The tool allows system administrators, actually all users, to remotely test the following client types and services:

Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync Connectivity Tests

• Exchange ActiveSync- This test simulates the steps a mobile device uses to connect to an Exchange server using Exchange ActiveSync.
• Exchange ActiveSync Autodiscover – This test walks through the steps an Exchange ActiveSync device uses to obtain settings from the Autodiscover service.

Microsoft Exchange Web Services Connectivity Tests

• Synchronization, Notification, Availability, and Automatic Replies (OOF) – These tests walk through many basic Exchange Web Services tasks to confirm they’re working. This is useful for IT administrators who want to troubleshoot external access using Entourage EWS or other Web Services clients.
• Service Account Access (Developers) – This test verifies a service account’s ability to access a specified mailbox, create and delete items in it, and access it via Exchange Impersonation. This test is primarily used by application developers to test the ability to access mailboxes with alternate credentials.

Microsoft Office Outlook Connectivity Tests

• Outlook Anywhere (RPC over HTTP) – This test walks through the steps Outlook uses to connect via Outlook Anywhere (RPC over HTTP).
• Outlook Autodiscover – This test walks through the steps Outlook 2007 uses to obtain settings from the Autodiscover service.

Internet E-Mail Tests

• Inbound SMTP E-Mail – This test walks through the steps an Internet e-mail server uses to send inbound SMTP e-mail to your domain.
• Outbound SMTP E-Mail – This test checks your outbound IP address for certain requirements. This includes Reverse DNS, Sender ID, and RBL checks.

The online tool displays the available connectivity tests in a tabbed interface. Selectable are Exchange Server, with the tests listed above, or Office 365, which includes all the tests from above plus the following test.

Microsoft Single Sign-On (BETA)

• Microsoft Single Sign-On – This text will validate your ability to log on to Office 365 with your on-premises credentials. It also validates some basic Active Directory Federated Services (ADFS) configuration.

The sign-on test basically checks if it is possible to log on to Office 365 from the computer it is executed on.

Admins can only select one test at a time. A click on the Next button in the interface loads a page where credentials, email addresses or other data that is relevant for the tests need to be entered by the admin.

The online tool runs the connectivity tests afterwards and displays any connectivity issues directly on screen.

Here is a video by a young lady explaining the basics of the Microsoft Remote Connectivity Analyzer.

Windows administrators and interested users can access the online tool to test the remote connectivity of Office 365 and Microsoft’s Exchange server right here.

New rules are created using a wizard that is guiding the user through the process. It starts with the selection of one or multiple mail folders in Outlook or the Microsoft Exchange Server. All incoming messages and posts will be scanned for keywords that are defined in step 2. It is possible to define keywords that have to be included in the posts or keywords that do not have to be in them for the Outlook add-in to become active.

The notifications are defined in the last step. Four different notifications are available. It is possible to create a post in a folder, play a sound, create a copy in a folder or to create a notification in the popup window. The popup window is basically a monitoring window that has been created for that purpose.

The add-in is compatible with Microsoft Outlook 2007 and Windows Vista. It will also run on previous versions of Microsoft Windows (tested on Windows XP) and Microsoft Outlook but the specific versions are not mentioned on the developer’s homepage.

Advanced Folders Watch

One of the main limitations of Microsoft Outlook is that it is not possible to run multiple Outlook instances that connect to different Microsoft Exchange Servers. It is possible to run multiple Outlook profiles on the same computer system but it is not possible to connect to different Exchange Servers.

Enter Extra Outlook, a lightweight freeware software application that makes it possible to run multiple Outlook instances on the same computer system. You can find a detailed explanation of the workings of that application at the REblog. A general description would be that Extra Outlook will intercept Outlooks exit process when starting a second instance of the email client which allows the user to select a different profile (and thus Exchange Server) during startup.

Extra Outlook is a command line tool:

ExtraOutlook.exe "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\OUTLOOK.EXE"

You can also create shortcuts on the desktop that make use of this program to launch additional Outlook instances comfortably. Extra Outlook is compatible with Microsoft Outlook 2003 and Microsoft Outlook 2007.

The free Microsoft Outlook 2007 add-in aims to provide users with a new way to prioritize emails by temporarily halting email delivery and ranking emails to aid the user in selecting the most important emails first.

The add-in adds a new toolbar to Microsoft Outlook 2007 which provides access to the features. Priorities are assigned by making use through a handful of parameters and user input who can select a priority for an email which will use the information to assign priorities to future emails.

The email pause can be set to an interval between 10 minutes and 4 hours. That would be the period that no new emails would arrive in the user’s mail inbox.

Please keep in mind that Email Prioritizer is a prototype release. Only brave (or foolish) souls would use a prototype in a work environment.