Google Chrome Browser and Outlook Web App and Exchange Admin Center issues

Microsoft have released a kb alluding to all the 'showModalDialog' issues customers have been having when using certain Office365 web portal or Outlook Web App and Exchange Admin Center settings when using Google Chrome as their web browser.

The kb is here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/3001145

The current fix is classed as a workaround, meaning most likely a permanent fix will be put in place at a later date. As this is a deprecated feature it is likely an update to Exchange will fix this issue. We will have to wait and see!

The work around is detailed below:

1. Click Start, type regedit in the Start search box, and then click regedit.exe.

2. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\Chrome\EnableDeprecatedWebPlatformFeatures

3. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click String Value.

4. Type 1, and then press Enter.

5. Right-click the 1 string value that you created, and then click Modify.

6. In the Value data box, type ShowModalDialog_EffectiveUntil20150430, and then click OK.

If the key is missing entirely under ..\\SOFTWARE\Policies we need to create it.

Seeing as my workstation was missing this I thought I'd take a few screen shots of the process for those small shops that are using Office365 are don't necessarily have any IT experience.

Right click Policies and select New > Key and enter Google

Create sub keys for Chrome and EnableDeprecatedWebPlatformFeatures as shown

Finally enter the key as mentioned.

Take care

Oliver Moazzezi - MVP Exchange Server

@OliverMoazzezi

People Picker bug for UM Call answering Rules in Exchange 2013 ECP

There currently appears to be a bug in the way Call Answering rules allow you to pick a user from your contacts or the GAL. This has been tested with two CU2 and CU2v2 Exchange 2013 Forests that have happen UM enabled, and I have had confirmation of it from another third party.

I haven't tested this on the RTM version of the product nor CU1 – but I am assuming the behaviour is the same.

This is present whether you use Address Book Policies or just have a single Global Address List, however read below on how to circumvent it and educate your users.

To reproduce:

Login to the ECP as a user and go to Call Answering Rules

Create a new call answering rule

Select options and use 'Transfer Call'

Then select contacts as my transfer target:

When it initially loads you will get a blank screen. This is the main issue that will confuse users.

However if you click on 'people' you can get it to show your contacts, and then if go back to 'all' it continues to work.

Note however that if you simply refresh the above page on your browser or by hitting F5, it will only ever show the empty page.

It also appears that 'Directory' does not work – it simply shows nothing and appears greyed out (after expanding the window by clicking "^^")

This again will confuse users who have made it this far. They will think they can only create rules for contacts and not their actual colleagues which they would pick from the GAL.

However if you search for someone in the GAL using the search people function under your Contacts, and click on the find magnifying glass, you will be able to search the GAL and find them.

The biggest issues I see are

1. When the People Picker initially loads it is a blank screen and is always a blank screen until you select 'People'. When you go back to 'All' it then works.

2. You do not appear  to initially at first be able to search the Directory, or GAL causing confusion

3. Having to select "^^" to expand the window to see "Directory" is not great and additionally - it doesn't work as it does not show you the Directory or GAL

4. Searching for GAL users via your contacts does work, and provides the workaround – but is sub optimal

Hopefully this less than ideal behaviour will be fixed in a future Cumulative Update (CU) or Service Pack (SP)

Take care,

Oliver Moazzezi - MVP Exchange Server

Disabling features in the ECP

The official Microsoft Exchange Blog has a great article on RBAC. Follow this link here


Oliver Moazzezi

MVP - Exchange Server