Exchange 2016: Comprehensive white paper on Autodiscover

Every day I receive emails from readers with questions and problems that are largely due to Autodiscover and/or incorrect certificates. This whitepaper is intended to help administrators understand and correctly configure Autodiscover, as it is an important part of Exchange Server without which the connection of Outlook and other devices would not work. The idea for ... Read more

Apple, ActiveSync and StartCom / StartSSL / WoSign

I am currently receiving a lot of inquiries about ActiveSync and Apple devices. Apple devices do not want to establish an ActiveSync connection with Exchange using the integrated Mail app. So if you find your environment in the following description, you will run into the problem described: Apple devices with the integrated mail app (iPhone, iPad) The SSL certificate comes from StartCom / StartSSL ... Read more

Exchange User Group Berlin - First in the new year

The Exchange User Group Berlin will meet for the first time this year on 16.02.2017. An agenda has also already been published: As announced, the Exchange User Group Berlin will meet on 16.02.2017 at 18:00 at the Microsoft Accelerator Berlin, Unter den Linden 17. The program "Bring Your Own Script" with Davorin Scharping (script examples), Evgenij Smirnov (moderation) ... Read more

Determine Exchange Server PatchLevel

Unfortunately the Exchange 2010 Shell is not reliable, if you want to find out which patch level the Exchange Server has, the Exchange Shell always returns the build 123.4: In the Exchange 2010 Shell only the last service pack for Exchange 2010 is displayed (SP3), but not the update rollup packages: A better method ... Read more

Exchange 2016: Configure URLs and hostnames via PowerShell

To specify the URLs and hostnames of an Exchange 2016 server, the following script can be used: #Hostname for Exchange Webservices, OWA, Outlook Anywhere, Active Sync: $OutlookHostname = "outlook.frankysweb.de" #Hostname for Autodiscover: $AutodiscoverHostname = "autodiscover.frankysweb.de" #OWA $owa = "https://" + "$OutlookHostname" + "/owa" write-host "OWA URL:" $owa Get-OwaVirtualDirectory -Server $env:computername | Set-OwaVirtualDirectory -internalurl $owa -externalurl $owa ... Read more

PowerShell: Out-GridView for displaying data

I often don't feel like typing in long filters in PowerShell for large amounts of data. I have therefore gotten into the habit of filtering the data afterwards. The PowerShell CMDLet "Out-GridView" makes this process much easier. With "Out-GridView", data can be displayed in table form and sorted in different ways. This function is particularly useful if you want to get a quick overview. Read more

Outlook 2016: Deactivate buttons / functions

Buttons, functions or button groups can be deactivated with the help of group policies or the registry. This small example shows how to disable the Microsoft Store in Outlook. These two components are required to disable certain buttons or menus: Office 2016 Administrative Template files (ADMX/ADML) Office 2016 Help Files: Office Fluent User Interface Control ... Read more

Exchange 2016: Determine DNS names for certificates (Quick & Dirty)

The DNS names of the configured URLs of the virtual Exchange directories are relevant for the SSL certificate. The corresponding DNS names must be available on the certificate as SAN (Subject Alternate Name). This small script lists all configured DNS names of the Exchange 2016 servers. This allows the certificate to be requested and issued accordingly. $AllExchangeServers = Get-ExchangeServer foreach ($ExchangeServer in $AllExchangeServers) ... Read more

Exchange 2016: Free certificates from Let's Encrypt

Foreword The certification authority Let's Encrypt has been offering free certificates for some time now. I wrote an article on this topic back in December 2015, but the Windows client wasn't working reliably at the time, so I had to take a detour via a Linux computer. A little over a year has now passed and I have ... Read more

Office Update and Sophos UTM: error code 30180-26

Outlook informed me today that it would like to install updates: However, after clicking on "Update now", only the following message was displayed: Sorry, that didn't work. Unfortunately, Office could not be installed. Please make sure that you have an Internet connection and then try the installation again. Error code: 30180-26 The Windows ... Read more