Exchange 2003, Small business server 2003 - Wednesday, May 28, 2008 13:29 - 0 Comments

Impliment change password feature in OWA/Exchange 2003 webmail

This is a handly easy to implement OWA (webmail) password change feature which by default is disabled by IIS/OWA.  Most of this post is taken from Microsoft KB297121 with the additional steps we have added.

 

SUMMARY

This article discusses how to implement the Change Password feature in Microsoft Outlook Web Access (OWA) to allow OWA users to change their domain passwords. This article also describes some of the common troubleshooting scenarios where you might use this feature.

The Change Password feature is provided by Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS). The Change Password feature is not specific to Microsoft Exchange Server. This feature in IIS is implemented through the IISADMPWD virtual directory. In Microsoft IIS 5.0 and in Microsoft IIS 6.0, you must manually create and configure this virtual directory. In Microsoft IIS 4.0, this virtual directory is created by default, but it must be manually configured.
**Before continuing make sure that you have installed at a minimum Exchange Service Pack 1 (SP1).

How to configure the IISADMPWD virtual directory
First you will need to have SSL enabled (on small business server this is default, on standard server with Exchange you can use this SSL certificate generating tool: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=56fc92ee-a71a-4c73-b628-ade629c89499&DisplayLang=en
To configure the IISADMPWD virtual directory, do the following:

1. Click Start, point to Programs, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Internet Services Manager. 
2. Right-click the default Web site, point to New, and then click Virtual Directory.
3. In the Virtual Directory Creation wizard, type IISADMPWD in the Alias box, and then click Next.
4. In the Directory box, type <hard disk>:winntsystem32inetsrviisadmpwd or the location where your hard disk is your default hard disk, and then click Next.
5. Verify that only the Read and Run script check boxes are selected, such as the ASP check box, click Next, and then click Finish.
6. Verify that the IISADMPWD virtual directory has only basic authentication set and, if you use Windows 2003/IIS 6.0, verify that the application pool is set to ExchangeApplicationPool.
7. go to the directory security tab and make sure that there are no filters for IP address and domain name restrictions enabled

 
Enable and hide the Change Password button in Outlook Web Access
Important This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
322756 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322756/) How to back up and restore the registry in Windows
Note This registry value must be enabled on both front-end and back-end servers.

For Exchange 2000 Server and for Exchange Server 2003, you can use the registry to show or hide the Change Password button. To do this, follow these steps. 1. Start Registry Editor, and then locate the following registry key:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesMSExchangeWeb
2. If an OWA key is not present under MSExchangeWeb, click the Edit menu, click New, and then click Key to add a new key named OWA.
3. Locate the DisablePassword value and change the data to “0.” If this value is not present, click the Edit menu, click New, click DWORD_Value to add the following value to the OWA registry subkey if you want the Change Password button to appear: 
If you want to hide the Change Password button, change the DisablePassword value data to “1.”
4. Stop and then restart the Exchange Information Store Service and the IIS Admin Service. This stops and restarts the World Wide Web Publishing Services (W3SVC). In an Exchange 2000 Server environment, restarting the IIS Admin Service restarts the Microsoft Exchange System Attendant and the Microsoft Exchange Information Store.
5. Make sure that you all the dependent services that you require are restarted, such as IMAP4, POP3, Microsoft Exchange Routing Engine, W3SVC, MTA Stacks.
6: your users can now change their passwords under the options in the OWA

Article written by MyComputerAid.com