Outllok 2007 Beta 2 "unsupported Microsoft Exchange server" Error

[D]

Outlook 2007 Beta 2 does not work with MS Exchange 5.5, I have verified
it by attempting and getting a "...unsupported Exchange Server..."
message as soon as I installed Beta 2.

So, my question is: Does anybody know a workaround, switch, flag,
registry mod, or anything else that controls this compatibility (of
course at "own risk") that can be used to re-enable the compatibility.
I mean it was working just fine with Beta 1 TR1, and now that is what I
have to stay with because of course I cannot combine Outlook TR1 with
rest of Beta 2...?

Thank you.

 

[Roady [MVP]]

This is currently unsupported and might very well be in the final release as
well. These 2 products are 10 years apart in development. Compatibility with
a product that is no longer supported for quite a while now might be a bit
too much to ask/expect.

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
Coauthor, Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003


-----
Outlook 2007 Beta 2 does not work with MS Exchange 5.5, I have verified
it by attempting and getting a "...unsupported Exchange Server..."
message as soon as I installed Beta 2.

So, my question is: Does anybody know a workaround, switch, flag,
registry mod, or anything else that controls this compatibility (of
course at "own risk") that can be used to re-enable the compatibility.
I mean it was working just fine with Beta 1 TR1, and now that is what I
have to stay with because of course I cannot combine Outlook TR1 with
rest of Beta 2...?

Thank you.

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

at this time, no, there is no workaround. And while I think it sucks, I
really don't expect any change.

 

[D]

Diane, Robert, Thank you both for your reply.

Of course I understand, heck I wouldn't be here if I did not want to
use the latest Office/Outlook...

And I don't mean to be philosophical, but here is the thing, I work for
a very large company with 40,000+ employees that uses Exchange 5.5
server(s) - same ones I can't connect to; so, while I may be a fish in
the ocean, not having 40,000+ Office 2007 users will sure translate
into significant loss for MS unless there is a workaround (of course at
least until such time that our IT will finally work up the courage to
upgrade, but it will not be too soon based on the known history).

And since I am the "evaluator of new technologies and opportunities" at
least my immediate area, I am of course forced to report to my group
that Office 2007 will not work for us, regardless of advanced
collaboration features that are advertised, because ultimately most
users depend on having reliable e-mail first and foremost.

Having said this if you have any ability to talk to MS Office group who
make these decisions, maybe you could relate this to them.

Meantime, at least for my sake, I hope somebody will be witty enough to
find a workaround that I can use, as I am a sucker for latest and
greatest... ; so please, keep on posting people if you know the
solution (or e-mail me directly).

Thanks, D

 

[Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]]

I seriously doubt that Microsoft will add support for an outdated and
unsupported platform to the latest and greatest Office program.

After all, look what Apple did with their upgrade to OS X.xx - left out
support for older versions, even their own stuff.

Sometimes, you have to cut to cord. There was also loud complaining when MS
Mail support was left out. Guess what? People got over it, used a
supported platform and went on with life.


--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, D asked:

| Diane, Robert, Thank you both for your reply.
|
| Of course I understand, heck I wouldn't be here if I did not want to
| use the latest Office/Outlook...
|
| And I don't mean to be philosophical, but here is the thing, I work
| for a very large company with 40,000+ employees that uses Exchange 5.5
| server(s) - same ones I can't connect to; so, while I may be a fish in
| the ocean, not having 40,000+ Office 2007 users will sure translate
| into significant loss for MS unless there is a workaround (of course
| at least until such time that our IT will finally work up the courage
| to upgrade, but it will not be too soon based on the known history).
|
| And since I am the "evaluator of new technologies and opportunities"
| at least my immediate area, I am of course forced to report to my
| group that Office 2007 will not work for us, regardless of advanced
| collaboration features that are advertised, because ultimately most
| users depend on having reliable e-mail first and foremost.
|
| Having said this if you have any ability to talk to MS Office group
| who make these decisions, maybe you could relate this to them.
|
| Meantime, at least for my sake, I hope somebody will be witty enough
| to find a workaround that I can use, as I am a sucker for latest and
| greatest... ; so please, keep on posting people if you know the
| solution (or e-mail me directly).
|
| Thanks, D

 

[D]

Of course, and I agree, you can't delay the inevitable. With regards to
support from MS, I am just venting as it's a lost cause...; I am just
as frustrated with my company's slow adoption of new technologies...

However, I do hope that some frustrated enthusiast will think of a
solution and post it here; after all, I could not be the only one...;
and since it was working perfectly just "couple of builds" ago, it
seems that this is more of a political/business decision rather than
technical...

D

 

[D]

Of course, and I agree with you, you can't stop the inevitable (but our
IT it seems will do everything in their power to delay it as much as
possible). With regards to support from MS, I am just venting as it's
usually a lost cause...; I am just as frustrated with my company's slow
adoption of new technologies...

However, I do hope that some frustrated enthusiast will think of a
solution and post it here; after all, I could not be the only one stuck
with MS Exchange 5.5...!?!; and since everything was working perfectly
just "couple of builds" ago, it seems that this was a result of a
political/business decision rather than technical need...

D

 

[D]

P.S. I also apologize for apparently starting a duplicate thread. Turns
out this problem was laready reported and somewhat discussed here:

http://groups.google.com/group/micr...2007+Beta+2+Exchange&rnum=28#0cfad4c1a32f655b


- strange that Google did not find it for me...

 

[Roady [MVP]]

"since everything was working perfectly
just "couple of builds" ago, it seems that this was a result of a
political/business decision rather than technical need"

That would only be true if they didn't develop it in the mean time or
analyzed feedback, crash and bug reports. Outlook 2007 has a lot of
structure changes in the mailbox (as for instance categories are now stored
in the mailbox as well, different flagging and categorizing system). If they
can't guarantee a stable environment and using Outlook 2007 against an
Exchange 5.5 server could lead to datacorruption and/or dataloss it's a very
good call to deny the connection. Nothing political about that!

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
Coauthor, Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003


-----
Of course, and I agree with you, you can't stop the inevitable (but our
IT it seems will do everything in their power to delay it as much as
possible). With regards to support from MS, I am just venting as it's
usually a lost cause...; I am just as frustrated with my company's slow
adoption of new technologies...

However, I do hope that some frustrated enthusiast will think of a
solution and post it here; after all, I could not be the only one stuck
with MS Exchange 5.5...!?!; and since everything was working perfectly
just "couple of builds" ago, it seems that this was a result of a
political/business decision rather than technical need...

D

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Here's a statement from MS regarding Outlook and Exchange 5.5.

"Microsoft continuously strives to provide a consistent and predictable
end-of-life-cycle experience for all of its products. In accordance with
standard Microsoft life-cycle policies Exchange 5.5 ended extended
life-cycle support on January 10th, 2006. As a result, Outlook 2007 will
not support Exchange 5.5. Because neither the Outlook or Exchange team is
supporting this combination we will not discover and/or fix issues that crop
up as the result of innovations in both products . Rather than subjecting
customers to potential serious issues like data loss or frequent server
downtime we choose to prevent Outlook from connecting to these older and now
unsupported servers. Our research has shown that there is a relatively
small set of customers who want to upgrade their desktops to the latest and
greatest versions of Office and run server technology as old as Exchange
5.5. There are clearly exceptions but they don't seem to be the norm.

For more details on the Exchange 5.5 support life cycle see the following
page - http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/support/lifecycle/changes.mspx"

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
Coauthor, Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003


-----
message "since everything was working perfectly
just "couple of builds" ago, it seems that this was a result of a
political/business decision rather than technical need"

That would only be true if they didn't develop it in the mean time or
analyzed feedback, crash and bug reports. Outlook 2007 has a lot of
structure changes in the mailbox (as for instance categories are now stored
in the mailbox as well, different flagging and categorizing system). If they
can't guarantee a stable environment and using Outlook 2007 against an
Exchange 5.5 server could lead to datacorruption and/or dataloss it's a very
good call to deny the connection. Nothing political about that!

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
Coauthor, Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003


-----
Of course, and I agree with you, you can't stop the inevitable (but our
IT it seems will do everything in their power to delay it as much as
possible). With regards to support from MS, I am just venting as it's
usually a lost cause...; I am just as frustrated with my company's slow
adoption of new technologies...

However, I do hope that some frustrated enthusiast will think of a
solution and post it here; after all, I could not be the only one stuck
with MS Exchange 5.5...!?!; and since everything was working perfectly
just "couple of builds" ago, it seems that this was a result of a
political/business decision rather than technical need...

D