Hello, I recently installed the gold version of Windows Vista from MSDN. My team and I are attempting to do all of our day to day work from Vista (why? it seemed like a good idea at the time). We managed to get everything working (with a bit of hacking and a lot of errors) except for the Exchange Management Console. The installation bombs out with an error that the IIS admin console is not installed. I've installed everything under internet services, started any service remotely related to IIS and WMI, copied registry entries and dll files over.. Nothing works. Anybody have any luck?Tracy

I have been fighting with this ever since Beta 2 with no luck. I have contacted my TAM at Microsoft and he hasn't been able to get me a definately timeline of compatible tools. My best guess would be when exchange 2007 RTM's in late Nov. If anyone else knows a way to get it working I would be very interested in finding out how you've done it.

The Exchange Management Console and Exchange Management Shell are not currently supported on Vista (and for that matter, neither is Exchange System Manager from previous versions of Exchange). Support for Vista for the Exchange 2007 tools will be provided in a future service pack.

Future service pack? How many more years is that going to be? Why release Vista to businesses if you can't support their everyday tools? So really, Microsoft is telling the IT world, if you want to use Vista and continue to do your job, you will need two computers; one for Vista which appears to only be good for running Office 2007 and keep your trusty XP machine for the real work you need to do. Somebody tell me how this makes sense? Years and years in beta but come time for release, none of our everyday tools work with it.... How frustrating.

This is rediculous. What is the point of releasing Vista to businesses first if we can't get any work done? This is the main problem I will have of convincing any of our Admins to move over to Vista. If we can't even get our Admins to use it why would we expect our users to? Why is this not a bigger priority for Microsoft? There is ZERO information out there officially from MSFT (other than the above post), I have tried contacting my TAM and he can't even get a straight answer for me.

I wish i had read this post before installing Volume Licence at work ! tut tut

I made the mistake of having it installed prior to the upgrade. Does anyone know who to manually uninstall so that I can atleast use the AD Tools.

Not much chance of this ever working I doubt. ESM 2003 uses IIS6.0, and Vista and ESM2007 use IIS7, which doesn't have backward compatibility for some daft reason. There is a tool that you can install that can allow you to run IIS6 tools on Vista, but ESM2003 still doesn't work even with that installed. I can't see Microsoft fixing this issue, instead they'll just say "Use Exchange 2007"!! It amazes me that so many of us continue to use MS products when they do stuff like this. No longer can you manage Exchange 2003 or below using Vista, because we are going to force you to either stick with XP, or upgrade to Exchange 2007!

Has anyone tried managing an Exchange 2003 server using the Exchange 2007 ESM? As far as I got was the 2007 setup telling me it needed to extend schema to continue installation (no thanks).

Scott Schnoll - MSFT wrote:The Exchange Management Console and Exchange Management Shell are not currently supported on Vista (and for that matter, neither is Exchange System Manager from previous versions of Exchange). Support for Vista for the Exchange 2007 tools will be provided in a future service pack. Are you serious? What good does Vista do us when we can't manage Exchange accounts from our desktop/laptop? I can easily remote into our terminal server where the management console and system manager are installed and work but I shouldn't have to. Do you know the reasoning for why it is not supported on Vista? It seems a bit ridiculous to push Vista when a valuable tool such as this isn't compatible and requires purchasing more software for it to work when Server 2003 SP2 works just fine.

Scott Schnoll - MSFT wrote:The Exchange Management Console and Exchange Management Shell are not currently supported on Vista (and for that matter, neither is Exchange System Manager from previous versions of Exchange). Support for Vista for the Exchange 2007 tools will be provided in a future service pack. Sonofa ... Unbeliveable - I cannot go any further with this OS if the basics for administration are not even supported!!! ***! I have spent much of the last 2 days hacking and modifying the current release of Vista Business .. I think I have been waisting my time..

This is pretty dumb IMO as well. I am an Exchange Administrator...the OS isn't much use to me or my team if we can't use it to easily do our jobs. We are also about to embark on an E2K7 pilot next week and everything I've read says you can not administrate 2003 servers with the 2007 tools. The 2007 tools may at least give me back visibility to see the exchange tabs in ADUC but for everything else I imagine we are just supposed to RDP to the servers directly, which I hate doing. Would be great if someone were able to hack this into submission like the 2003 Admin Pak or better yet, the <gasp> vendor fix the nonsense.

http://briandesmond.com/blog/archive/2006/11/21/How-to-get-the-Windows-2003-Admin-Tools-Working-on-Vista.aspxhas the instructions for getting the AdminPak to work on Vista.

That resgiters the DLLs that Vista doesn't for the AD tools; but it does not fix issues with exchange or the AD connector for exchange. If you have upgraded and had previously had the connector for exchange installed, you are still hosed...AS it stands now I am going to reimage my machine back to XP over the weekend so I don't have to keep remoting to a server to administer basic AD issues. It has gotten to the point were unlocking an account has become a royal pain in the butt.

Yes, sadly you are correct. I am planning to use Windows XP in avirtual machine for my admin needs. It's a real shame.

The AD tools now install under RTM without hacking anything if you download the newest ones from MSFT. Exchange still won't work however. But if you are comfortable and know what you are doing you can install the suptools.msi from a Windows 2003 CD and use ADSI edit to make changes to your exchange accounts. I have not setup a new mailbox using ADSI but you can at least make changes to existing exchange mailboxes. Until MSFT steps up and gives Admins the tools we need this is the best I can come up with.

Dasgooch wrote:But if you are comfortable and know what you are doing you can install the suptools.msi from a Windows 2003 CD and use ADSI edit to make changes to your exchange accounts. I wouldn't recommend using ADSI for any everyday tasks. I guess for me, the admin tools are the tip of the iceberg for Vista as many other everyday items don't work either. Vista is a pretty cool OS, but after being in beta for so long, I was expecting a little more compatibility with current 32bit apps. I mean, what the heck did everyone test on Vista while they were using the beta? Office 2007? To me, not having everydayMicrosoft ITtoolsworking and not offering a compatible version of them upon RTM makes Vista on the most useless releases I've ever seen come out of Microsoft since Windows ME. I'm normally a very strong advocate of Microsoft because they normally do make some of the coolest software on the planet, but all of this incompatibility with their own dang products that we need to support our infrastructure with and no solutions or workarounds is a real drag.

Steve Hillshire wrote: I mean, what the heck did everyone test on Vista while they were using the beta? Office 2007? To me, not having everyday Microsoft IT tools working and not offering a compatible version of them upon RTM makes Vista on the most useless releases I've ever seen come out of Microsoft since Windows ME. I'm normally a very strong advocate of Microsoft because they normally do make some of the coolest software on the planet, but all of this incompatibility with their own dang products that we need to support our infrastructure with and no solutions or workarounds is a real drag. I completely agree with this quote. I look at jumping into the next OS like buying a new car or house. If youre going to move into the next stage in life, you don't want to buy into issues or have less options because of those shortcomings. Sure, sure, I can already hear the Microsoft people stating that they dont want to have all this legacy software to support but since when is Exchange 2003 a legacy item? In Microsoft years and to the mass of IT shops out there, this is still a new born. Sure maybe 5 years from now when the next OS comes out I might consider not having any support for Exchange 2003 but we are still just talking about management tools right? This could just be me but what does Vista currently have to offer anyone aside from frustrating them with their own apps? I think I saw better compatibility and support moving from 95, 98, 98se, ME, 2000, NT4.0 to XP (software & hardware). I get it, lets trade all that compatibility for the gadget bar, 3D desktop flipper and the next year in making my current apps work (if at all) with this new OS; Joy. When you start to make your loyalist question why they use your products in the first place, it is not a good thing. Considering the market place is a bit different than what it was from even 5 years ago, this might not be the best time to annoy everyone with stuff that should work by default. Bottom line, "Actions speak louder than words", help the people that support you. Fix your Exchange Admin Tools and they will come.

Hi, Just to address the SP issue There will be a service pack for Exchange and likely Vista when Longhorn server ships which is currently looking to be around themiddle of next year. Regards the Vista points, I must admit I put Vista on my main machine immediately when it RTMd but have now gone back to XP. I think Vista is going to be an excellent OS, but at the moment there is simply too much which doesn't work well such as the availablility of admin tools and drivers for it to be used as a main OS. For those who can't go back, the other option is to run XP in a VM on Vista. You can do you admin from there. Cheers Nathan

This is very sad to hear. I agree with numerous others who wonder why MS would push to release the business Vista when those who are first adopters and "IT recommenders" cant do their work. Without IT staff testing the platform, corporations will be very slow to adopt a new OS.We are alsomuch less likely to recommend Vista to our families & friends if we cant use it every day in the real world.... I completely understand that exchange 5.5 management wouldnt be supported under vista but exchange 2003 is the current production platform. Exchange 2007 is still beta. And since it take a x64 platform and you can not upgrade from 2003 to 2007 exchange (must be afresh install) I'd be willing to bet it will be quite a while before Exchange 2007 becomescommon place. I find it inexcusable that MS expects us to use & recommend the installation of a new operating system when it wont even support Microsoft's owncurrent management tools.....For all its neat bells & whistles, if it wont allow my staff to do their daily critical tasks, its time to put Vista back in the cabinet. As for me, I and my entire staff will be going back to XP Pro for the foreseeable future.... Chris

I agree...

Yes, this Post was very useful for me to ditch MS VISTA all together. Office 2007 is good tough. Outlook 2007 consumes 30MB under XP and almost 65 MB under Vista on the same computer - vista is that bad.. From the looks of it, Microsoft released Vista only to enhance thier digital features to beat MAC, but succeeded only 50% I would say. I am a hard-core Exchange AD Specialist and I found it too appalling or gruesome to getall Admin Tools to work in Vista and am going back my Win Xp forWork and a beautiful iMac 24" for home. If Microsoft hasn't convinced the Technical Architects, Admins and Engineers on its merits, I don't see how they would recommend it totheir companies. I am certainly not going to do that as well. Microsoft has unfortuantely lost the whole plot in VISTA for sure. Dev

Not the ultimate solution but I ran across a forum post (http://bink.nu/forums/16477/ShowPost.aspx) that involved copying some dlls and files from an Exchange server to the Vista system32 directory and then registering one. This at least yielded the Exchange tabs from ADUC. Exchange related tasks still don't work but it's a start.

I was all happy had my Vista Enterprise running I was planning on upgrading my clients but now there is no way. I will not upgrade to something that just looks pretty but does not work with my daily tools (Exchange, SMS, SQL, Admin Tools). I would think is common sense to work on these details before production or have a solution not just to push something that will not work. Maybe home users is ok but not for an IT pro. I will not use a virtual machine to run my tools...Are you going to charge me for that license? Is that your plan one for the price of two? I do have it installed on one of my laptops just to see what could have been....

This worked like a charm for me. The instructions on bink's forum will enable all exchange tasks except for moving mailboxes. Its definately a lot more usable now for day to day AD tasks.

The addition of the listed .dlls do allow me to actually access AD now from Vista. Bravo for finding this info. I am still going to reiomage this machine back to XP when times allows for it.. Too many applications hang, crash or otherwise just don't work... So far I have had issues with Primal Script, various websites ( causes IE to crash), Difficulty in getting Files to download/upload. Using applications to open files cause those applications to crash. For instances using VMware, and to browse to open image... system crashes... Woo Hoo Vista... NOT! GL fellow IT peoples... I am going to back XP!!! better yet 3.11 for Workgroups, maybe then I can browse my network... :p

I reread this whole thread and still find it utterly laughable that sometechnical folks are intelligent enough to try things that have worked in the past or even to throw a registry/file audit tool in place and figure out how to make this stuff work but Microsoft hasn't/can't/won't...and stop posting that stupid blurb that is Microsoft's official stance (read: canned reply), it's not helpful and actually more frustrating than silence.

Under component name " Microsoft Exchange" Select for the Action "Custom" Under component name "Microsoft Exchange systems management tolls" Select for the Action "Uninstall" this worked for me.

So far I have yet to find a reason to upgrade to Vista. Please explaine to me why Microsoft would not make thier AD tools compatable with VISTA. I have had nothing but problems trying to get a VISTA management workstation up and running.

I rarely post most (i know i should post more), but I had toset up an account and chime in here, I totally agree-for MS to release this without admin tools is thoughtless and irresponsible- who the heckworks at MS now?!?! How were they able to work on Vista themselves without these tools, and how could they have not realized that the IT Staff at EVERY Company are the ones will first use and recommend (or NOT recommend) Vista? BILL- Get a grip- you are loosing it!! Have you even used Vista? Where is your head? I am not only shying away from Vista here over this, I'm pushed yet again- towards a Linux based enterprise solution. If MS can screw up something this simple imagine what else they can overlook and screw up. Micorsoft, remember this-assomeone else mentioned in the thread- the IT staff is the first to get their hands into your new releases, you should really try to think of them. The IT staff of today who is unhappy with your releases is the IT staff of tomorrow who implements a whole other enterprise solution next time around- and they may make alot of $ doingfor many fortune 500 companies. Who me, bitter? Yes, I just have a heard time seeing very very smart people overlooking the obvious. I do like a lot about Vista, but for me, it's not working out. I'm leaving Vista and unless MS gets smart again and Quickly gets admin tools working on Vista- i may never go back (to vista or... MS). Bill??

I would have to agree with everyone here. Vista looks like Microsoft's attemp to disway people from going to Apple. Micorsoft has always followed Apples visual ques for their OS. Vista may be good for hoem use, but it sucks for anyone who is in a systems adminstrattion role such as myself. None of the adminstration tools work without some sort of hack or tweak. Luckily I only installed it on a spare laptop to see if Vista was ready for prime time. IT is definitely not. Office 2007 is cute but there is no reason to upgrade from 2003. As a matter of fact I like 2003 better. I have still not been able to find the forms tools that were available in 2003. As far as getting to see the Exchange setting in ADUC I found this from another post and it does work. Copy the first 6 DLL files from your Exchange\BIN directory from the server and the ones that start with net are in the system32 directory. Copy all of these to your system32 directory local and register the DLL below and it works. Good luck my fellow admins. Microsoft, you guys need to do some serious work! address.dll escprint.dll exchmem.dll glblname.dll maildsmx.dll pttrace.dll netui0.dll netui1.dll netui2.dll Finally: regsvr32 \windows\system32\maildsmx.dll

I had an XP machinewith full working exchange 2003 and I went for the upgrade option rather then a fresh install, and quite surprisingly Exchange system manager works! problem for me is I build another machine from fresh and have the same problems as above! :-( meaning I either live with it by the sounds of things of have to go back to XP and upgrade again

Fortunately for me, I chose the dual boot route, and can go back to XP at any time. I will definately NOT be purchasing any licenses of Vista for my company any time soon. I hope that other IT pros take the same stance and it hits Microsoft in the spot most likely to provoke action to fix problems like these, in the bank account.

This worked like a charm for me as well. I copied the DLL's to my system32 directory and registered the maildsmx.dll and all was well! Woohoo...I don't have to spend 2 more days unloading and reloading my system....for now anyways! MS better pay attention to this stuff or they are going to lose a lot of their faithful!

I copied the DLLs and only the exchange tasks under ADUC are available to me. I still cant get into the System Manager.

Worked for me as well! Thanks IT Guy. I don't maintain the Exchange Server, but I manage Distros and Generic Mailboxes. What I did was find out my Exchange server name (MS Outlook > Tools > Account Settings > E-Mail tab >SelectMS Exchange under 'Name' > Change..) I then RDP into the box to copythenecessary .dlls Registered maildsmx.dll, and all the Exchange tabs in AD returned! Many thanks again (Tried 3 days to fix this!!)

My System Manager won't install because "Internet Information Services Snap-In is not installed or disabled". Needles to say that IIS is up and running on my Vista. Do you know any trick or you installed Vista as an upgrade? Thanks. Steven

If you are running Vista 64-bit copy the DLLs listed by IT Guy to your %systemroot%\SysWOW64 folder rather than the System32 folder. Then run regsvr32 maildsmx.dll from the %systemroot%\SysWOW64 folder.

I didn't get to that stage (of registering the DLLs). I cannot install the Management Console because its says my IIS is not running (which it does). Thanks.

The Management Console will not install. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/931903 But you can get the Exchange Task (right click on user and setup a mailbox,...)working by following this thread.

Youre right. Stupid me! I remembered reading somewhere that you actually get to install the console first (which will install fine, it said) and then register the dll files but now I realize I was probably thinking about the Adminpack. However, it failed to register the dll, saying that The module \windows\system32\maildsmx.dll was loaded but the call to DllRegisterServer failed with error code 0x80020009. But THANKS A LOT anyway. If anyone has any info on the above error I'd much appreciate.

If you are getting the DLLReg error - be sure to start the command prompt window with admin rights - that should clear you up.

Thanks whoever posted the DLL instructions to get the exchange features into Vista. I was going to be seriously annoyed if I had to start connecting into the server to add/change user accounts. Had stumbled upon the instructions to get the active directory mmc working but couldn't find the exchange fix anywhere. I find it sad that I have to go digging in the first place to find these management tools when I'm trying to managea Microsoft product. It's not like I'm trying to manage exchange 5.5 or something! Thanks again

This issue has stalled vista deployment in my organization as well. The IT group can't deploy vista until they get more hands-on experience running it themselves, but they can't run it because the admin tools will not install. So we are at an impasse, and I don't see a resolution to this on the horizon.If the Exchange 2007 admin tools really do work after SP1 comes out in Q4, then we may have to wait for all of the pieces to fall into place for an exchange migration before we can start running vista internally. That would at least put a vista migration in the timeline, possibly as early as 2009.

When you find a way let me know, Linux Rules for a reason..

I wish Microsoft would delay the end of XP to get Vista working first. I think they will stop selling OEM XP before I can actually use Vista.

You the man. It worked like a charm! Thanks.

Why release Vista...if you can't support their everyday tools? More money for Micro$oft.

Hmmm - MS suggested solution/work around to administering Exchange 2007 with Vista "To work around this issue, connect to the Exchange server that is running the Exchange management tools by using Remote Desktop from the Windows Vista-based computer. For information about how to administer a server by using Remote Desktop, visit the following Microsoft Web site: " Whoever said it would be better for MS to keep silent was right - this is just an insult and is certainly not providing a sensible product or solution

Cheers for this suggestion.Ran regsvr32 maildsmx.dll from the C:\Windows\system32 folder running the command prompt with admin rights and it worked like a dream. I waspreviously getting the The module \windows\system32\maildsmx.dll was loaded but the call to DllRegisterServer failed with error code 0x80020009 error message butI now have Active Directory Users and Computers with Exchange tabs. Maybe this Vista install will work afterall....

I agree with you all that this is a kludge. However, there is always a price to pay for being out on the leading edge. For this very reason as well as several other software incompatibility reasons, I remain Windows XP based on my desktops at home and at work. I don't know why Microsoft released Vista without ESM support for E2K3 and EMC/EMS support for E2K7, but I would guess just too many things shipping too close together to get it all tested and working. As for me, RDP and the Remote Desktops console is usually a good work around. At work, we don't put the admin tools on the administrators desktops anyway. We have a terminal server dedicated for use by admins.

The IT Guy wrote: Copy the first 6 DLL files from your Exchange\BIN directory from the server and the ones that start with net are in the system32 directory. Copy all of these to your system32 directory local and register the DLL below and it works. Good luck my fellow admins. Microsoft, you guys need to do some serious work!...Thank you very much! It's works!

Bottom line is Micro$oft is too busy trying to stay ahead of all the competition. They know full well that most of the real world system admins and developers will fix all their bugs. Microsoft has had a history fromWindows1.0days of not fixing their bugs, but simply relying on the world to complain about something and some unsung hero to find a fix. Don't fool yourself into thinking Micro$oft cares about anything other than making money. Micro$oft use to wait until someone with insight created something then they would either steal the idea and implement it into their next service pack or OS release. Today they have made enough money that they simply buy out those people. Until such time that some company actually develops a OS and NOS that threatens Micro$oft dominancy in this area, Micro$oft will continue with business as usual. They KNOW you have very little option if you don't like it. Have a Great Day!

When you are getting the error "failed to register the dll, saying that The module \windows\system32\maildsmx.dll was loaded but the call to DllRegisterServer failed with error code 0x80020009 this is because you are not installed as the local administrator or domain admin, if you login to a local administrator account and then it works, also to fix the tabs after doing the fix if you install microsoft exchange on the pc then it allows you to use the management addons correctly.

I too was getting the same error when trying register the dll. Later when I registered as local admin it worked. (with my login as domain admin it didnt work). I can see the exchange tabs now. Do you mean we can use ESM also now after registering those dll's?? i have tried installing but got an error saying IIS is not installed - which is not true. I have IIS installed on my laptop. Were you able to install ESM? Or Is there any other approach/hack/tweak to access exchange tools such as message tracker, or accesing storage groups, setting quotas, etc.... Please help!

Well i got SP1 installed for Vista... now what? I still need ESM to work on it btw, the remark about Linux working better. How do you manage an exchange server from Linux actually? Stupid uselesslinuxanswers to windows questions.

I have a dumb question - Why not just run the server tools from the server? I gave up a long time ago trying to run the admin tools from my desktop. There were just too many compatibility issues. For example - In theory none of you should be installing ESM on Windows XP as you probably have Outlook installed on it as well and it's a MSFT no-no to have both versions of MAPI (Exchange and Outlook) on there. For most of my customers who have multiple admins, I recommend setting up a dedicated administration server that they can all remote desktop into. This configuration allows you to have all your admin tools in one spot, keep them all patched (last time I tried to get 20 admins to upgrade their ESM installs to SP2 so they had the matched pairs of DLLs as the serer it was a nightmare), and you can get to your sessions from anywhere. I.E. You can disconnect your RDP session, go home, connect back into work, and re-open your RDP session and continue to work. The only caveat to this scenario is if you want more than 2 RDP sessions active at a time, you need to use Terminal Services Licensing, but a small number of licenses to free up multiple admins from having to have the admin tools installed everywhere and consistently patched is a small price to pay IMHO. Good luck!

Boy, this looked promising, but unfortunately it did not have the intended effect on my vista 64 system. after following the instructions and successfully registreing the DLL, I now can't run dsa.msc in 32 bit mode at all. just gives an error. It will only run with the -64 flag.any ideas?

The IT Guy wrote: I would have to agree with everyone here. Vista looks like Microsoft's attemp to disway people from going to Apple. Micorsoft has always followed Apples visual ques for their OS. Vista may be good for hoem use, but it sucks for anyone who is in a systems adminstrattion role such as myself. None of the adminstration tools work without some sort of hack or tweak. Luckily I only installed it on a spare laptop to see if Vista was ready for prime time. IT is definitely not. Office 2007 is cute but there is no reason to upgrade from 2003. As a matter of fact I like 2003 better. I have still not been able to find the forms tools that were available in 2003. As far as getting to see the Exchange setting in ADUC I found this from another post and it does work. Copy the first 6 DLL files from your Exchange\BIN directory from the server and the ones that start with net are in the system32 directory. Copy all of these to your system32 directory local and register the DLL below and it works. Good luck my fellow admins. Microsoft, you guys need to do some serious work! address.dll escprint.dll exchmem.dll glblname.dll maildsmx.dll pttrace.dll netui0.dll netui1.dll netui2.dll Finally: regsvr32 \windows\system32\maildsmx.dllThanks a lot man! It worked perfectly!

I was one of the main opponants to my company switching to Vista (because of the tons of issues it's had in so many different areas). Well, recently we started working with server 2008 and the remote applications, so I had to either upgrade to XP SP3 or go Vista. I tried the SP3 upgrade first, but it screwed up my OS and put me in a perpetual boot loop, so I decided that I'd give Vista a chance, despite my better judgement.I kick myself every day for that choice. I'm an even stronger opponent than ever against Vista now. It's been out for over a year and a half to retail now and they STILL don't have the admin tools for exchange 2003? What kind of sloppy work is that? I'm so pissed about it now that I'm going to go ahead and rip out Vista this weekend and install XP SP3. I can't believe I let myself install Vista. Such a freaking waste of my valuable time.

Well you should have known better... the last deployable software release from Microsoft was SQL2005. The only upside to microsoft's "just RDP into the server" solution is that once you have a nice admin server up and running, there isn't much point to keeping windows on your desktop. Its fairly liberating. I can still remember fighting the good fight to move people off of WP6, Lotus123, and Novel servers. Those days are coming again, but this time it will be to get people off of MS office, windows desktops and exchange.Given the current situation, what are my choices? Vista doesn't work, and I have hundreds of desktops running an OS that is falling out of support. Windows7 has already slipped to 2010, and they've put the "Ribbon" woman in charge of the new GUI. I can't stay on XP forever, not even until 2010. Any spare resources we have are going into building skills on ubuntu and open office. Its looking less and less like an "if", and more and more like a "when".

Whilei agreeit's a total shame IT pros lose some functionnalities and efficiency while going under vista;good luck for switchingto ubuntu which is basically the worst from bothWindows and Linux worlds. By the way; did someone finally found a way to get the ESM extension in MMC under Vista?

"Given the current situation, what are my choices? Vista doesn't work, and I have hundreds of desktops running an OS that is falling out of support. Windows7 has already slipped to 2010, and they've put the "Ribbon" woman in charge of the new GUI. I can't stay on XP forever, not even until 2010. Any spare resources we have are going into building skills on ubuntu and open office. Its looking less and less like an "if", and more and more like a "when"." With XP's recently announced extended support by Microsoft, you *can* afford to run XP until 2010. There is nothing that Ubuntu can do that XP can't. In fact, I'd be asking the question the other way around. Not to mention the huge money you will cost the company to rip out your current infrastructure of Microsoft and put in the OSS equivalents. Good luck with that. We have thousands of desktops on XP and don't have any plans to upgrade their OS anytime soon. In fact, with Windows 7 looking like just aVista SE, I'm not sure that will be the answer either. Even when Microsoft ditches support for XP, I'm betting than there will be others out there providing patches for any additional high vulns that may come its way. Its already been done. Having said that, I agree that Microsoft was completely whacked to release Vista without support for their own admin tools! Because who is going to look at whether Vista is viable or not? ADMINS, that's who. And who is going to give a thumbs down when none of the tools they need to do their job in their Microsoft infrastructure don't work? ADMINS, that's who. This is a case where the DOJ didn't screw them. Competition didn't screw them. They screwed themselves. They are their own enemy when it came to Vista. Microsoft, next time don't release an OS that is incompat with your own dang software. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Hello,to run ESM from your Windows Vista:1. Install Adminpak.msi from Win2k3, then register those DLLs (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/930056)2. Copy all DLLs file from \exchsrvr\bin to your \windows\syswow64 (\windows\system32 for 32 bits OS)3. Copy "Exchange System Manager.msc" from your \exchsrvr\bin to your machine.4. Copy the \windows\system32\ntlsapi.dll from your Exchange Server to your \windows\syswow64 (\windows\system32 for 32 bits OS).Then execute as administrator:5. regsvr32 cdoexm.dll6. regsvr32 exadmin.dll7. run "Exchange System Manager.msc"Bye

Thanks Fernando Michels...this was a great help to me...I have been looking for this solution for a couple of days.

Thanks!

Scott Schnoll - MSFT wrote: The Exchange Management Console and Exchange Management Shell are not currently supported on Vista (and for that matter, neither is Exchange System Manager from previous versions of Exchange). Support for Vista for the Exchange 2007 tools will be provided in a future service pack.this is the main argument i used when pitching my stay-with-XP policy to my director. thanks for the wonderful quote. particularly, the open-ended "a future service pack" phrase... hearing that from microsoft is enough to make any admin run for his life. microsoft's definition of the word "future" translates into something like 5-8 years.soon enough, microsoft's credibility will diminish enough that "future" will mean 10-12 years. maybe we'll get a decent operating system without compatibility issues.... "in the future".

So when I try to run the RegSvr32 in the SysWow64 folder I get "The Module "Maildsmx.dll" failed to load. Make sure the binary is stored at the specified path or debug it to check for problems with the binary or dependent .DLL files. The specified module could not be found." As you can see it is there. Directory of C:\Windows\SysWOW64 08/25/2005 07:09 PM 14,645,760 maildsmx.dll 1 File(s) 14,645,760 bytes 0 Dir(s) 53,222,633,472 bytes free Anyone??

Exchange System manager for Vista is now available, take a look Exchange System Manager for Windows Vista

This did not add the exchange feature to the Vista 64bit admin tools.

Yeah right.. Finally they release tools to manage Exchange 2003 from Vista, turns out that it doesn't go together with Outlook.. For the Exchange-developers who don't know how their own product works: You NEED the admintools AND Outlook BOTH to administer Exchange !!

Laurus Buth wrote: Yeah right.. Finally they release tools to manage Exchange 2003 from Vista, turns out that it doesn't go together with Outlook.. For the Exchange-developers who don't know how their own product works: You NEED the admintools AND Outlook BOTH to administer Exchange !! Why was thisevenreleased without being compatible with Outlook? The hack workaround works better than this"Vista" release.

The ESM release for Vista is an absolute joke and a slap in the face... How many administrators do you know, that are running Vista and want to administer an Exchange environment BUT don't run Outlook? WTF?!?!? I'm sure there are a few but this might be the most bass-ackwards approach I've ever heard of. Glad I went back to XP.

I happen to agree with all said. I just took the dive into Vista and was aware that the Exchange Tools wouldn't work. Not a big deal for me given that I do most administration on the server, BUT losing the AD tabs was crippling. I look at that stuff all day long, as does the Help Desk, and I will not allow then to connect the the Exchange server. We are lost without it. After doing a bunch of research I found that the Exchange Tools are in fact available for Vista, but as you guys noted, you cannot have Outlook loaded. Who in their right mind came up with that one? After all the messing around, I came upon this thread which explains how to copy and register the dlls, and that just made my day. However, I am running into a problem. When I close my Management Console, I get the following error: "Microsoft Management Console has stopped working. A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available." Anyone see this? Anyone know how to correct it? TIA, Debbie

Try using WS2008 RSAT tools. I just switched over and I dont get any errors exiting the Management Console. I still only get the Exchange Task but I have been living with that for a while now. I dont have any problems with having Outlook Loaded as well.Mike

Can anyone else give any insight to these tools? It looks as though they have completely redesigned the Management Console with this tool and I do not see anything that addresses Exchnage Administration. TIA, Debbie

Hi, to add the exchange administration tabs on Vista (SP1 maybe earlier - have not checked) you should add the following DLLs to your vista system 32 directory Go to exchange 2003, search for the following files and copy them into your system32 on your vista machine address.dll escprint.dll exchmem.dll glblname.dll maildsmx.dll pttrace.dll netui0.dll netui1.dll netui2.dll Keep in mind, you should also have loaded RSAT for basic administration of active directory tools as well as turned on the features for that software. Hope this helps!

Would the Exchange 2007 tools provide the ADUC functionality for Exchange 2003? David

I've finally come up with a fix for getting exchange tools to work in VistawithOutlook installed in both MMC and stand alone ESM. Here are the steps. The Caveat: You cannot install ExchangeMapiCdo.MSIwith MS outlook installed and you cant install ESMVista with out ExchangeMapiCdo.MSI installed. Here is the work around to get things up and running. 1) Go into Control Panel 2) Select Programs and Features 3) Select MS Office and click the "Change" Button located at the top right. 4) Choose add or remove features and click next. 5) Click the drop down menu next to Outlook and choose "Not Availible" 6) Once Outlook has been removed install ExchangeMapiCdo.MSI 7) After Exchange Mapi Cdo is intalled, install ESMVISTA.MSI 8) The Exchange manager is now installed. 9) Go back into Control Panel 10) Select Programs and Features 11) Select MS Office and click the "Change" Button located at the top right. 12) Choose add or remove features and click next. 13) Click the drop down menu next to Outlook and choose "Run From My Computer" and click next. 14) Once this process is complete you can have your cake and eat it too. I have tested all functions of ESMVista and I was able to do everything an exchange admin needs to do their job.ExchangeMapiCdo.MSI is located here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=94274318-27c4-4d8d-9bc5-3e6484286b1f&displaylang=en ESMVista.MSI is located here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=3403d74e-8942-421b-8738-b3664559e46f&DisplayLang=en Additional Notes: You may need to register the following DLLs to make this work aswell. Just throw them in a text file and rename the file extension to .bat and the batch file with register them for you. regsvr32 /s adprop.dll regsvr32 /s azroles.dll regsvr32 /s azroleui.dll regsvr32 /s ccfg95.dll regsvr32 /s certadm.dll regsvr32 /s certmmc.dll regsvr32 /s certpdef.dll regsvr32 /s certtmpl.dll regsvr32 /s certxds.dll regsvr32 /s cladmwiz.dll regsvr32 /s clcfgsrv.dll regsvr32 /s clnetrex.dll regsvr32 /s cluadmex.dll regsvr32 /s cluadmmc.dll regsvr32 /s cmproxy.dll regsvr32 /s cmroute.dll regsvr32 /s cmutoa.dll regsvr32 /s cnet16.dll regsvr32 /s debugex.dll regsvr32 /s dfscore.dll regsvr32 /s dfsgui.dll regsvr32 /s dhcpsnap.dll regsvr32 /s dnsmgr.dll regsvr32 /s domadmin.dll regsvr32 /s dsadmin.dll regsvr32 /s dsuiwiz.dll regsvr32 /s imadmui.dll regsvr32 /s lrwizdll.dll regsvr32 /s mprsnap.dll regsvr32 /s msclus.dll regsvr32 /s mstsmhst.dll regsvr32 /s mstsmmc.dll regsvr32 /s nntpadm.dll regsvr32 /s nntpapi.dll regsvr32 /s nntpsnap.dll regsvr32 /s ntdsbsrv.dll regsvr32 /s ntfrsapi.dll regsvr32 /s rasuser.dll regsvr32 /s rigpsnap.dll regsvr32 /s rsadmin.dll regsvr32 /s rscommon.dll regsvr32 /s rsconn.dll regsvr32 /s rsengps.dll regsvr32 /s rsjob.dll regsvr32 /s rsservps.dll regsvr32 /s rsshell.dll regsvr32 /s rssubps.dll regsvr32 /s rtrfiltr.dll regsvr32 /s schmmgmt.dll regsvr32 /s tapisnap.dll regsvr32 /s tsuserex.dll regsvr32 /s uddi.mmc.dll regsvr32 /s vsstskex.dll regsvr32 /s w95inf16.dll regsvr32 /s w95inf32.dll regsvr32 /s winsevnt.dll regsvr32 /s winsmon.dll regsvr32 /s winsrpc.dll regsvr32 /s winssnap.dll regsvr32 /s ws03res.dll

I have found a way to install The Exchange 2003 ESM for Vista on Windows 2008, first of all make sure you have the following installed:Feature: IIS 6 Management ConsoleFeature: IIS 6 Metabase CompatibilityActive Directory Users and Computers Extension (This was already installed on all of my 2008 systems, see below for details of how to check)Exchange Server MAPI Client and Collaboration Data Objects 1.2.1 (ExchangeMapiCdo.MSI)Then use the following msiexec arguments to bypass some of the prereq checks that fail otherwise:msiexec /i ESMVISTA.MSI IIS_6_SNAPIN=1 IIS_6_METABASE=1 PART_OF_DOMAIN=1 EX2003_ORG=1 And you should find that the ESM installs successfully, note that I have not tried this on a machine with Outlook installed, I use a separate Vista VM for Email but I do most of my admin work on a 2008 VM so that is where I wanted the 2003 ESM to be installed.I figured this out by using Orca to look at the contents of the MSI , I worked out that the following two Conditions in the InstallUISequence Table were returning FALSE (ie at least one of the individual tests returned true)Action: CA_SET_ERROR_MSG Condition: Not Installed And Not ((VersionNT = 600) And (WindowsBuild >= 6000) And AdminUser And IIS_6_SNAPIN And IIS_6_METABASE And WINDOWS2003_ADMINPACK And EXCHANGE_MAPI_CDO And PART_OF_DOMAIN And EX2003_ORG)Action: FatalErrorDialog Condition: Not Installed And Not ((VersionNT = 600) And (WindowsBuild >= 6000) And AdminUser And IIS_6_SNAPIN And IIS_6_METABASE And WINDOWS2003_ADMINPACK And EXCHANGE_MAPI_CDO And PART_OF_DOMAIN And EX2003_ORG)I am not a expert on MSI but I think VersionNT, WindowsBuild, and AdminUser tests are built into MSI, certainly they work as expected on 2008, of the 6 other component checks 2 are done using AppSearch (WINDOWS2003_ADMINPACK checks for SOFTWARE\Clients\Mail\ExchangeMAPI\DLLPathEx and EXCHANGE_MAPI_CDO checks for SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MMC\SnapIns\{006A2A75-547F-11D1-B930-00A0C9A06D2D}\NameString) and work ok (provided the components are installed), but the remaining 4 are done using a script held in the binary table (PreReq), I expected to find that the script code didnt work on 2008 but actually it does, I copied the script to a .vbs and added some msgbox commands and I found that all 4 tests work correctly, so I would expect IIS_6_SNAPIN, IIS_6_METABASE, PART_OF_DOMAIN and EX2003_ORG to all return TRUE on 2008, but they do not, perhaps MSI security is tighter on 2008 and VBS code cannot execute? Anyway I've spent enough time on this already, if you simply override the checks using the command I gave you should be able to complete the install.Andy

I've finally come up with a fix for getting exchange tools to work in VistawithOutlook installed in both MMC and stand alone ESM. Here are the steps. The Caveat: You cannot install ExchangeMapiCdo.MSIwith MS outlook installed and you cant install ESMVista with out ExchangeMapiCdo.MSI installed. Here is the work around to get things up and running. 1) Go into Control Panel 2) Select Programs and Features 3) Select MS Office and click the "Change" Button located at the top right. 4) Choose add or remove features and click next. 5) Click the drop down menu next to Outlook and choose "Not Availible" 6) Once Outlook has been removed install ExchangeMapiCdo.MSI 7) After Exchange Mapi Cdo is intalled, install ESMVISTA.MSI 8) The Exchange manager is now installed. 9) Go back into Control Panel 10) Select Programs and Features 11) Select MS Office and click the "Change" Button located at the top right. 12) Choose add or remove features and click next. 13) Click the drop down menu next to Outlook and choose "Run From My Computer" and click next. 14) Once this process is complete you can have your cake and eat it too. I have tested all functions of ESMVista and I was able to do everything an exchange admin needs to do their job.ExchangeMapiCdo.MSI is located here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=94274318-27c4-4d8d-9bc5-3e6484286b1f&displaylang=en ESMVista.MSI is located here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=3403d74e-8942-421b-8738-b3664559e46f&DisplayLang=en Additional Notes: This worked perfect for me and I did not have to register any DLL's. Thanks

This worked perfectly and like others' noted, no need to manually register files! Thank you for this!

I concur with CyberGar. I followed all the instructions to the teeth, except registering the .DLL files and now is working just like WIN XP; it took me all morning to gather all the applets, change settings, etc., however, in XP, I used to RUN AS (my admin account)Active Directory (AD)and put in my admin credentials and everything was peachy. In Windows Vista, I right click the AD icon and the RUN AS is an option, but it never asks me for credentials and AD opens up,I can see all AD but I cannot make ANY changes. Any hints out there?Thanks to all of you that provided the solutions!Billy Shears

We were able to run this successfully on a few systems. However, lately, when we tried it on two other systems we are unable to bring Outlook back. After clicking Change in Program and Features for Microsoft Office, the setup box initializes and then immediately closes. The only way we were able to get Outlook back was to uninstall ExchangeMapiCdo. After removing it, the Office setup initalized to turn Outlook back on. Of course now without the mapi cdo we cannot run Exchange System Manager. I don't understand why this worked before and doesn't now.