Reporting Outlook Client Versions Using Log Parser Studio

Earlier, I wrote an article referencing Chris Lehr's Log Parser script to identify and report which Outlook client versions are being used to access Exchange. You can read that article here.

Today, I'm showing you how to do the same thing with Log Parser Studio using a configuration written by my friend Lars Eber, an Exchange Premier Field Engineer at Microsoft. Log Parser Studio 2.0 is a customizable GUI tool that greatly simplifies creating complex Log Parser 2.2 command-line queries and presents the output natively in an easy to read fashion.

If you don't have Log Parser 2.2 or Log Parser Studio 2.0 installed yet, you will need to do so. Just follow the links to download and install them (you'll need both). Then run LPS.EXE from the C:\LPSV2.D1 folder to run Log Parser Studio.

Download Lars' ExchangeClientVersion.zip configuration from my website and unzip it to a temporary location. In Log Parser Studio, click File > Import > .XML to Library, select the ExchangeClientVersion.XML file you just extracted, and click the Merge Now button.

To run the query, first configure Log Parser with the log folder location. Click the yellow folder icon and browse to the folder where the IIS logs exist. Normally, this is \\servername\c$\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V15\Logging\RPC Client Access. Then select the Exchange Client Version Overview query in the library and click the red exclamation point icon to run it.

Log Parser Studio will run the query and provide easy to read results showing the user name, DN, client software, version, client mode (cached or online), client IP address, and the protocol used. Very useful!

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Reporting Outlook Client Versions Using Log Parser

I'm doing a little cross-pollination today. Chris Lehr, one of my colleagues at ExtraTeam, worked up a Log Parser script that produces a report showing all the clients versions connecting to Exchange.  This is very helpful to show which clients are running Office versions in your organization that should be updated prior to migration.  Check out his blog post here.

Outlook Client Version Report

Clients will always get the best experience using the latest version of Office, currently Office 2013 SP1. The best practice is to always update your clients with the latest cumulative update prior to migration. this is especially true when you're migrating to Office 365, since most updates pertain to Office 365, Exchange Online, and Exchange 2013 compatibility.

If you find that you need to upgrade clients to a new version of Office, I recommend that you install the x86 version of Office to provide the best compatibility with add-ons and third-party products. Some customers think they need to install Office x64 on Windows x64 operating systems, but that's not the case. See 64-bit editions of Office 2013 for details on when it makes sense to install Office x64.

If you're an Office 365 customer, I strongly recommend checking out using the Office 2013 ProPlus software deployment that's most likely part of your Enterprise license. This version of Office 2013 can be installed on up to 5 PCs, iPads, tablets, etc. and is always up-to-date since it's a cloud-managed service.

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Exchange 2010 archive support in Outlook 2007

It's about time...

The Office 2007 Cumulative Update for December 2010 finally includes Exchange 2010 archive support, as well as a bunch of bug fixes.  Strangely, the website for the update doesn't list anything about this support.

Take a look at the article, "Yes Virginia, there is Exchange 2010 archive support in Outlook 2007" on the Exchange Team's blog for details about Exchange 2010 archive support.  The site also explains what Exchange archiving is and how it works with Outlook 2007.

With the release of this update, organizations with Office 2007/Outlook 2007 deployed can benefit from Exchange 2010's archiving and retention features.

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Slow Outlook Startup Performance (Part 2)

In an earlier article, I discussed how Outlook startup performance suffers when Outlook Anywhere is configured on the corporate network.

I received an email from a reader, Bruce Lane from Microsoft, who mentioned that he ran across a configuration that was causing slow Outlook startup, as well.

Bruce writes,

New to Outlook 2007 is calendar caching. This allows users to see other peoples’ calendars even if they are working offline.


The problem is that this causes a tremendous amount of client<->server traffic. The problem is especially bad if the user has many other users calendars open (more than 5 or 6). The people that were experiencing the worst problems were the admin assistants for the most senior people in the organization. They often have many calendars open.


We saw horrible start up times (3 to 4 minutes) and big lags to change views caused by the calendar caching. Luckily there is a setting in the Outlook profile to disable this feature. 

Thanks very much for the tip, Bruce!

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Speed up Outlook 2007 Access

I've heard several clients complain that Outlook 2007 takes too long to start up compared to previous versions of Outlook. In most cases I've found that this is because Outlook 2007 is configured to connect to Exchange using Outlook Anywhere, even on their corporate LAN/WAN.

Here's how to correct this:

• Open Outlook and click Tools > Account Settings, or in Control Panel open Mail and click E-mail Accounts.
• Double-click the Email account name that's using Exchange to edit its properties
• Click the More Settings button
• Click the Connection tab
• Clear the Outlook Anywhere checkbox that reads, Connect to Microsoft Exchange using HTTP
• Click OK > Next > Finish
• Restart Outlook

Note: Also see this link for another possible cause of slow Outlook startup performance.

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How to Determine if a PST is ANSI or Unicode

PSTs created in Outlook 2002 and earlier versions are saved in ANSI format, which has a 2.1GB limit. Outlook 2003 and later offer both ANSI and Unicode formats for PST creation. Unicode PSTs have a theoretical 36TB limit which makes them a better choice, providing that backward compatibility is not an issue.

So how can you tell if a PST is in ANSI or Unicode format?

One way is to download a free utility called ListPSTs from http://www.maclean.com. You run this utility from the command line against the file or folder that contains the PST(s). The output displays the format of the PST files, as shown above.

Another way to tell without having to use a separate utility is by viewing the properties of the PST from within Outlook, itself. When you add the PST to Outlook, pay attention to the Format field of the PST, as shown below:

Unicode formatted PSTs will display the format, "Personal Folders File". ANSI formatted PSTs will display the format, "Personal Folders File (Outlook 97-2002)".

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Update for Outlook 2007 Performance Issues

Microsoft just released an update for Outlook 2007 that addresses performance issues, especially for users with large OSTs. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/933493. Several of my customers have installed the update and say their Outlook appears to be "snappier".

Microsoft also provide general guidance on how to workaround performance issues for users with large PSTs or OSTs. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932086. Guidance ranges from "reduce the size of your mailbox" to "don't use cached mode". I love it. Aren't these the features being touted in Outlook and Exchange 2007?

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