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*** This tip applies only to BCM version 1. Version 2 (released July 2005) supports all versions of Exchange server.***

As many users of Exchange and Outlook 2003 discovered, Business Contact Manager is not available when you have an Exchange mailbox in your account, as explained in this KB article: KB 829748. The normal workaround is using two different profiles, one for BCM and one for Exchange.

Microsoft has an update available which allows BCM to work with a Small Business Server’s Exchange account. You can find the details of the patch and links to the patch here: KB 831747. To use this patch you need to use SBS’s Exchange server and use cached mode in Outlook.

The fact that only SBS Exchange accounts are supported will disappoint many people. If you are one of the disappointed, please send an email to mswish@microsoft.com, with Business Contact Manager in the subject line, requesting support for all users of Exchange server.

After sending the message to MSWish requesting Exchange support, there is a registry hack you can use to make BCM work with Exchange accounts while waiting for Microsoft to release a patch.

***Using this registry key puts you into an unsupported mode.***

Enable cached mode if it’s not already enabled and close Outlook.
Install the SBS patch then add the following key to your registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\smallbusinessserver\clientsetup
Add a String named Version with a data value of 5.2.

Note that the screenshot is from a system that connects to SBS2003 and has several keys but you only need the Version value.

While I don’t expect non-SBS users will have problems using this fix, keep in mind this is unsupported. This means if you have problems with Outlook or BCM when using this key with non-SBS Exchange server accounts, don’t call Microsoft’s Product Support looking for help until after you remove the key and verify the problem still exists.

If you don't want to edit the registry yourself, use this Registry file to create the key for you.