WHS Outlook

WHS Outlook Version 2.0 - Looking For Beta Testers!

adidas4275 — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 06:31:46 GMT

looks solid man.... a paid version I am sure would be well recieved in the WHS community.... as long as it is reasonable price.

great man... the web access the best part....

Re: WHS Outlook Version 2.0 - Looking For Beta Testers!

Mike Craven — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 12:25:41 GMT

Well... That's a bit of a grey area I would imagine. I've never examined Outlook's license agreement close enough to determine if you would actually need a separate Outlook license for each user or not. If you really want to keep things legit, then I would imagine that you would need to contact Microsoft and inquire. Personally, I purchased a single desktop copy of Outlook and that's what I use for my entire family. Right or wrong I don't know, but I see it as being no different than simply installing a single copy of Outlook on a desktop PC and then having each family member log on to it separately (via a Remote Access connection) and then opening Outlook from their desktop.

WHS Outlook Version 2.0 - Looking For Beta Testers!

pederstaal — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 11:24:39 GMT

Hi Mike

I'm looking forward to install it! What kind of license do I need for Outlook to do it in the legal way? Is it enough with a license for 1 pc or do I need a license for as many users as I have?

Re: WHS Outlook Version 2.0 - Looking For Beta Testers!

NLS — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 18:00:38 GMT

VERY cool...

I'll contact you when I have my WHS setup. :P

Re: WHS Outlook Version 2.0 - Looking For Beta Testers!

Mike Craven — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 21:26:56 GMT

Hi Zwen,

The "new item alerts" work with Outlook 2007, 2003, or 2002 (i.e. all supported versions of Outlook). Of course you need to have WHS Outlook running on the client machine (via one of WHS Outlook's WHS Console, Remote Desktop, or Web Access interfaces) in order to receive the alerts though as the connector itself does not poll for mail (Outlook does that). What I do is fire up WHS Outlook's web access interface and then leave the browser window running on my desktop as I work. As mail arrives in Outlook, the connector reports it to me and then I can simply activate the browser window and check the newly arrived mail whenever I desire.

-- MIKE

Re: WHS Outlook Version 2.0 - Looking For Beta Testers!

Zwen — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 17:29:39 GMT

Hi Mike

WHS Outlook looks great

I have a quick question the "new item alerts" does that only work with Outlook 2007 or will it work with 2003 Outlook?

thanks

Re: WHS Outlook Version 2.0 - Looking For Beta Testers!

Mike Craven — Sun, 17 May 2009 16:13:34 GMT

Hi welchwerks,

As mentioned in my original post, I've not yet decided if I'm going to even release WHS Outlook version 2.0 to the general public. However, I'm 100% certain that it will be made available in final release form to all of my version 1.0 customers as a FREE upgrade. Therefore, if you happen to purchase a copy of WHS Outlook version 1.0, then you will get a free upgrade to version 2.0 whether or not I decide to release it to the general public. The price of WHS Outlook version 1.0 is currently $24.95 USD and it can be ordered from the WHS Outlook web site located here:

http://www.TheOfficeMaven.com/WHSOutlook

If I do decide to release version 2.0 to the general public, I'll most likely increase the price to $29.95 to help cover its ongoing development costs. The program took an incredible amount of time and effort to develop, and I'm currently still running in the red on it (which doesn't make my wife very happy since I've been spending 12 hour days working on it lately ).

As for an availability date for the final release of WHS Outlook... While I don't have a set date yet, I'm hoping that it won't be too far away. The program has been in a private beta (which was available only to my paid customers) for a while now. It's looking pretty solid and so I'll probably be putting out the first release candidate next (within a week or two). I'm currently working on getting the program translated into German and French languages (I need volunteers to help with the string conversions!) as well as adding in support for the upcoming Microsoft Office Outlook 2010 release. Both of those features will be available in the first release candidate.

If the first release candidate is solid, then I'll probably call it a final release a week or two after that. So, all toll, I'm hoping to have WHS Outlook version 2.0 wrapped up as a final release sometime around mid June.

-- MIKE

Re: WHS Outlook Version 2.0 - Looking For Beta Testers!

Greg Welch — Sun, 17 May 2009 15:40:15 GMT

Hi, do you have an expected date for full release and a cost

Re: WHS Outlook Version 2.0 - Looking For Beta Testers!

Mike van den Ham — Fri, 15 May 2009 22:17:57 GMT

Hi Mike,

i have found the download for the 60 days trail version on the MS site. The download is running.

Lastly, i have freeBSD and openSolaris systems running. The system does more then NAS. Also NFS (testing with unix service on te WHS), webserver, ssh, smb = ahhhh, uPnP and any other services. But the WHS from MS has something that likes on: 'where no unix man has gone before' .

--Mike

Re: WHS Outlook Version 2.0 - Looking For Beta Testers!

Mike Craven — Fri, 15 May 2009 22:09:48 GMT

Hi Mike,

Yes, I'm afraid so. WHS Outlook requires that Microsoft Outlook 2007, 2003, or 2002 be installed directly on your home server. However, the nice part about it is that instead of having to purchase a separate version of Office/Outlook for each of your (up to 10) client machines, you only need to buy one copy and install it directly onto the server. That alone will save you big bucks!

Also, just so everyone knows, WHS Outlook works just fine with the 60-day trial version of Microsoft Office 2007 which can be downloaded free of charge from Microsoft here:

http://us20.trymicrosoftoffice.com/product.aspx?re_ms=oo&family=officepro&culture=en-US

Simply do a custom install of it on your home server and opt to install ONLY the Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 application (as there's no need to have any of the other Office 2007 apps installed on your server if you don't need or want them). If you happen to have a headless home server (i.e. one without a monitor, keyboard, and mouse), then I've posted instructions on how to do the Outlook install here:

http://www.TheOfficeMaven.com/WHSOutlook/faq/#Q01

Lastly, I won't tell your UNIX friends that you're installing Microsoft software, but you better watch out or else they'll find out that you're running a Windows Home Server box instead of a standard Linux NAS box.

-- MIKE

Re: WHS Outlook Version 2.0 - Looking For Beta Testers!

Mike van den Ham — Fri, 15 May 2009 21:57:19 GMT

OK, now i need a licence version of on of the windows mail versions. Then install it on my smallest WHS and get the test version. Uff, me as UNIX grandpa must buy MS software, ahhhhh. Don't let hear that my friends. My friends will burn me at the stake .

Re: WHS Outlook Version 2.0 - Looking For Beta Testers!

Mike Craven — Fri, 15 May 2009 21:50:49 GMT

Hi Mike,

Thanks! I'm glad that it sounds good to you. I only hope that it works just as good as it sounds.

As for documentation... I'm afraid not. Other that what I've described above, there's nothing else written up about the new features in the WHS Outlook program. However, if you have a specific question, then please feel free to ask it here and I'll do my best to try and answer it for you.

Of course the parts of the program that folks are most interested in are indeed the new multiple user access and Web Access features. I'll try to expand on those two features just a bit for everyone.

In the original WHS Outlook release (i.e. version 1.0 - that was released more than a year ago now), you were limited to using WHS Outlook only through the Windows Home Server Console. And, as you most likely already know, the WHS Console can only be accessed by the home server's administrator account (as that's how Microsoft built it to work). This was a big limitation to most folks as they really didn't want to give their administrator password out to other users/family members just so that they could access their e-mail through the WHS Console (using WHS Outlook).

So... For version 2.0, I setup WHS Outlook so that you can now grant access to any (or all) of the user accounts that you've setup on your home server. Each WHS user account that you grant access to can log on to a custom remote desktop session over the local network which allows them to use WHS Outlook in a stand-alone (i.e. Console free) session. This worked out nicely as the users are no longer restricted to running WHS Outlook in the tiny little Console window. Instead, they can now use a WHS Outlook session of their own at any size up to a maximum resolution of 1600x1200. Another benefit, is that the administrator no longer has to give away the admin password to other family members so that they can use WHS Outlook. Instead, the users/family members can now log on to a WHS Outlook session using their own WHS user name and password. Lastly, family members are no longer limited to sharing the same mail profile, PST/OST, e-mail accounts, etc. in Outlook as they were when running WHS Outlook through the WHS Console. Instead, each user/family member now gets their very own profile, PST/OST, e-mail accounts, settings, etc. in Outlook.

However, all of that still wasn't enough. What folks really wanted was a way to access WHS Outlook over the Internet. I met that challenge by creating the new WHS Outlook Web Access feature in WHS Outlook version 2.0. Using WHS Outlook Web Access, all of your users/family members can now access their personal WHS Outlook setups from anywhere in the world using the Internet Explorer web browser (Firefox works as well if you run the IE Tab add-on: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1419). WHS Outlook Web Access is fully integrated into the Windows Home Server's built-in Remote Access web site. Therefore, if your users are setup to use the server's remote access features, then they can also be granted full access to using WHS Outlook in the very same way. Basically, the user signs on to the server's standard remote access web site, and once they've been authenticated by the server, they can then fire up a stand-alone (Console-free) session of WHS Outlook that is automatically sized to fit the browser window (up to a max resolution of 1600x1200) . It all works really well, and this is now my main method of accessing my e-mail even from my home computer. I simply fire up Internet Explorer, log on, and get all the power of Outlook's e-mail, contacts, calendar, etc. right from the browser window. It's like having Microsoft Exchange installed on my home server without having to pay the huge costs associated with it.

To go one step further... I had lots of users telling me that they didn't like the fact that when they clicked on a hyperlink within the body of an e-mail message, or attempted to open an e-mail message's file attachment, that all of that took place over on the server instead of on their own local machines. To get around that limitation I wrote a small application called the "WHS Outlook Connector", that installs on the user's local client machine, and then listens to the server waiting for instructions to open a hyperlink or e-mail attachment on the client machine. Now when users attempt to open an attachment (like a Microsoft Word document, or an Excel spreadsheet), it opens on their own machine instead of on the server (where Word and Excel most likely aren't even installed).

I hope that helps explain things a bit more for you. Again though, please feel free to ask any questions you may happen to have and I'll do my best to try and answer them for you.

-- MIKE (The Office Maven)

Re: WHS Outlook Version 2.0 - Looking For Beta Testers!

Mike van den Ham — Fri, 15 May 2009 20:52:44 GMT

@The OfficeMaven:

That looks very good. I don't use the mail program from MS, but when i see that...mhh. Is there somewhere a description about the add-in, about multiple user and so on?

Re: WHS Outlook Version 2.0 - Looking For Beta Testers!

Mike Craven — Fri, 15 May 2009 16:00:34 GMT

Thanks guys. I'm glad to hear that you like what you see.

I look forward to hearing your comments once you've downloaded and installed the beta.

-- MIKE

Re: WHS Outlook Version 2.0 - Looking For Beta Testers!

Vicken — Fri, 15 May 2009 04:45:49 GMT

WOW, Looks really cool ! ! !