Category Archives: Office 365

Fix Outlook and Office 365 problems with Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant

Microsoft have released a tool to diagnose and fix issues with Outlook and Office 365.

It is updated regularly, and should be the first step when you experience issue in connecting to Office 365.

The tool is available here – https://diagnostics.outlook.com 

How to download Office 2013 from Office 365 after 1 March 2017

Support for Office 2013 versions of Office 365 has ended. It is no longer available for download from the portal.

However, there are good cases when you do require Office 2013, ie. if your current line of business does not support Office 2016, or if you have older macros that are not supported on Office 2016.

HowTo-Outlook has posted some links on downloading Office 2013 if you still require this. The article can be found here – https://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/download-office-2013-office-365.htm

Here are direct links to the 32-bit English US versions.

And you can also use the Office 2013 Deployment Tool for Click-To-Run here – https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36778

Office 365 Service Comparison

Here is a great resource for evaluating and comparing the myriad of options available in Office 365. This site also provides you with a downloadable Excel workbook so that you can work on this offline.

The technet resource is available here – https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/office/dn788955.aspx

How to Plan Your Office 365 Migration

This blog post comes courtesy of LepideMigrator for Exchange. These are excellent points to take note of.

The process of migrating to office 365 can be a daunting task. Like anything, you need to ensure you have a well thought out plan. The implications of a failed migration can be catastrophic. Here are a few things we found contribute towards ensuring your migration is successful.

1. Assess your existing IT Environment

The first thing you need to do is make sure you archive or delete any obsolete mailboxes and ensure that you get an understanding of the size and number of mailboxes that you wish to migrate. Ensure also that you understand which versions and configurations you have in the organization and know the network bandwidth required for connectivity.

2. Formulate Pre-Deployment Decisions

Next, you need to formulate pre-deployment decisions by finding answers to mission-critical questions like – what method you will follow to create new accounts, authenticate users, achieve synchronization with the old user accounts and how will you transition data and perform migration.

3. Put all your pre-deployment controls right

Before you move your critical business communication to the cloud, clean up all any dormant Active directory accounts that you have, set up the network, update the versions of client software and make all the content that you wish to migrate ready for transition.

To execute all the above pre-migration tasks, you can take help from 3rd party tools that possess a pre-migration analyzer to give you precise approximations.

4. Research Office 365 Subscription plans as per your requirements

Now, it’s time to do extensive research on which subscription plan suits your business requirements. After you figure out one, cross-check the domains that you need to make use of with your new subscription. In this step, you can also pre-plan for configuration of applications that you may require in future.

5. Pilot-Test the deployment and the whole migration process

For your upcoming migration, it is crucial to perform testing on the deployed configuration and check the whole migration process for loopholes.

6. Proceed with final rollout

Finally, it’s time to set up accounts and mailboxes on the new environment i.e. Office 365. Start adding your old users, new contacts and allocate suitable licenses with each of them. Also, move data (emails, mailboxes, calendar, files and other information) that you wish to migrate to your new system.

7. Transfer Domain Name System Settings to your new environment

After you’re done with complete configuration of Office 365, you need to validate the functionality by transferring your previous DNS setting and enabling them to point to Office 365.

8. Configure client systems and establish connections

Now, it’s time to configure client systems again as per the new environment and establish connections with Office 365 including applications like Outlook, Office, Outlook for MAC operating system and other mobile devices.

Conclusion

When you choose to migrate to the cloud, the biggest question is – are you doing it the right way? So, you can either pull off the above list as per your specific business needs or take help from our Office 365 solution – LepideMigrator for Exchange. Good day!

Office 365 migrations

I just spent the weekend working performing some SBS to Office 365 migrations.

Here are some useful links that make the process a whole lot easier.

Export mailboxes to PST for Exchange 2010 (SBS 2011 Standard)

Export mailboxes to PST for Exchange 2007 (SBS 2008)

Import PST files to Office 365

Enabling Autodiscover for Outlook in SBS Exchange Environments

Getting Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2010 to work with Office 365

  • The following link lists the minimum requirements needed to quickly get your Outlook desktop client running with Office 365.
  • http://www.netdummy.net/office365-client-updates.html
  • With SBS 2011, it is necessary to remove the Service Connection Point (SCP)
    • Show SCP information: Get-ClientAccessServer | Select Name, AutoDiscoverServiceInternalUri
    • Remove SCP information: Set-ClientAccessServer -Identity “[Servername]” -AutoDiscoverServiceInternalUri $NULL

Importing LegacyDN information

Problems connecting Outlook to Office 365 

AND if you happen to still be using SBS 2003 (I certainly hope not!), you can use Exmerge or Outlook to output individual mailboxes to PST. Do it soon!

Powershell for Office 365

Here’s a great resource – powershell.office.com

Are you an Office 365 IT administrator who is new to PowerShell? Are you looking for an Office 365 admin tool to automate repetitive administrative tasks? Or perhaps you are looking to access additional capabilities that aren’t available in the Office 365 Admin Center? Then PowerShell for Office 365 is for you.

PODCAST: Hybrid Cloud Strategy options

I spoke with Robert Crane from CIAOPS – Need to Know podcasts on the options that are available to small businesses in creating a cost effective hybrid IT solution.

Listen to the podcast here – http://ciaops.podbean.com/e/episode-78-boon-tee/

Your most common questions regarding Shared Computer Activation in Office 365 ProPlus answered

Microsoft’s Garage Series Team have released a video to answer the most common questions regarding Shared Computer Activation in Office 365 ProPlus.

  • How do I use shared computer activation and what do I need to download or enable in Office 365?
  • I’m a small business or bought Office 365 directly or via a 3rd party. Can I use shared computer activation if I don’t have Volume Licensing versions of Office?
  • Can I use Office 365 ProPlus with shared computer activation in my standard image? What if some people don’t have Office 365 ProPlus rights on those PCs?
  • Will shared computer activation work with Citrix XenApp, Azure RemoteApp or similar remoting solutions?
  • Can I replace normal, user-based subscription activation completely with shared computer Activation? Are there any disadvantages?

Watch the Video here.

To find out how to configure this, view the blog post  here – http://blog.powerbiz.net.au/office-365/installing-office365-proplus-on-a-rds-server-terminal-server-using-shared-computer-activation/

Unlimited cloud storage on OneDrive for Office 365 subscribers

Yes, that is not a typo. Microsoft is offering unlimited storage on OneDrive for Office 365 subscribers.

This news was released via their blog here – https://blog.onedrive.com/office-365-onedrive-unlimited-storage/

“Today, storage limits just became a thing of the past with Office 365. Moving forward, all Office 365 customers will get unlimited OneDrive storage at no additional cost. We’ve started rolling this out today to Office 365 Home, Personal, and University customers. “

What about OneDrive for Business? That will be coming in 2015! – http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/products/office-365-roadmap-FX104343353.aspx

“We are announcing the removal of current limits on external users for all SharePoint Online plans. Specifically, the changes will be as follows. The external users limit for Office 365 Small Business and Small Business Premium will change from 500 to Unlimited. The external users limit for Office 365 Midsize Business and Office 365 Enterprise plans (including E1 – E4, A2-A4, G1-G4, and SharePoint Online Plan 1 and Plan 2) will change from 10,000 to Unlimited.