Update junk email filter removes outlook profile

[Frank Wijers]

Hi,
I have a small problem with the updates to the Outlook junk email filter. I
am running Windows XP with SP2 and Office 2003. Outlook is the latest version
(2003 with SP3).
Every month when the updates are released by Microsoft, Outlook creates a
Backup of the Default Oulook Profile, and resets the Default Outlook Profile.
This means that each month I loose all settings (signatures, cached mode
setting, extra mailboxes, etc.) unless I remove the Default Outlook Profile
and rename the backup back to Default Outlook Profile.
Does anybody else recognise this problem or know of a way to resolve this?

 

[Roady [MVP]]

I think you are leaving out some details here in what is actually happen and
what you are doing as renaming a mail profile isn't a valid action.

As you mention Cached Exchange mode I assume you are in a managed corporate
environment? Are you the only one with this issue? Which deployment method
does your company use?

 

[Jeff from Builder's Bloc]

Have you found an answer? I have been talking to the Microsoft Outlook and
Exchange group since 9 am CDT. They have me on hold now.

Jeff Sheldon

 

[Jeff from Builder''s Bloc]

Roady,

Were you able to help Frank? I am having the same problem.

Thanks!

Jeff

 

[Roady [MVP]]

I haven't heard back.

Roady,

Were you able to help Frank? I am having the same problem.

Thanks!

Jeff

 

[Frank Wijers]

Sorry for not answering to the posts, I had notifications on, but I only
received an email today that there was a reply.

We have a managed environment, Exchange server 2003 with Sp2, client has
Windows XP with Sp2. The client downloads updates from the WSUS server, but I
can install them manually. As soon as I install the "Junk Email filter", the
default outlook profile becomes the "copy of default outlook profile" and a
new (empty) profile is created. The next month, de "default outlook profile"
becomes "copy of default outlook profile 2" and a new empty "default outlook
profile" is created. This has been repeating for about a year now (since I
have 11 backups untill now). All clients in the organisation have this
problem.
I have absolutely no idea where I can even start on resolving this problem.
Any help is welcome.

 

[Jeff from Builder''s Bloc]

Roady,

I am a system administrator. We have Exchange 2003, SP2 and about 130 users
on Outlook 2003. When we updated to Office SP3, about 20 of our users lost
their e-mail profile. We use cache mode. They get a "The name could not be
matched to a name in the address list" error.

The users name should be bob walsh. It changed to bwalsh. If we click on
Cancel we get the following message.

"Unable to open your default e-mail folders. The file C:\Documents and
Settings\bwalsh\Local Settings\Application
Data\Microsoft\Outlook\outlook13.ost is not an offline folder file."

If we change the user name to bob walsh, and click on check name, it finds
the name. It also creates a new OST file and recreates a whole new profile.

Everything works just fine until next month when we approve the Junk Filter
update. Then we get the same error again. I have spent two days on the phone
with Microsoft Exchange and Outlook level one support. They are going to
escalate this but any help would be appreciated. I have screen prints. Is
there a way to send you a Word Documents with the screen prints?

Thanks!

Jeff

 

[Jeff from Builder''s Bloc]

Frank,

Do you use Group Policy to set any of your options in Outlook? We are using
GP to set the following parameters.

Outlook Today availability = Enabled
AutoArchive Settings = Disabled
Junk E-mail protections level = Enabled, High
Spelling
Always suggest replacements for misspelled words = Enabled
Always check spelling before sending = Enabled
Ignore words in UPPERCASE = Disabled
Ignore words with numbers = Disabled
Ignore original message text in reply or forward = Enabled
Use AutoCorrect in Rich Text and plain text messages = Enabled

We are also using GP to import a default profile if one does not exist.
Check out http://www.gpanswers.com/tips/17 for details. We have disabled this
function to see if it makes a difference. We have not tested it yet.

Are you doing any of these GP functions? If not, then maybe we are incorrect
in thinking that GP has anything to do with this.

 

[Frank Wijers]

Hi Jeff,

Thanks for your answer. I've been so busy lately that I didn't even have
time to check these settings since it's a minor problem.

I've been out of the office for the last few days, so I know I don't get any
policies whatsoever. I just installed this month's updates, and my email is
still cached, extra mailboxes are still present, etc.
This must mean there's some sort of policy or something that sets these
things. I'll check it tomorrow when I'm back in the office.

 

[Jeff from Builder''s Bloc]

We found the answer. It was the the use of GP to import a default profile if
one does not exist. For some reason, even if the profile existed, when we
would update the Outlook Junk E-Mail filter, it would overwrite the Outlook
profile. As a work around, we changed an option in the OutlookProfile.PRF.
Below is the first part of the .PRF. We changed OverwriteProfile=Yes to
OverwriteProfile=No. It shouldn't overwrite the profile because of the next
line ModifyDefaultProfileIfPresent=FALSE, but it was anyway. At least we are
not having the problem and the work around does not affect us.

;Automatically generated PRF file from the Microsoft Office Customization
and Installation Wizard

; **************************************************************
; Section 1 - Profile Defaults
; **************************************************************

[General]
Custom=1
ProfileName=exchange2003
DefaultProfile=Yes
OverwriteProfile=No
ModifyDefaultProfileIfPresent=FALSE

Thanks!

Jeff