According to a Microsoft tech note, the need of a NK2 file is no more! HAZAH I say! Nothing worse than having my co-workers migrate over a user’s profile only to get harassed afterward that all the users “contacts” are missing.

For those of you that are unaware of what a NK2 file does, it is the thing that stores all of the email addresses that get pre-populated when you type the first couple of a user’s email. It is very helpful for those of us who do not keep accurate contacts.

In outlook 2010, it imports the NK2 file into the information store, so if you have outlook on multiple computers, they all share the same NK2 information. I applaud Microsoft on this one, the feature of the nk2 file was great, but this is greater!

I had a user complaining of receiving the following error whenever they opened Outlook 2003:
“Error in registry for extension “Exchange Extensions;?”.  The syntax or format of the registry entry is incorrect.  Check the registry settings and compare the registry for this extension to other extensions in the registry”
After a bit of legwork, I’ve found the following MS KB which seemed to have done the trick:

To resolve this issue, follow these steps:
Quit Outlook 2003.
Click Start, click Run, type regedit in the Open box, and then click OK.
Locate and then select the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Exchange\Client\Extensions
Right-click Exchange Extensions, and then click Modify.
Delete the value that is in the Value data box, and then type the following value in the Value data box:
4.0;emsuix32.dll;7;011111111111110;1111011100
Click OK to close the Edit String dialog box.
On the File menu, click Exit.

Once completed, no more error.  Now the user can go back to do their great outlooking needs!

I have a user that is looking to access public folders via Outlook Web Access.  The problem is that even in IE, it was logging in as light mode instead of full mode.  It turns out that he had Use the blind and low vision experience enabled.  To turn this off, login as the user OWA.
Click Options

Accessability

Uncheck Use the blind and low vision experience.

Log off OWA and log back in, and like magic, issue resolved!

The issue I was having is every time I opened up Outlook 2007, I would receive the error database creation was unsuccessful from the Business Small Contact Manager.  Now, I don’t know anyone that uses this software, so I was one step away from removing it, but decided to see if SQL was started first.  Sure enough, the service SQL Server (MSSMLBIZ) was not started.  Once starting this service, the install was able to finish.

I have a user that did shift delete from outlook.  A co-worker of mine pointed me in the right direction on how to resolve this.

1. Open the registry.
2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWARE\Microsoft\Exchange\Client\Options.
3. Add a DWORD value named DumpsterAlwaysOn and set it to 1.
4. Restart Microsoft Outlook to make the change take effect.

Then from the inbox, you can go to recover deleted items from the Tools tab.

Its as simple as that.  No need for expensive gimmick softwares!

For those outlook users that have calendars in the Public Folders, pay attention.

*Note: I confirmed this functionality in outlook 2003 and outlook 2007

1. Navigate to the Public folder Calendar

2. Right click the name

3. Select add to favorites

4. YOU ARE DONE!

If you now go to the calendar view, you should be able to see the Public Folder Calendar there!  Simple Right?  For years, I used to say that this was impossible to do.  It seems that nothing is impossible my friend…

Well, I don’t know about you, but I absolutely, HATE the following error message:

The messaging interface has returned an unknown error. If the problem persists, restart Outlook

I get this when I try to access user’s shared calendars. I have this error occurring on my outlook 2003 and outlook 2007 machines, Since I am the main helpdesk person, clients like to call technical support and complain when the techs are late. The first thing I am supposed to do is check their calendar, and what do you know, I CAN’T!

Well, ranting aside, I did a little bit of research one tip is to turn off standby mode and hibernation mode. Since other apps were failing due to standby as well, I figured I would give that a go first. Granted, just closing outlook and reopening it resolves the issue, but outlook is a beast and I don’t have the energy to wait for it to open while people are yelling at me saying tech 1 is not at the location yet.

If it works, I’ll be sure to update!