XCLN: Calendar Problems with Outlook 98

ID: Q228937

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Outlook Windows NT client, version 8.5
Microsoft Outlook Windows 95/98 client, version 8.5

SUMMARY

Companies that do heavy "calendar sharing" and have many delegate relationships may opt to disable the calendar caching feature in Outlook 98 as described in the following Knowledge Base article:

Q185237 OL98: (CW) Outlook Speed Enhancement to Calendar Folder Access

MORE INFORMATION

Some of the most common issues affecting users are:

Duplicate appointments

Dismissed reminders resurfacing

Conflicting appointments

Missing calendar items

For example, consider the following problem of duplicate and conflicting meetings.

If the manager's client is configured to use an Offline folder (OST), the default calendar caching with Outlook 98, and both the manager's client and the delegate clients are configured to process requests and responses on arrival, duplicate and conflicting meetings are expected.

What is occurring is, when the delegate computer receives the meeting request, it looks at the manager's calendar on the server. The delegate will not see a meeting, so the delegate's client processes the meeting request and tentatively schedules the meeting.

When the manager's computer receives the meeting request, it looks at the cached copy of the calendar in the local OST. The manager's computer will not see the meeting scheduled, so the manager's computer processes the meeting request and tentatively schedules the meeting. Later, when the OST is synchronized with the server, the meeting on the server is pulled into the OST, and the appointment in the OST is pushed to the server.

This is how the duplicate meetings are being created. Again, this is expected behavior for the given client configuration.

If the manager's configuration is changed to not use Offline folders, the behavior does not occur.

If the delegate disables the Process requests and responses on arrival option, the behavior does not occur.

There are two ways to address the problem. Outlook development prefers the NoOST=3 solution.

The options are:

Disable the Process requests and responses on arrival option on the delegate's computer.

The side effect of this option is that the delegate does not automatically process meeting requests for themselves.

Add the registry setting NoOST and set it to 3. This disables the use of the OST for caching a local copy of the calendar.

The file needed that enables this functionality is Outllib.dll. This file can be obtained by installing the Arch98en.exe, which is located at the following location:

http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/downloadDetails/arch98en.htm

NOTE: This file also fixes the problem described in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article:

Q150827 Outlook 98: (CW) Synchronization Properties Tab is Missing

Install this file, then make the registry change to add the NoOST Option 3 (see below).

Quit Outlook.

Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and click OK.

Click to select the following registry entry:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\8.0\Outlook

If the Outlook key has a sub-key named OST with a NoOST entry, skip to step 8. Otherwise, right-click the Outlook key and on the shortcut menu, point to New, and click Key.

Type OST as the name for the new key, and press ENTER.

Right-click the new OST key and on the shortcut menu, point to New, and click DWORD Value.

Type NoOST as the name for the new entry, and press ENTER.

Right-click the NoOST entry, and on the shortcut menu, click Modify.

Enter one of the following values:

0 = An offline store is set up by default and used for calendar caching. Also, the user is allowed to enable offline access and use the offline store. This is the same as the absence of the OST key and NoOST entry.

1 = An offline store is set up by default and used for calendar caching. However, the user is NOT allowed to enable offline access and use the offline store. The options in the Microsoft Exchange Server properties are not available.

2 = An offline store is NOT set up by default and the user is NOT allowed to enable offline access and use the offline store. The options in the Microsoft Exchange Server properties are not available.

3 = An offline store is NOT set up by default and the user is allowed to enable offline access and use the offline store.

Additional query words:


Keywords          : 
Version           : WINDOWS:8.5
Platform          : WINDOWS 
Issue type        : kbinfo

Last Reviewed: August 12, 1999