Forefront Protection for Exchange Rollup 4

Posted on December 6, 2011 by Michel de Rooij

Microsoft released Hotfix Rollup 4 for Forefront Protection for Exchange Server (KB2619883).

Here’s the list of fixes included in this rollup:

Email is sent to the Forefront Protection for Exchange UNDELIVERABLE folder instead of being delivered
UNC and proxy credentials are stored in clear text in the Forefront Protection for Exchange file system
The Forefront Protection for Exchange FSEMachinePrep.exe fails with a fatal error
The external sender does not receive the expected Forefront Protection for Exchange generated notification
Forefront Protection for Exchange generates a notification with a blank subject line
Forefront Protection for Exchange virus engine updates fail between the passive node and active node in CCR clusters
Forefront Protection for Exchange only accepts 7-digit License Agreement numbers
Forefront Protection for Exchange generates a 2098 event ID every time the MSExchangeTransport service is restarted
Email queues at startup on an Exchange server running Forefront Protection for Exchange

For more details on the fixes consult the knowledge base article. You can request the hotfix rollup directly from the support center here.

Exchange Management Console & IE9 issue fixed

Posted on October 17, 2011 by Michel de Rooij

Finally, today the Exchange team made available a fix to solve the issues when using the Management Console of Exchange 2007 or 2010 in conjunction with Internet Explorer 9.

As you probably know, when using Internet Explorer 9 you can’t close the Exchange Management Console properly as it gives you the error “You must close all dialog boxes before you can close Exchange Management Console” having no dialogs open.

To solve this issue, you had to do the resort to measures like killing the EMC process using Task Manager.

To properly install the hotfix:

Request hotfix ID 2624899 from support here. For a direct download link click here.
Download and install MS11-081 (2586448). You can retrieve this update here.
Install the hotfix ID 2624899.

Microsoft states it expects to incorporate this fix in a future update of Internet Explorer 9.

While releasing a fix for the IE9 issue is great after all these month, I can’t help but wonder why the fix has not been made public.

Exchange 2010 SP1 Rollup 4 v2

Posted on July 29, 2011 by Michel de Rooij

After pulling Rollup 4 for Exchange Server 2010 SP1 on July 13th, after potential data loss issues were discovered during folders movements, and publishing an intermediate hotfix to resolve the RU4 issues without a rollup rerelease, the Exchange team decided to publish an updated version of rollup 4. This is somehow unexpected because of the expected release of rollup 5 in August. It’s good to see the Exchange team getting very open in this post about recent missteps in published rollups for such a mission critical application.

Exchange 2010 SP1 Rollup 4 v2 raises Exchange 2010′s version number to 14.1.323.6 (initial release was 14.1.323.1). The related knowledgebase article is kb2579150.

For the correct procedure on how to update a DAG and its members, check here.

You can download Exchange 2010 SP1 Rollup4 v2 here.

Microsoft Office Filter Pack 2010 SP1

Posted on June 28, 2011 by Michel de Rooij

Right after launching Office 365, Microsoft released Service Pack 1 for Microsoft Office 2010 (KB2460049) which includes Office 365 support besides a big list of fixes. For those interested, Office 2010 SP1 can be downloaded here (x86) and here (x64). For a full list of changes, check out Microsoft Office 2010 Service Pack 1 Changes Excel sheet.

More interesting for Exchange folks is that there’s also an SP1 for the Microsoft Office Filter Pack 2010, which of course you install during Exchange setup as one of the prerequisites. As you probably know, the Filter Pack is used to index Office documents stored in Exchange databases to speed up queries.

You can download Service Pack 1 for Microsoft Office Filter Pack 2010 x64 Edition here. The related knowledgebase article is KB2460041.

KB979744 re-released to fix issues after installing MS11-028

Posted on April 20, 2011 by Michel de Rooij

A quick notice on the Exchange Team re-releasing hotfix KB979744 after identifying the issue which could cause problems on Windows Server 2008 SP2 (not R2). The problem can lead to Exchange Management Shell or Exchange Management Console not starting, MRS crashing or Event Viewer not opening after installing MS11-028 (KB2449742 or KB2449741, depending on your Windows Server 2008 level).