Exchange: We won’t be able to deliver this message to John Doe because it is too large

You may get this error message in Outlook when sending email to a particular user ( s ) due to Message Size Restriction parameters in Mailbox properties.

We won’t be able to deliver this message to John Doe because it is too large.

Usually Message Size Restriction is turned off, meaning within Exchange organization users are able to send bigger sized attachments. To increase the Message Size Restriction or to disable it, change it in the mailbox properties in Exchange console.

1. Open the Exchange Console
2. Search for the mailbox in Recipients –> Mailbox section
3. Double click or right click the mailbox & select Properties.
4. Select Mailbox features and click on View details under Message Size Restrictions.
5. Uncheck boxes to disable the size restriction or enter an message size value in KBs.
6. Click OKs to close and save the setting.

Use Skype for Business with older Lync Servers (Fix for error: Server version is incompatible)

Skype for Business 2013 or 2016 will throw this error if you try to use it with older Lync servers.

Cannot sign in because the server version is incompatible with Skype for Business.

Fix: Add DisableServerCheck registry key. Reboot your computer (to reload the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE registry hive). Your Skype for Business client will work after reboot.

Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Office\16.0\lync
Name:  DisableServerCheck
Type: DWORD
Value: 1 (00000001)

You may download this file (right click the downloaded file and select Merge to add to the registry).

Office: “Add to dictionary” option greyed out

I have helped someone with their Word (& PowerPoint) for not able to add custom words into Dictionary. When the user selected an word and right click, the option for Add to dictionary is greyed out like below picture.

Fix/Solution: Add a Custom Dictionary and select a language in Proofing options.

1. Click File –> Options
2. Select Proofing –> Custom Dictionaries
3. Select the CUSTOM.DIC and a Language (English (United States) in my case) if not selected. If you don’t see your language, add it.

4. That’s all. Click OK’s to close all dialog boxes. Your problem is fixed. You can now add words into custom dictionary.

Exchange: Hide Distribution Group Members

Other day I have been asked to find out if we can hide DL Members. So Users can see the DL in Address Book, but can’t see the members. I found it’s very easy to do. (Microsoft Exchange Rocks!!!)

Here is how you do it.

1. Open Active Directory Users and Computers console.
2. Click View Menu and select Advanced Features (to enable it)
3. Find your Distribution List or Security Group (mail enabled) in the OU
   1. DO NOT search your group. Because if you open the DL/Group properties from search windows, it will NOT show the Attribute Editor which is the advanced feature)
4. Double click to open the DL/Group to see the properties. Go to Attribute Editor tab.
5. Find hideDLMembership attribute, double click to open and select True. Click OK twice to close the dialog boxes.

It takes a while to take effect the changes while Exchange generates Offline Address Book and Outlook get it. If you want to make the offline address book process faster, follow my blog post here.

In Outlook, DL properties shows like this with hidden members.

If we check the DL in OWA, it shows like this:

Hope it helped you. Leave me a reply.

IIS: Publish Windows Share to WebDAV site

Publishing local folders as WebDAV site is very easy with IIS. There is plenty of help available that.

BUT there is not much help on publishing a Windows share via WebDAV. So I decided to publish one after we successfully published it at my work. It works beautifully.

One Liner: The trick is to replace ApplicationPoolIdentity (by default it is IIS_IUSRS local group on the server) and use different Application Pool.

More info about IIS_IUSRS local group is here: http://www.iis.net/learn/get-started/planning-for-security/understanding-built-in-user-and-group-accounts-in-iis

Step by Step instructions: (for Windows Server 2012 R2)

1. Create or find an service account in your Active Directory domain. (e.g., Contoso\svc-webdav )
2. Give the service account at least read permissions for the whole Windows Share. My case I gave modify permissions for my NetApp CIFS share.
3. Logon to the Web server and open IIS Administration Console.
4. Go to Application Pools section and create a new application pool by clicking Add Application Pool… on the Actions pane.
5. Open Basic Settings of the newly created Application Pool. Change the Managed pipeline mode to Classic.

6. Open Advanced Settings of the same new Application Pool. Find Identity under Process Model. Change ApplicationPoolIdentity with the chosen service account (e.g., CONTOSO\svc-webdav)

7. Create a new Virtual Site and Open Basic settings of the virtual site. Type the Windows Share path in Physical path text box. click Test Settings… button. Click OK to close the dialog box.

8. If you are hosting HTTPS site, select Basic authentication. If you are not using HTTPS, select Windows Authentication for the HTTP site.

9. Enable WebDAV at Root of the site (e.g., Default Site) at WebDAV Authoring Rules. (click on Enable WebDAV on the action pane)

10. Enable Directory Browsing on the Virtual Site settings.

That’s all. Try accessing your WebDAV folder from the client. You may have to enter your user name/password to enter to the site. Enjoy and leave me a reply if it helped you.

RDS 2012R2/Profile Disk: Adobe Reader X says “There was an error opening this document. Access Denied”

PDF attachments from application is not opening correctly. Adobe Reader spits this error message.

We use RDS 2012 R2 and Profile Disks for the users. Somehow PDF files on the profile disk is having same issue with Adobe Reader.

Solution: It turn out to be new Adobe Reader software has Protected Mode feature. This feature has issues with Profile Disks and Roaming profiles. Just disable Protected Mode under Security (Enhanced) section in Preferences.

Hope this helped you. Leave me a reply.

Security Warning: The current web page is trying to open a site in your Trusted sites list.

If you are getting this message, you are messing with IE Security settings and missed one.

Solution:

1. Open Internet Explorer
2. Select Tools – Internet Options
3. Select Security Tab – Trusted Sites – Custom Level
4. Find the setting Websites in less privileged web content zone can navigate into this zone and Enable this setting.