Fix Outlook's Find and new mail notification after you install XP SP2

by Scott Lowe MCSE | Sep 30, 2005 7:00:00 AM

Tags: Groupware, Microsoft Office, Scott Lowe MCSE, What�, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Windows XP, Service Pack 2, Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2, firewall, E-mail Administration Tips Newsletter

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Takeaway: If you're still running Windows 2000 and considering or planning a migration to Windows XP, be aware of a potential minor problem with Windows XP SP2 and all recent versions of Outlook.

If you're running Windows XP, you've probably already rolled out XP SP2 to your desktop users and taken care of any problems that were encountered. However, for those of you still running Windows 2000 and considering or planning a migration to Windows XP, be aware of a potential minor problem with Windows XP SP2 and all recent versions of Outlook. Note that it doesn�t matter what version of Exchange you�re running.

The problem: You may get calls to your help desk from users complaining that Outlook locks up when the user attempts to search their mailbox (this happens only with Outlook versions earlier than 2003). Further, users may complain that new messages do not appear in their inbox until they click the Send/Receive button nor do they get notification in the system tray that a new message has arrived. Finally, users may be frustrated that messages sit in their Outbox for an inordinate amount of time before being delivered.

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What�s going on?

If these three (or two, for Outlook 2003 users) symptoms are affecting your users, the problem likely lies with the firewall included in Windows XP SP2. All of these features rely on UDP connections from the Exchange server to the user�s desktop. Since the connection is not initiated from the desktop, the Windows firewall considers the traffic unsolicited and summarily drops it. Hence, the problems your users are experiencing. Outlook 2003 does not suffer from the searching problem because this version does not use UDP to perform searches of a mailbox.

To correct the problem, you need to make a change to the Windows XP Firewall settings and, if you�re running Outlook 2000 or Outlook 2002, also need to make a change to the registry.

Firewall change -- this adds the Outlook executable to this list of programs allowed to communicate through the Windows Firewall.

Open the system�s Control Panel.
Open the Windows Firewall Control Panel applet.
Select the Exceptions tab.
Click the Add Program button, located near the bottom of the window.
In the Add a Program window, choose the Browse button.
Find the outlook.exe program, usually located in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11.
Click OK.

Registry change -- assumes you have either Office 2000 SP3 (for Outlook 2000) applied, or Outlook XP SP1 (for Outlook 2002) applied.

Open Regedit.
Locate the key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft
Go to Edit > New > Key. This creates a new folder in Regedit.
Name the new folder "Office".
In this folder, go to Edit > New > Key again.
For Outlook 2000, name the new key "9.0". For Outlook 2002/XP, name the new key "10.0".
From the 9.0 or 10.0 key, again choose Edit > New > Key.
Name the new key "RPC".
From this new folder, choose Edit > New > DWORD Value.
Name the new value "Force Polling" and give it a value of 0.
Close the Registry Editor.