New Outlook version 16.0.17029.20140 includes Teams Webinar and Town Hall Meeting creation

 

Great news! Microsoft Outlook has released a new version, 16.0.17029.20140, that allows you to schedule a variety of meetings, including Teams Webinar and Town Hall meetings, in addition to standard meetings and Virtual Appointments. This feature is a significant enhancement to your Teams calendar, as it enables you to create and manage all your events directly within Outlook. To create these meetings, simply go to the calendar view. It's worth noting that if you use the "New Items" option in the home ribbon, it will only create standard meetings, and you won't have the option to change it to different types. So, be sure to use the calendar view to take advantage of this fantastic new feature!

Set your work hours and location in Outlook to easily communicate your availability

With the rise of hybrid work environments, it's becoming more common for individuals to work remotely and have flexible schedules. However, this can pose a challenge when it comes to coordinating meetings and collaborating effectively with others. To address this issue, Microsoft has integrated new features into Outlook and Teams that empower users to set their work hours and location for each day of the week. By doing so, users can easily communicate their availability and preferences to colleagues and managers, and also discover the optimal times to schedule meetings based on their work location.

How to set the work hours and location -

Note: - Currently, this feature is supported only on Outlook on Web.

In Outlook, it's simple and convenient to set up your work hours and locations. Just head to the Settings menu on Outlook for the web, select "View all Outlook settings," navigate to the "Calendar" option on the left-hand side menu, and click on "Work hours and locations".

Users can choose which days they work, what time they start and end their workday, and whether they work remotely or in the office. Users can also change their work location for a specific day if their schedule changes. These settings will be reflected in both Outlook and Teams, and will also update the user's status and presence.

When scheduling a meeting, pertinent details such as work hours and location will be displayed.

One of the benefits of setting work hours and location in Outlook is that it helps users schedule meetings more efficiently. When users create a meeting event in Outlook on the web, they can use the Scheduling Assistant to see the work location of the attendees, as well as their availability based on their work hours. This way, users can avoid scheduling conflicts and choose times that suit everyone's preferences. Users can also view the work location of others on their profile cards, which can help them understand where they are working from and how to reach them.

Setting work hours and location in Outlook is not only helpful for users, but also for their teams and organizations. By sharing this information, users can foster a culture of transparency and trust, as well as respect each other's boundaries and work-life balance. Users can also support their managers and leaders in planning and managing resources, projects, and goals more effectively.

Cannot open your default email folders. The information store could not be opened

Issue :

User not able to open outlook.

Error Message: -

Cannot open your default email folders. The information store could not be opened.

Error Statement: -

We can see basically this issue when there was any network issue between client and server and this error could show you when you use outlook Online mode but here the scenario is different. We can able to configure the outlook without any issue by MANUAL and AUTODISCOVER mode successfully but we getting same error message post new profile creation as well.

I have checked whether it’s related to any permission issue but it’s not because user able to access the Webmail without any issues.

Resolution: -

There any many methods available to resolve this issue on be different scenario’s. I have resolved the above issue followed by Method #4.

Method 1:

Start->Start Search >  then type the following -> "Outlook.exe /resetnavpane" without the quotes.

Method 2:

Check if Outlook is in a compatibility mode:

   1. Open My Computer ----->Local Disk C ------>Program Files----->Microsoft Office ----->Office 12-------->Outlook.exe.

   2. (If you are using a 64 bit machine, go to C:\Program Files x86\Microsoft Office>Office 12>Outlook.exe)

   3. Right click on Outlook.exe and click on Properties and then click on Compatibility tab. Check if you have any check mark in any of the compatibility mode options. Make sure you also click on the option "change settings for all users" tab at the bottom of the same screen and look for similar check boxes in the window.

  4. If you see any check boxes in the compatibility mode options, Uncheck all the boxes and click on Apply and OK.

  5. Try to open outlook again.

Method 3:

Try repairing Office. Check the link below.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/924611

Method 4:

Check what are the version of Microsoft office installed on the client machine (appwiz.cpl). In my scenario user system installed Microsoft office 2003 and 2007, So when we open the outlook it’s trying to connect office 2003 outlook instances but 2003 instance is not configure the mailbox settings, which is resulting the above error message.

To resolve the issue remove the office 2003 instance from client and restart the system.

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Cannot directly book a resource for this meeting.

Issue :

Cannot directly book a resource for this meeting.

Issue Statement: -

I have worked on one of my customer who had conference room calendar issue who recently migrated Exchange environment from Exchange 2007 to Exchange 2010. Post the migration users getting above error message while configuring/creating meeting appointment. In outlook 2007 Direct booking is enabled by default which will respond the calendar auto acceptance which is against the Exchange 2010 configuration meant in Exchange 2010/Outlook 2010 Direct Booking is disabled by default.

What is Direct Booking

Before Exchange, if you needed to use a resource, such as a conference room or audiovisual equipment, you would contact a person, who would check a schedule and tell you whether the resource was available. The direct-booking mechanism eliminates the need to contact another person to check a resource's availability and reserve a time slot in a resource's schedule; direct booking schedules an appointment directly into the Outlook Calendar.

How Direct Booking Works 

Outlook perform some steps when organizer designates a mailbox as a resource in a meeting request, first, Outlook reads configuration information from the designated mailbox to determine whether to attempt direct booking. If you didn't select the Automatically accept meeting requests and process cancellations option, Outlook sends a meeting request to the resource mailbox, just as it would for any other attendee. If you selected this option, the meeting organizer's Outlook client attempts to book the resource as follows: If, in addition to the first option, you selected the Automatically decline conflicting meeting requests option, Outlook reads the free/busy information for the mailbox's calendar and uses this information to determine whether the resource is available for the date and time requested. If the resource is available, Outlook writes the appointment directly to the resource's calendar. If you selected the Automatically decline recurring meeting requests option, Outlook will decline any request that's recurring.
 

The Direct Booking feature uses logic coded in Outlook when adding Exchange mailboxes to a meeting request, this feature has been available since Outlook 2000. Direct booking occurs when the Exchange mailbox is added to a meeting request as a resource, the meeting organizer has the permission to write to the resource mailbox calendar and the resource mailbox MAPI attribute PR_PROCESS_MEETING_REQUESTS is set to TRUE, that is the case when mailbox created as a resource mailbox in Exchange server.

In Exchange Server 2003, we need to manually deploy as Auto Accept event sink to automate response from resource mailbox, this logic is added automatically when we create a resource mailbox in Exchange 2003 so we do not require Direct Booking code in Outlook Client.

In Outlook 2010 still we can book resources directly, however, the feature is disabled by default. Unfortunately, Outlook 2010 doesn’t prevent requests or warn users that resource room requests will fail. The meeting request is sent as though the resource will respond as a user does. Unless an administrator opens the resource mailbox and responds to the booking request manually, the request will remain pending with no response to the meeting organizer. The resource just doesn’t get booked when you try to use Direct Booking. If you intend to use Direct Booking in Outlook 2010, you must enable it. To enable Direct Booking in Outlook 2010, you need to edit the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Outlook\Options\Calendar registry entry. (Refer kb/982774).

Direct Booking Ruses:

Available free/busy information. Direct booking uses free/busy information to determine a resource's availability. Exchange stores up to 12 months of free/busy information for mailboxes in a hidden public folder.
 

Outlook free/busy information. Because the direct-booking function relies on free/busy data, you want to publish the maximum amount. By default, Outlook clients publish 2 months of free/busy data (the current month and next month).
 

Recurring meeting requests. Recurring meeting requests, occurs when you update a recurring meeting request to lengthen the recurrence period.
 

Delegates. If the assistant sends a meeting request on behalf of his or her manager and successfully reserves a resource through direct booking, the meeting request arrives in attendees' inboxes from the manager.
 

Resources field. Exchange, implements the direct-booking function. The only way Outlook knows to try to direct book a resource is if the meeting organizer places the resource in the resources field of the meeting request form.

Troubleshooting steps: -

        1.    Verified the mailbox setting who trying to access the mailbox.

        2.    Verified the Calendar settings on the room mailbox.

        3.    Verified the calendar meeting functionality by using webmail it started  working without any issues.

       4.    Verified the calendar meeting functionality by using outlook 2010 in different computer it is working without any issues.

From the above troubleshooting steps I figured it out it’s due to outlook compatibility issue but I found the resolution to come out of that issue.

Resolution: -

Method 1: -

Configure the Windows Registry settings on all affected client machines to disable the Direct booking on the below path,

• ·         Locate and then select the following subkey in the registry:
• ·         HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Outlook\Options\Calendar
• ·         On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
• ·         Type EnableDirectBooking, and then press ENTER.
• ·         Right-click EnableDirectBooking, and then click Modify.
• ·         In the Value data box, type 0, and then click OK.
• ·         Exit Registry Editor.
• ·        Start Outlook.

Method 2: -

Create new Public Folder database in Exchange 2010.

Address the resource mailbox/Email address under Required or Optional field instead of Resources field.

When you type the Room calendar name in the “To” Field it will be added into resource field automatically

To change the Resource mailbox name from Resource Field to Required /Optional Field, Click Resource Scheduling

 

And then, bottom of the page you will find “Add Attendees” Click on it, and then change the Resource mailbox name from Resource Field to Required/Optional Field.

 

Doing the above change user may miss the Meeting Location so if they want they can specify the location field by manually typing it.

 

Method 3: - 

Upgrade your client from Outlook 2007 to 2010.

 

Method 4: - 

Use Webmail to book the calendar appointment by login to https://webmail.learnexchange.com/owa

 

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