Outlook 2000 is a MAPI-based program that relies on the Exchange transport
service to communicate with an Exchange 2000 server over RPCs. You configure
this transport in the context of a messaging profile independent of the
client.
Outlook will attempt to connect to the server using all available
communication methods in a sequential order until it can either connect
successfully or until all methods have failed. The default connect order is
LPC, TCP/IP, SPX/IPX, named pipes, NetBIOS, and Banyan Vines protocol. Once
Outlook has been installed, you need to use regedit to change the
Rpc_Binding_Order value. You can both change the rearrange and delete entries
to speed up the client startup process:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\EXCHANGE\EXCHANGE PROVIDER\
Rpc_Binding_Order values:
LPC ............: ncalrpc
RPC TCP/IP......: ncacn_ip_tcp
RPC SPX.........: ncacn_spx
RPC Named Pipes.: ncacn_np
RPC NetBIOS.....: netbios
RPC BanyanVines.: ncacn_vns_spp
Although Exchange 2000 provides you with the ability to configure multiple
storage groups on one server to increase fault tolerance and resilience, you
need to keep in mind that Outlook 2000 cannot handle delegate access across
different mailbox stores (this is actually a limitation of Exchange 2000
transport). Exchange 2000 prevents delegate access between users on diffent
mailbox stores on the same physical server. Delegate access is only between
users with mailboxes on the same store and across multiple servers. When
using "Send On Behalf Of", if your delegate happens to be an enterprise or
domain administrator, you need to grant her the "Send As" permission in
addition to the Full Mailbox Access right. Administrators are denied this
right by default to prevent them from opening mailboxes of other users right
away. You can overrule this inherited denial in AD Users and Computers with
an explicit permission. The Mailbox Rights and Security property sheets are
only available when enabling Avanced Features on the View menu.
To install Outlook 2000 via a login script, you need to launch Setup with the
/a parameter to set up an administrative installation point, which you then
can customize using the Custom Installation Wizard. At the end of the
customization process, a transform file is written, which you will save in
the installation point. The Custom Installation Wizard suggests a command
line for an unattended installation which you should copy into the users'
login script. You should make sure the command is only executed once per
user. The setting precedence for setup is as follows: the transform file
has lowest priority, followed by setup.ini, which is superseded by the
command line options.
MAPI-Based Clients
MAPI is only a specification and not a messaging system itself. It provides
only a common way to access messaging backbones. MAPI defines standardized
interfaces at two layers, which allows the creation of client applications
and the development of information services. The client-side specification
is called the client interface, and the system-side specification is
known as the service provider interface.
The Automatic Profile Generator (newprof.exe) is an installation tool that
uses a profile descriptor file (.prf) to create MAPI profiles for users.
It is installed in the \program files\common files\system\mapi\1033\nt
directory. You can start the tool in login scripts or manually at any time
to create additional profiles or to modify existing ones. You can run
newprof.exe by specifying the following options:
newprof.exe [-p path\to\prffile.prf] [-s] [-x] [-z]
-p references the complete path to the PRF file
-s provides a user interface to select the .prf file, etc.
-z displays MAPI status codes in case of errors (requires -s)
-x executes newprof.exe -s automatically w/o user interaction
(requires -p)
The outlook.prf file that comes with the MS Office 2000 Resource Kit
contains a description of customizable profile properties.
Messaging profiles are stored in the registry under:
HKCU\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\WINDOWSNT\CURRENTVERSION\
WINDOWS MESSAGING SUBSYSTEM\PROFILES\