  
        
      # Checking whether the mentioned site exists  
      if([Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite]::Exists($uri))  
      {  
           # Instantiating the site collection  
           $site = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite($url)  
           # Opening the top level web  
           $web = $site.OpenWeb()  
        
           Write-Host $site.URL -foregroundcolor Green  
             
           # Checking whether the primary SCA will be changed  
           if($prim -ne "")  
           {  
                # Checking whether the user already exists in the site.  
                # EnsureUser() will add the user to the site collection if he doesn't exist yet.  
                $primAdm = $web.EnsureUser($prim)  
                # Changing the site owner (primary SCA) to the user.  
                $site.Owner = $primAdm  
                Write-Host "New SCA: $prim"  
           }  
             
           # Same process of the primary SCA  
           if($sec -ne "")  
           {  
                # Checking whether the user already exists in the site.  
                # EnsureUser() will add the user to the site collection if he doesn't exist yet.  
                $secAdm = $web.EnsureUser($sec)  
                # Changing the site secondary contact (secondary SCA) to the user.  
                $site.SecondaryContact = $secAdm  
                Write-Host "New Sec SCA: $sec"  
           }  
      }  
      else # if the site doesn't exist, just jump to the next row  
      {  
           Write-Host "Site $url not found. Jumping to next row." -ForegroundColor Red  
      }  
        
      # Disposing web and site objects from memory  
      $web.Dispose()  
      $site.Dispose()  
 }

Important: I could only make this work by running powershell as the farm account. Any suggestions of how to do it without needing the would be great.

Batch process in PowerShell - Get-Content and Import-CSV cmdlets

2011-10-19T21:01:00.002-02:00

One of the most important, easy and useful things I see in PowerShell is the possibility to easily process several requests in batch, saving a lot of time. In this article I'm going to explain in this article how to get information from a TXT file and process anything with it using Get-Content cmdlet and also how to get information from a CSV file using the Import-CSV cmdlet.

Get-Content cmdlet:

 PS C:\> Get-Content MyTextFile.txt  
 Line0  
 Line1  
 Line2  
 Line3  
 Line4

This first example shows us just how to show the file content, however, the most interesting utilization is with a loop, which will allow us to do several tasks in a row for each line of the file as follows (let's say I have 3 computer names on MyTextFile.txt now):

 PS C:\> Get-Content MyTextFile.txt | ForEach { IISRESET $_ }  
 Attempting stop...  
 Internet services successfully stopped  
 Attempting start...  
 Internet services successfully restarted  
 Attempting stop...  
 Internet services successfully stopped  
 Attempting start...  
 Internet services successfully restarted  
 Attempting stop...  
 Internet services successfully stopped  
 Attempting start...  
 Internet services successfully restarted

You can also limit the number of rows you want to be fetched from the file by using the parameter TotalCount if you want to get the x first records, or using the Select-Object cmdlet with the parameter -Last to have the x last records, as follows:

 PS C:\> Get-Content .\MyTextFile.txt -TotalCount 3  
 Computer0  
 Computer1  
 Computer2  
 PS C:\> Get-Content .\MyTextFile.txt | Select-Object -Last 3  
 Computer7  
 Computer8  
 Computer9

Import-CSV cmdlet:

Let's say we have a CSV file, an Excel file (which can be easily saved as CSV), or even data exported from any application in comma-separated-values. This can be handled by PowerShell just as easily as the TXT file, plus the possibility to search the records you want to work with by quickly building queries to get information from the file content.

 PS C:\> Import-CSV .\MyCSVFile.csv | Format-Table -AutoSize  
 FullName        Extension CreationTime  LastAccessTime LastWriteTime  
 --------        --------- ------------  -------------- -------------  
 C:\install.res.1028.dll .dll   11/7/2006 9:03 5/6/2011 17:29 11/7/2006 9:03  
 C:\install.res.1031.dll .dll   11/7/2007 9:03 5/6/2011 17:29 11/7/2007 9:03  
 C:\install.res.1033.dll .dll   11/7/2008 9:03 5/6/2011 17:29 11/7/2008 9:03  
 C:\install.res.1036.dll .dll   11/7/2009 9:03 5/6/2011 17:29 11/7/2009 9:03  
 C:\install.res.1040.dll .dll   11/7/2010 9:03 5/6/2011 17:29 11/7/2010 9:03

First example shows how to just get the file content and using Format-Table cmdlet to have the outcome formatted. Next, let's see how to filter only the ones with date greather than 1/1/2009 by using the Where-Object cmdlet an then again Format-Table for the outcome.

 PS C:\> Import-CSV .\MyCSVFile.csv | Where-Object {[datetime]::Parse($_.CreationTime) -gt '1/1/2009' } | Format-Table -AutoSize  
 FullName        Extension CreationTime  LastAccessTime LastWriteTime  
 --------        --------- ------------  -------------- -------------  
 C:\install.res.1036.dll .dll   11/7/2009 9:03 5/6/2011 17:29 11/7/2009 9:03  
 C:\install.res.1040.dll .dll   11/7/2010 9:03 5/6/2011 17:29 11/7/2010 9:03

More info:

Get-Content cmdlet
Import-CSV cmdlet

Developing a PowerShell Script for SharePoint 2007

2011-10-18T20:23:00.000-02:00

Since I started working with SharePoint infrastructure and administration, I've been thinking on a solution to automatize some daily tasks that ever since I was able only to perform either via Central Administration or STSADM command.

So today, I started studying how to work with PowerShell scripting for SharePoint, and it seems to be pretty easy and cool :)

The first thing you must do so PowerShell can access SharePoint assemblies is to load them using below code line:

[void][System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("Microsoft.SharePoint")

Once you have the assemblies loaded, you can invoke all methods of SP object model, just like if you were developing with any .NET programming language. Below example shows how to get both the primary and secondary Site Collection Administrators from a given URL:

$site = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite("http://mysite")

$priSCALogin = $site.Owner.LoginName

$secSCALogin = $site.SecondaryContact.LoginName

write "-Primary SCA: $priSCALogin"

write "-Secondary SCA: $secSCALogin"

I'll keep working and studying about this and obviously, posting.

OCS Conversation History saved on the wrong mailbox

2011-10-10T16:36:00.000-03:00

These days I've been working on an issue related to the OCS Conversation History, and where it was saving its instant messaging records. The user in case has an additional mailbox set in Outlook and Communicator was saving all conversation histories in the additional mailbox, which can cause several problems, since the users conversation were being stored into a shared folder.

After several frustrated attempts of solving the problem, a teammate of mine found out a solution, and here it is:

In Communicator, go to Tools > Options...
In Office Communicator - Options window, uncheck Save my instant message conversations in the Outlook Conversation History folder;
Restart Communicator;
Remove all the additional mailboxes as explained here;
Restart Outlook;
Check again "Save my instant message conversations in the Outlook Conversation History folder" in Communicator > Tools > Options;
Chat with someone and double check whether the conversations are being stored in the correct folder;
Add the secondary mailboxes back, as explained here;
Check again whether the conversations are yet being saved at the correct location.

How to add/remove additional mailboxes in Outlook

2011-10-10T15:55:00.000-03:00

How to add an additional mailbox in Outlook:

In Outlook 2010, Go to File > Account Settings > Account Settings...

In Outlook 2007, Tools > Account Settings...

On Account Settings window, Select Default, then click Change...
On Change Account window, click More Settings...
On Microsoft Exchange window, go to Advanced tab and click Add...
On Add Mailbox window, type the mailbox name in Add mailbox field.
Click Ok, Ok, Next, Finish.

How to remove the additional mailbox:

In Outlook 2010, Go to File > Account Settings > Account Settings...

In Outlook 2007, Tools > Account Settings...

On Account Settings window, Select Default, then click Change...
On Change Account window, click More Settings...
On Microsoft Exchange window, go to Advanced tab
If the mailbox is listed in Open these additional mailboxes, select it and click Remove
Click OK, Next, Finish

The Delegates settings were not saved correctly. Cannot activate free/busy information

2011-09-27T15:40:00.000-03:00

Got this error message today when trying to update some delegates settings:

---------------------------
Microsoft Office Outlook
---------------------------
The Delegates settings were not saved correctly. Cannot activate free/busy information.
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------

To fix the issue I needed to use MFCMAPI tool. Just follow below instructions and all should work fine:

Start the MfcMapi.exe
On MFCMAPI x86 Build window, click OK
Go to Session > Logon and Display Store Table
Choose the user profile (if the computer has more than one)
Double-click the Mailbox - username store
In the navigation pane, click Root Container.
In the details pane, right-click PR_FREEBUSY_ENTRYIDS, click Delete Property, and then click OK.
In the navigation pane, expand Root Container, expand Top of Information Store, and then clickInbox.
In the details pane, right-click PR_FREEBUSY_ENTRYIDS, click Delete Property, and then click OK.
Close MFCMAPI
Click Start, click Run, type outlook.exe /cleanfreebusy, and then press ENTER.

Microsoft Exchange Server MAPI Editor (MFCMAPI)

2011-09-27T15:14:00.000-03:00

MFCMAPI is a powerful tool which allows you to access and fix several problems in MAPI stores through a graphical interface.

MFCMAPI download from CodePlex.

Not able to open restricted permission messages (Rights Management Services - RMS)

2011-09-13T16:25:00.000-03:00

Last week I worked on a RMS issue, which I couldn't find a solution. However, a teammate of mine who works with security has sent me some instructions which have solved the problem.

Start->Run->compmgmt.msc
Expand Services and Applications
Click on Services
Stop “cryptographic server” service on end user machine (keep this windows open). Right click on the service and select stop.
Rename c:\winnt\system32\catroot2 directory to c:\winnt\system32\catroot2.old
Start “cryptographic server” service on end user machine. Righ click on the service and select start.

Not able to add/remove delegates - Outlook 2007

2011-09-13T15:22:00.000-03:00

Got this error message today, when trying to remove an user from delegates tab.

---------------------------
Microsoft Office Outlook
---------------------------
The Delegates settings were not saved correctly. Cannot activate send-on-behalf-of list.
You do not have sufficient permission to perform this operation on this object.
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------

I've found a solution in a Microsoft KB, which solved the problem quite easily. You just need to add a registry key, so with Outlook closed follow below steps

Cick Start then Run and next type regedit, press Enter;
Browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\Preferences;
Click New on the Edit menu and select DWORD Value;
Type IgnoreSOBError, press Enter. Right click the new key and click Modify;
In Value Data type 1;
Close Registry Editor and Reopen Outlook. You should be able to add/remove delegates from now on.

How to reset user's Unified Messaging VoiceMail PIN via PowerShell

2011-08-31T19:37:00.002-03:00

This one is so easy that I won't type too much :)

Set-UMMailboxPIN -Identity USERNAME

Most used parameters:

Pin: use this parameter to manually set a new pin to the user
SendEmail: set this parameter to $false if you don't want the user to receive an e-mail with the new pin. The default value is $true, which means the user will receive an e-mail with the new pin and information about phone access numbers
NotifyEmail: specifies the email address that the automated email will be sent to
PinExpired: specifies whether the new Pin will be treated as expired, which means that the user should change it at the first log on.

More info:

Set-UMMailboxPIN cmdlet

How to get mailbox permissions

2011-08-31T19:19:00.001-03:00

Last article I've posted (How to grant/remove permissions on an Exchange 2007 mailbox) was about how to SET mailbox permissions, but another cool thing we can do with PowerShell is to GET them for that, you must use the cmdlet Get-MailboxPermission.

Get-MailboxPermission -Identity MAILBOX | Format-Table User, AccessRights, IsInherited

Most used parameters:

Identity: username or email address associated to the mailbox
User: use this parameter to check the rights an user has on the mailbox
Owner: use this parameter to check users who have owner rights on the mailbox

More info:

Get-MailboxPermission cmdlet

How to grant/remove permissions on an Exchange 2007 mailbox

2011-08-31T16:44:00.000-03:00

These almost-daily tasks are quite easy to perform via EMC, but infinitely easier through PowerShell...

Adds mailbox permissions:
Add-MailboxPermission -Identity MAILBOX -User USER -AccessRights FullAccess -InheritanceType All

Removes mailbox permissions:

Remove-MailboxPermission -Identity MAILBOX -User USER -AccessRight FullAccess -confirm:$false

Most used parameters:

Identity: the username or email address associated to the mailbox which you want to set the permissions
User: the username or email address associated to the user who will receive the permissions on the mailbox
InheritanceType: specify how far down the Active Directory object structure the “read” permissions are inherited (more info here)
AccessRights: the rights you want to grant to the user on the mailbox. Valid values are:

FullAccess;
SendAs;
ExternalAccount;
DeleteItem;
ReadPermission;
ChangePermission;
ChangeOwner

Confirm: Specifies whether the command will pause and wait for your confirmation when removing an user's permissions. Set it as $True if you want the script to run without requesting confirmation.

UPDATE: See also the post How to get mailbox permissions about getting the permissions on a mailbox

More info:

Add-MailboxPermission cmdlet

Remove-MailboxPermission cmdlet

User mailbox has more than one primary SMTP address

2011-08-30T13:30:00.001-03:00

Today I've got this issue, an user who couldn't receive e-mails from anyone. When I checked his mailbox, EMC showed me an error saying that his account had more than one primary SMTP address, opening user's properties. EMC didn't let me remove any of them since you can't remove the primary.

Error message: "There are multiple primary SMTP addresses. Please ensure there is only one primary address for each address type."

So the solution I've found was to remove the extra SMTP addresses from the attribute proxyAddress on user's Active Directory object. Leave only one of the addresses with prefix SMTP.

UPDATE: Use ADSIEdit.msc tool to remove the extra SMTP addresses. More information about ADSIEdit here.

Then EMC will let you add the secondary SMTP addresses back and they won't be marked as primary.

How to check Exchange databases status via PowerShell

2011-08-30T10:32:00.001-03:00

Run the cmdlet Get-MailboxDatabase to get information about the DB status. Use parameter -Identity to check the status of a single DB and -Server for all DBs in a server.

Check the status of a single DB

Get-MailboxDatabase -Identity DBNAME -Status | Format-Table Name, Mounted, BackupInProgress, OnlineMaintenanceInProgress

Check the status of all DBs in a Server

Get-MailboxDatabase -Server SERVERNAME -Status | Format-Table Name, Mounted, BackupInProgress, OnlineMaintenanceInProgress

* The -Status parameter specifies whether the script will get status information from the DB(s) or not. If not provided, the attributes Mounted, BackupInProgress and OnlineMaintenanceInProgress will return empty.

More info:
Get-MailboxDatabase cmdlet

How to specify PowerShell session scope

2011-08-29T12:27:00.002-03:00

As well as Exchange Management Console, Exchange Shell Console allows you to define the operations scope. You can choose for viewing and working either on the entire forest or on a single domain.

Exchange 2007

$AdminSessionADSettings.DefaultScope="domain1.contoso.com"
$AdminSessionADSettings.ViewEntireForest=$true

Exchange 2010
Set-AdServerSettings -RecipientViewRoot "domain2.contoso.com"
Set-AdServerSettings -ViewEntireForest $true

* when set to the entire forest, all settings changed will take longer than usual to replicate

How to mount/dismount mailbox databases via PowerShell

2011-08-29T11:47:00.048-03:00

For several times I had to dismount and re-mount all the mailbox databases from a server, and doing this via Exchange Management Console is way to slow, so I've researched a bit and found some commands to do this with PowerShell.

How to check Exchange databases status via PowerShell

In order to mount/dismount DBs, use Mount-Database and Dismount-Database respectively. Use Get-MailboxDatabase cmdlet with -Server parameter to fetch the DBs from a server and then the mount/dismount cmdlet.

Dismount a single DB

Dismount-Database -Identity DBNAME -Confirm:$False

Dismount all DBs of a server

Get-MailboxDatabase -Server SERVERNAME | Dismount-Database -Confirm:$False

Mount a single DB

Mount-Database -Identity DBNAME -Confirm:$False

Mount all DBs of a server

Get-MailboxDatabase -Server SERVERNAME | Mount-Database -Confirm:$False

More info:
Get-MailboxDatabase cmdlet

Dismount-Database cmdlet

Mount-Database cmdlet