Internet Explorer 7 Crashes when Posting Messages in OWA 2003

by Daniel Petri - January 8, 2009
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We all love Outlook Web Access (OWA) in Exchange Server 2003. However when using Internet Explorer 7 (if you still don't have it read Download IE7) to browse to OWA 2003 we've encountered a nasty problem:

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You compose a new message:

You click on Send, and boom:

Microsoft has acknowledges this to be a problem (read MS KB 924334 for more info) and has posted a hotfix that needs to be installed on the Exchange servers.

Download the hotfix right here: Update for Exchange Server 2003 SP2 (KB 924334) (2.8mb)

Note: During the installation of this hotfix the Exchange Information Store service will be stopped and re-started, therefore plan for a couple of minutes of downtime for your mailboxes.

Important note about using Front-End and Back-End servers: If you have a FE/BE setup you MUST install this hotfix on all Front-End servers BEFORE installing it on the Back-End servers. Otherwise you might have issues with OWA (thank you Guy Teverovsky for this input).

After installing the hotfix on the server you must uninstall the S/MIME control from any computer that's using IE7, and reinstall the new S/MIME control from the server.

In order to remove the S/MIME control use Add/Remove Programs from the Control Panel.

After removing the old S/MIME control, use OWA's Options screen to install it again (this time it'll be the new version):

When you'll look at the Add/Remove Programs applet (and on the Exchange server in the Exchweb folder) you'll see you've got a new version:

Note: Microsoft has released a new version of this hotfix - see updated download link below. After installing the new version you will see a new version number in the Add/Remove Programs applet: