Understanding Outlook Web App

Applies to: Exchange Server 2010

By default, when you install the Client Access server role on a computer that's running Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, you enable Outlook Web App. Outlook Web App lets you access your Exchange mailbox from almost any Web browser.

Looking for management tasks related to Outlook Web App? See Managing Outlook Web App.

Contents

New Features in Outlook Web App

Managing Outlook Web App

Tools for Managing Outlook Web App

Administrative Tasks for Managing Outlook Web App

New Features in Outlook Web App

Outlook Web App has been redesigned for Exchange 2010 to create a new look, add new features, and improve usability.

New features in Outlook Web App include:

• Outlook Web App mailbox policies   In previous versions of Outlook Web App, you controlled users' access to features by configuring the Outlook Web App virtual directories or by configuring individual mailboxes. In Exchange 2010, you can use Outlook Web App mailbox policies to control users' access to features in Outlook Web App. For more information, see Understanding Outlook Web App Mailbox Policies.
• More Web browsers supported   In Exchange 2010, users have access to the standard version of Outlook Web App through Safari and Firefox, in addition to Internet Explorer. For more information, see Outlook Web App Supported Browsers.
• Conversation view   Conversation view lets users see all messages in a thread, including messages not in the current folder.
• **Chat   **Outlook Web App can be configured to work with Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 to allow users to chat without having to install Office Communicator 2007.
• **Filters   **Users have access to a set of predefined filters to quickly search the contents of folders.
• **Right-click   **More actions have been added to the right-click menus in Outlook Web App.
• Attach messages to messages   Users can attach a message from their mailbox to a new message. In previous versions of Outlook Web App, users could attach files to messages, but couldn't attach a message to a message.

For more information about new features for users in Outlook Web App, What's New in Outlook Web App.

Managing Outlook Web App

When you install the Client Access server role, a default virtual directory named owa is created. For more information about Outlook Web App virtual directories, see Managing Outlook Web App Virtual Directories.

In Exchange 2010, the most common Outlook Web App management tasks can be accomplished in the Exchange Management Console. All these tasks, and many other tasks, can be accomplished by using the Exchange Management Shell. You'll still use tools such as Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager for some tasks, for example, configuring Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) or setting up simple URLs for users.

For more information about how to manage Outlook Web App, see the following topics:

• Managing Outlook Web App
• Managing Outlook Web App Security

Tools for Managing Outlook Web App

The following table lists the tools that you can use to configure and manage Outlook Web App in Exchange 2010.

Tools for managing Outlook Web App

Tool	Description
Exchange Management Console	This graphical user interface is used to manage an Exchange 2010 organization. The EMC can be used to manage the most common settings for Outlook Web App.
Exchange Management Shell	This command-line interface for Exchange Server and the associated command-line plug-ins automate administrative tasks and management for many features that aren't included in the EMC.
Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager	IIS Manager is used to manage user access to the Outlook Web App virtual directories, for example, for simplifying the URL and forcing users to use an HTTPS address.
Web.config	Some Outlook Web App settings, such as the ConnectionCacheSize and MaxRequestLength values, must be configured by modifying Web.config because these settings are specific to ASP.NET. Web.config should be modified only by using tools such as Notepad. If you modify Web.config by using IIS, the file will become corrupted.
Registry Editor	Some Outlook Web App configuration settings, such as the PublicClientTimeout, TrustedClientTimeout, and SSLOffloaded values, must be configured by using Registry Editor. Caution: Incorrectly editing the registry can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Problems resulting from editing the registry incorrectly may not be able to be resolved. Before editing the registry, back up any valuable data.

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Administrative Tasks for Managing Outlook Web App

The following table lists the configuration and management tasks that you can perform for Outlook Web App.

Configuration and management tasks for Outlook Web App

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