This is a free tool aimed at corporate Exchange Users who use Outlook Web App (OWA) as their primary user interface for email, as opposed to Outlook itself.
OWA is missing some much needed integration with the desktop and this little application is designed to bridge that gap and much more besides - it provides the only freely available MAPI connector which allows OWA to become a true first-class Windows email client with full desktop integration.
Do you regularly download Torrents? If so, please take a look at my latest application as it may prove useful,
VuzeClient Homepage Looking for translators: If anyone out there would like to help me by providing translation services from English to their local language then please contact me on support@owatray.com Important!Microsoft seem to be doing their level best to thwart my efforts to support OWA. Both Exchange 2013 and Windows 8 have introduced issues which affect how OWAtray can integrate with the system. Exchange 2013 currently has S/MIME support removed which means that the Send To functionality in Shell Integration will not work with that version of Exchange. Let's hope they re-instate this at some point. Similarly Windows 8 MAPI support seems somewhat broken which means that Send To will not work on that platform either. Should either or both of these situations br resolved then I will update OWAtray accordingly. Latest Releasev3.1.0 (23rd March 2013) Add: Supports Exchange 2013 Add: Support Exchange 2010 SP3 Mod: Updated to use EWS 2.0 Mod: Office365 support improved Bug: Office365 Autologin fixed Follow updates and announcements for OWAtray on Twitter.
Why?Well, as powerful and useful as OWA is, it does have a few drawbacks which make it slightly less intuitive to use over standard Outlook. Most of these can be worked around by applying some clever tricks however the single most annoying feature lacking in OWA is it's ability to inform the user that new mail has arrived when working on another application.
OWA will flag new mail when you are actually working with it, however as Internet Explorer doesn't allow notifications to be executed outwith the security cordon of the browser, this feature is unfortunately lacking. Built on this initial premise, OWAtray has grown over the years to provide a wealth of useful OWA-related features which improve the user experience; primary among these being the ability to enable OWA to become a truly integrated desktop email client with Windows MAPI integration - a feature not found in any other free application of this kind.
Features
How it WorksOWAtray uses a relatively new interface exposed by Exchange Web Services (EWS) which comes standard as part of Exchange 2007 (SP1) so if you are running Exchange at an older version than this then I'm afraid OWAtray is not much use to you. Sorry.Additionally OWAtray depends on an HTTPS route being configured and tested into your corporate LAN. This is exactly the same setup as Outlook Anywhere and ActiveSync use so if those facilities are up & running in your organisation then OWAtray should work seamlessly. If not, please get your System Admin to do the necessary. Lastly a properly installed x509 certificate, issued & certified by a known authority should be configured on your web server. DevelopmentI developed OWAtray because I wanted this functionality for myself and couldn't find a simple free utility that plugged the gap.
At the moment, OWAtray is free and I don't see that changing in the foreseeable future. If you are of the nature where you feel you would like to contribute to the ongoing development of the software then you can kindly Donate.
I reserve the right to upload new versions as and when I fix issues or add new functionality. Refer to the Blog for the Changelog.
WarrantyThis is a free program, you may download it and use it without any implied warranty whatsoever.
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