Need help...

I'm using Exchange 2003 Outlook Web Access and when I receive office 2007 file attachment and try to open it it tells me - "To open this attachment, you must save it to disk.  Right click the link, and then click Save.  With a single-button mouse, hold the button down over the link, and then click Save."  Note that this does not happen when I receive office 2003 file attachment in OWA.  I have office 2007 client installed on my workstation as well.  I went to the registry in my OWA server HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeWeb\OWA and looked at the Level 1 and Level 2 file types and did not see any office 2007 file extentions in the list. (eg: docx, xlsx), so I assume this file extentions are not blocked.  I can save the file but it is annoying to my users since office 2003 file never ask this.  I searched the web and could not find an answer, so any help is greatly appreciated.

Not an answer as such but found this which may help get to the answer.

http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/itanswers/owa-2k3-opening-o2k7-docs/

 

and maybe even better?

http://www.jameskovacs.com/blog/ConfiguringIIS6ToServeOffice2007FileFormats.aspx

 

Let me know how you get on.

 

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cheers
Andy

Thanks Andy.  So far no luck.  I checked my OWA server and it does have the MIME Types Registered.  So here is what I found:

If I send an email using OWA with Office 2007 attachment I don't get the annoying prompt to save to disk (everything is great).  But if I use either Outlook2003 or Outlook2007 client to send an Office2007 attachment and open it in OWA then it prompts me to save to disk.  I can duplicate the same issue in a lab environment so it is consistent. 

From lab environment I tried it in Exchange Version 6.5 (Build 6944.4), to Version 6.5 (Build 72226.6 SP1), to Version 6.5 (Build 7638.2 SP2) and had the same results.  Maybe it's time to upgrade to Exchange2007.

Just tried it with 07 and I get the prompt when sending with either.

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cheers
Andy

No chance antivirus flushing it away?  (Unlikely) or maybe  (longshot) the 4 character extension of Office 2007 is causing OWA to get confused?

 Never seen it myself but then again I'm typically using Exchange ActiveSync on the phone and Outlook Anywhere / RPC-HTTPS.   I've got OWA but since we have a Terminal Server, not as heavy a user of OWA anymore.... ;)

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Well all else fails, make an offering to the computer gods. Preferably in small unmarked bills.

Not sure if OWA is the one that gets confused.  Because if I send the office 2007 files using OWA it doesn't prompt me to save to disk.  Can Outlook client (either 2003 or 2007) be doing something to the files when it sends it?

That sucks...  Exchange 2007 made it worst?

I only tried adding the mime types no other fixes yet. will try more tomorrow!

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cheers
Andy

I'm opening a case with Microsoft:

If I send an office 2007 file using OWA, OutlookExpress, Thunderbird and open it in OWA, everything works.  No prompt to save to disk.  It only prompts when I use Outlook 2003 or 2007 client.  Hopefully They come up with a service pack to fix this issue.

 

Finally got this issue fixed:

Cause:The portion of Exchange that converts the outlook MAPI message to the OWA readable MIME message does not know about the new office2007 file formats.

Fix:Add the Office 2007 content types to Exchange so that the conversion process knows about them. This is done through the Exchange System Manager.  Each of the content types is a string, and then has a file extension associated with it.  You will add the string and the associated file extension to ESM like this:

1. Open ESM.
2. Expand the Global Setting Branch
3. Right Click on Internet Message Formats and choose Properties.  This brings up the current list of known MIME content types.
4. You might want to peruse the list at this point and confirm that the office document extensions are not in the list.  For example, lets use docx as the extension we are adding for this test.  You look and confirm that docx is not already in the list.
5. Click the Add button.  CAREFULLY copy and paste the MIME type into the provided textbox (no leading or trailing spaces), and then enter docx in the extension checkbox.
6. OK out of all the dialogs
7. Restart the Information Store Service to ensure that store gets the new list.
8. Restart outlook if it was open and send a new test email with a docx file. Also for comparison sake send a mail with the same attachment using OWA.
9. Use OWA to read both messages sent in step 8.  Confirm that the attachment behavior is the same.

application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.presentationml.presentation     pptx

application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.presentationml.slide     sldx

application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.presentationml.slideshow     ppsx

application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.presentationml.template     potx

application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet     xlsx

application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.template     xltx

application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document     docx

application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.template     dotx

very interesting, good find!

Will have to try this tomorrow 

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cheers
Andy

Passed this along to the guys at work.  Most of our clients are SBS 2003 which by proxy means OWA2003.  I suspect as we start rolling out Office 2K7 it will be more of an issue.

Unless we get Cougar before it happens... ;)

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Well all else fails, make an offering to the computer gods. Preferably in small unmarked bills.