Outlook linking to Exchange Profiles

[TechMonkey]

Just checking really that we have something set up correctly.

 

Currently when we set up new users or reset a profile it will ask to check which user the account should connect to when opening Outlook. It will only do this the first time and only when a user name is the same as the first part of someone else's first or surname. For example the user fi will be asked if they are also Fiona Bruce or Terry Fibonnaci as well as Flora Ilinov who she actually is. In my mind this is wrong and there should be a way round it.

 

Is this what happens on other sites or is there a config error somewhere?

[SYNACK]

We use the Office Customization Toolkit setup /admin from 2007 onwards to generate a default set of install information and in this we specify a .PRF file which tells outlook the server name and tells it to use the %username% value in its matchup which seems to work without prompting for us on firstrun.

[TechMonkey]

Curious. That is what we have also. Maybe it is an oddity because we have 2 letter user names for staff. It is almost like it is doing an address book lookup for the user but thinking we only have entered part of a name.

[SYNACK]

You may be able to reconfigure the PRF to use more complete credentials like the whole email address or distinct username (domain\user or user@domain) to make it so that only the intended user is returned getting rid of the need for a list.

 

Edit: like %username%@domain.local in the PRF http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc179062.aspx

Edited June 3, 2010 by SYNACK

[john]

Is autodiscover setup correctly for your Exchange Server? That is what pre-fills it all in I found and works well for us, I've not customised office our exchange but have Autodiscover working fine both internally and externally and my outlook just pops up you click next and give it about 5 seconds and it says your name is X and your email is Y click yes and it confirms exchange is setup in Outlook and MS Bob is your uncle

[Roberto]

Curious. That is what we have also. Maybe it is an oddity because we have 2 letter user names for staff. It is almost like it is doing an address book lookup for the user but thinking we only have entered part of a name.

 

That's exactly what it is. We have similar usernames and a similar problem. It doesn't (for us) happen on all accounts, just those it can't resolve with 100% accuracy itself.