Outlook Web Access on Internet Explorer |
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| Developer(s) | Microsoft |
| Operating system | Cross-platform (web-based application) |
| Type | MAPI based Webmail, calendar, address book. |
| Website | microsoft.com/exchange |
Outlook Web App (OWA), originally called Outlook Web Access and before that Exchange Web Connect (EWC), is a webmail service of Microsoft Exchange Server 5.0 and later. Outlook Web App comes as a part of Microsoft Exchange Server or Microsoft Office 365.
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Outlook Web App is used to access e-mail (including support for S/MIME), calendars, contacts, tasks, documents (used with SharePoint or in 2010, Office Web Apps), and other mailbox content when access to the Microsoft Outlook desktop application is unavailable. In the Exchange 2007 release, OWA also offers read-only access to documents stored in Microsoft SharePoint sites and network (UNC) shares. Microsoft provides Outlook Web App as part of Exchange Server to allow users to connect remotely via a web browser. Some of the functionality in Outlook is also available in this web "look-alike". The most important difference is that Microsoft Outlook allows users to work with e-mail, calendars, etc., even when an internet connection is unavailable, whereas OWA requires an internet connection to function.
Outlook Web App also is used to function on Microsoft Office 365, with use of Microsoft Lync and SharePoint document sharing.
The Outlook Web Access interface available since Exchange 2000 comes in two flavors, one with a complete feature set (known as "Premium") and one with reduced functionality (known as "Light" or sometimes "Lite"). Prior to Exchange 2010 "Premium" access required Internet Explorer. Exchange 2000 and 2003 require Internet Explorer 5 and later[1][2] and Exchange 2007 requires Internet Explorer 6 and later.[3] Exchange 2010 requires Internet Explorer 7 or later, Mozilla Firefox 3.01 and later, Google Chrome or Apple Safari 3.1 and later for full functionality, however performs checks on the operating system type to restrict Mac OS X and Linux users to Firefox or Safari, thereby making Google Chrome only officially compatible on their Windows operating system even though there is very little difference in their JavaScript and rendering capabilities between platforms.[4] In all versions of Exchange, the "OWA Light" user interface (UI) is rendered for other browsers. While the basic interface did not support search with Exchange Server 2003, the UI has been reworked for Exchange Server 2007 and OWA Light now supports search for mail items, and managing contacts and the calendar has also been improved.[5][6] On Outlook Web Access 2010, a user is now available to connect email accounts on their Outlook Web Access. That feature is most ignored due to professional uses of Outlook Web Access.
On Exchange 2007, a user would get a pop-up that a new message was sent, but this dropped on Outlook Web Access 2010.
In previous versions OWA provided a limited user experience to those not using Microsoft's Internet Explorer. As of OWA 2010 (provided with Exchange 2010) browser support for Firefox, Chrome and Safari browsers is available.[7]
Several alternatives to OWA/Exchange exist. In addition, many businesses may opt for either hosted options provided by familiar names like Google, Microsoft, or Yahoo! or may install local alternatives to Exchange server such as Zimbra, Kolab, Zarafa_(software) or Scalix.
OWA is used for several 3rd party clients to MS Exchange Server.
The first component to allow client-side scripts to issue HTTP requests (XMLHTTP) was originally written by the Outlook Web Access team. It soon became a part of Internet Explorer 5.0. Renamed XmlHttpRequest and standardized by the World Wide Web Consortium,[8] it has since become one of the cornerstones of the Ajax technology used to build advanced web applications.
There are multiple ways to login into Outlook Web App. On Office 365, you will need to put in your Microsoft Online Services ID and you will not be launched into the regular Outlook Web App login screen. On regular Exchange servers, you will be greeted to login by user domain\username or either username@domain. You must have the correct server to login.
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