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Exchange Server Cumulative Updates (March 2020)

March 20, 2021 By Gareth Gudger Leave a Comment

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Exchange 2019 Cumulative Update 9

This week saw some critical cumulative updates for Exchange 2016 and Exchange 2019. These new updates contain the security patches previously released on March 2nd. Organizations that apply these cumulative updates don’t need to install the previous security patch.

The exception to this is those organizations on Exchange 2010 or Exchange 2013, where no update has superseded the March 2nd security patch. Those on Exchange 2010 and 2013 must ensure that they have the March 2nd patch applied as soon as possible.

The updates are as follows:

Exchange Logo Mini

Exchange 2019 Cumulative Update 9 | KB4602570

Exchange 2013 Cumulative Update 9

Exchange 2016 Cumulative Update 20 | KB4602569 | UM Language Pack

Exchange 2013 Cumulative Update 9

Exchange 2013 Security Update | KB5000871 (March 2nd Security Patch)

Exchange 2010 Mini

Exchange 2010 SP3 Rollup 32 | KB5000978 (March 2nd Security Patch)

Tackling the March 2nd security exploits

It is imperative to protect yourself from the exploits published on March 2nd. HAFNIUM, a cyberespionage group with ties to the Chinese government, has leveraged these Exchange Server exploits to infiltrate victims’ networks to deliver malware and other malicious payloads with varying motives, primarily to exfiltrate confidential data.

First, patching is imperative.

  • Those on Exchange 2016 or 2019 should apply the latest cumulative update.
  • Those on Exchange 2013 will need to install Cumulative Update 23 (released June 2019), followed by the March 2nd, 2021 security patch.
  • Those on Exchange 2010 need to install rollup 32.

Note: On March 8th Microsoft updated the security patch allowing it to be installed on older cumulative updates. This aided organizations that could not yet upgrade to the latest cumulative update. Note that applying the security patch and then upgrading to an older CU (rather than the latest) will expose your organization to the exploits again.

Once you are fully patched, I recommend running the Microsoft Safety Scanner (also known as the Microsoft Emergency Response Tool), which detects and remediates all known malware. This is a self-executing program that can be downloaded here.

I recommend running a full system scan. Note that it takes a few hours to run a scan, and it may spike your CPU, so it’s best to do this during a maintenance window. If you have a database availability group, consider putting the server into maintenance mode so that you can run the scanner with zero user impact.

[Read more…] about Exchange Server Cumulative Updates (March 2020)

Filed Under: Exchange News

MSP Unplugged Podcast – Office 365 Tips

February 1, 2021 By Gareth Gudger Leave a Comment

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MSP Unplugged

On January 29th, I had the great pleasure of being a guest on MSP Unplugged. I joined host Jeff Halash to discuss several topics; including:

  • Introductions
  • TechCon Unplugged 2021
  • A brief history of Gareth Gudger
  • Staying on-prem versus going to the cloud
  • Modern security threats leveraging email
  • Benefits of Exchange hybrid for mailbox migrations
  • Question from the audience: OneNote file storage options
  • OneNote: Windows 10 OneNote vs. Office 365 OneNote
  • OneDrive: Syncing and folder redirection
  • Syncing vs. Backups
  • Windows AutoPilot Overview
  • Exchange Server vNext
  • Exchange Server vNext subscription licensing
  • Loss leaders and cash cows
  • MSP Unplugged Patreon and Facebook Group
  • Word: True dark mode in Office beta channel
  • Edge Chromium supports ClickOnce
  • Future of in-person conferences vs. Microsoft’s carbon negative goal
[Read more…] about MSP Unplugged Podcast – Office 365 Tips

Filed Under: Exchange News, Exchange Videos & Podcasts, Office 365 News, Office 365 Videos & Podcasts

How to start meetings late (or end early) in Outlook

January 8, 2021 By Gareth Gudger 1 Comment

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One of the great new features in Outlook is scheduling meetings or appointments to start late (or end early). The end early feature has been included in Outlook for some time. However, the start late feature was introduced into the Office beta channel in version 2012 (build 13530.20000).

Note: This feature is now available in the Current (Preview) channel as of version 2012 (Build 13530.20218)

The shorten meeting feature allows attendees time between meetings. This is useful for many aspects, such as allowing users time to travel between meeting rooms, grab a coffee, reconcile notes, or decompress.

How to shorten meetings to start late or end early

To access this feature, open Outlook, navigate to the File menu, then select Options. From the Outlook Options dialog, select the Calendar tab.

Under the Calendar Options section, select the Shorten appointments and meetings checkbox. From the drop-down, choose whether to have meetings End early or Start late.

Note: If you select None, the prior checkbox will become deselected.

Start Meetings Late in Microsoft Outlook

These options also allow you to specify how much time to shorten appointments and meetings. By default, any meeting under 1 hour will be shortened by 5 minutes. Any meeting for 1 hour or longer will be shortened by 10 minutes.

If you wish to change these defaults, pick another time from each drop-down. For example, for meetings one hour or greater, you have choices of 0, 5, 10, and 15 minutes. Once you have made your selection click Ok to save and close the Outlook Options dialog.

Shorten appointments and meetings in Microsoft Outlook
[Read more…] about How to start meetings late (or end early) in Outlook

Filed Under: Office 365 Tutorials, Outlook Tutorials

How to switch to the Office (M365 Apps) Beta Channel

January 5, 2021 By Gareth Gudger Leave a Comment

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One of the benefits of being in the Office Beta Channel (formerly known as Insider Fast) is getting to see and test new Office features before they are generally available.

When you install Office, all new installations will default to the Current channel (formerly known as the Monthly channel). However, it is possible to change your update channel. The table below lists all the available update channels and their former names as these were recently changed.

ChannelOld Name
BetaInsider Fast
Current (Preview)Monthly (Targeted)
CurrentMonthly
Monthly EnterpriseMonthly Enterprise
Semi-Annual Enterprise (Preview)Semi-Annual (Targeted)
Semi-Annual EnterpriseSemi-Annual

The Beta Channel typically receives new features 1 month in advance of the Current Channel. For more information on the specifics of each channel, check out this article from Microsoft.

How to determine your Office update channel

To determine your Office update channel, open any Office app. In our example, we will open Microsoft Word.

Once launched, click Account. In the About Word section, you will see both the build number and the current update channel. In the screenshot below, you can see our build is Version 2012, and our update cycle is the Current Channel.

Determine Office update channel

Microsoft Outlook is a little different. To check your Office update channel using Outlook, navigate to the File menu and select Office Account. Like other Office apps, the build and update channel will be listed in the About Outlook section.

Determine Office update channel - Outlook

Tip: The build numbers are formulated from a two-digit year and a two-digit month. For example, the first two digits, “20”, designate the year 2020. The second two digits, “12”, designate December. Microsoft documents all build numbers and release notes here.

[Read more…] about How to switch to the Office (M365 Apps) Beta Channel

Filed Under: Office 365 Tutorials, Outlook Tutorials

Exchange Online Updates (December 2020)

December 23, 2020 By Gareth Gudger Leave a Comment

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Plus Addressing in Exchange Online

During Ignite 2020, Microsoft announced that plus addressing was coming to Exchange Online. Plus addressing allows users to create their own unique email addresses by leveraging a plus sign in their email address—for example, john.smith+newsletter@contoso.com. Anything after the plus sign is completely at the discretion of the user.

This becomes particularly useful when you want to target newsletters to a unique email address, especially when configuring inbox rules. It is also useful to determine who might have sold or leaked your email address.

To leverage this feature, an administrator must enable it globally (by default, it is disabled). To do this, log onto Exchange Online PowerShell. First, let’s verify if plus addressing is disabled. We do this with the following command.

 C:\> Get-OrganizationConfig | FL AllowPlusAddressInRecipients

AllowPlusAddressInRecipients : False

From our output, we can see that plus addressing is disabled in our tenant. To enable, run the following command.

 C:\> Set-OrganizationConfig -AllowPlusAddressInRecipients $true

To confirm the setting has taken effect, rerun Get-OrganizationConfig.

Users can then start leveraging plus addresses. Emails addressed to a plus address will appear in the user’s inbox without any further user intervention. From there, the user can build inbox rules for the plus addresses if they desire.

Plus Addressing in Exchange Online
[Read more…] about Exchange Online Updates (December 2020)

Filed Under: Exchange News, Office 365 News

Exchange Server Cumulative Updates (December 2020)

December 22, 2020 By Gareth Gudger Leave a Comment

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Exchange 2019 Cumulative Update 8

Last week was a big week for Exchange. Microsoft released its eighth cumulative update for Exchange 2019 as well as a cumulative update for Exchange 2016. Security updates have been released for Exchange 2010 and 2013.

As always, test these updates in a lab first! I recommend checking out this 7-part guide on configuring Exchange in your lab. It doesn’t take much to get one going.

The updates are as follows:

Exchange Logo Mini

Exchange 2019 Cumulative Update 8 | KB4588885

Exchange 2013 Cumulative Update 9

Exchange 2016 Cumulative Update 19 | KB4588884 | UM Language Pack

Exchange 2013 Cumulative Update 9

Exchange 2013 December Security Patch | KB4593466

Exchange 2010 Mini

Exchange 2010 SP3 Rollup 31 | KB4593467

Exchange 2016 entered extended support on October 14th

Back in October, Exchange 2016 entered extended support. The March 2021 cumulative update (CU20) is the last planned feature update for Exchange 2016. Any cumulative update after 20 is at Microsoft’s discretion.

Security patches will continue to be available in extended support until October 14th, 2025, delivered primarily through the Security Update Guide.

[Read more…] about Exchange Server Cumulative Updates (December 2020)

Filed Under: Exchange News

Microsoft Word editor goes full dark mode

November 30, 2020 By Gareth Gudger 8 Comments

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If you are part of the Office Beta Channel (formerly known as the Office Insiders Program), then a new full dark mode has made its way to Microsoft Word.

Previously selecting Black under File > Account > Office Theme would change the ribbon, background, and status bars to black while leaving the editor itself a bright white.

Original Dark Mode in Microsoft Word

The new Black theme now switches the editor to a true dark mode. From the screenshot below, you can see the background and text have been inverted.

Dark Mode in Microsoft Word Build 2012
[Read more…] about Microsoft Word editor goes full dark mode

Filed Under: Office 365 Tutorials, Outlook Tutorials

RunAs Radio #745 – Exchange Server vNext announced

November 25, 2020 By Gareth Gudger Leave a Comment

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On September 14th, I had the great pleasure of being a guest on RunAs Radio. I joined host Richard Campbell to discuss several hot topics for Exchange and Office 365; including:

  • Introductions
  • Staying on-prem versus going to the cloud
  • Importance of email availability
  • Monitoring in the new Exchange Admin Center
  • Exchange Server vNext
  • Extended deadline for basic authentication deprecation
  • Migrating away from basic authentication
  • Exchange Server vNext in-place upgrade scenarios
  • Exchange Server vNext licensing model
  • Certificate-based authentication for unattended Exchange Online scripts
  • Eliminating the last Exchange Server on-prem
  • Keeping Exchange Server on-prem for SMTP relay
  • DANE for SMTP (DNS Authentication of Named Entities)
  • Plus Addressing in Exchange Online
  • Tenant-to-tenant mailbox migrations in public preview
  • SMTP domain sharing preview in development
Gareth on RunAs Radio Episode 745 Exchange vNext
[Read more…] about RunAs Radio #745 – Exchange Server vNext announced

Filed Under: Exchange News, Exchange Videos & Podcasts, Office 365 News, Office 365 Videos & Podcasts

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