With the release and our internal related testing of Microsoft Dynamics Rollup 7  - we can safely say that 'It's a hit!'. Customers that have suffered from Outlook issues in the past, will be overjoyed to see this new release which contains many new fixes to existing functionality.

The rollup can be found here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=a4893988-7804-4e23-ab58-740441cc696e 

There are too many items to list, so we've used the summary information available from the rollup as follows (be sure to note the items we've indicated in red):

• Released Oct 22nd
• Update Rollup 7 is the new baseline for the Client
  • Need UR7 in order to install any future UR's
  • UR7 cannot be uninstalled
• Full Client Download will also be updated with UR7
• Upgrading from CRM 3.0 clients to new UR7 client is supported
• Existing 4.0 clients just need UR7 patch
  • No need to uninstall and reinstall

Supported Configurations

• Same as CRM 4.0 RTM supported configurations
• Plus
  • Support for Windows 7
  • Office 2010 Tested but not officially supported until Office 2010 RTM
  • No Support for 64 bit Office 2010
  • *Support for Windows 2008 R2 with the Server UR6 patch

Machine Performance

• Users should experience reduced login time
• Core Fixes
  • Pre UR7 we stored many CRM files in roaming profile such as metadata, logs, traces and offline DB
    • %appdata%\Microsoft\MSCRM
  • Post UR7 we have moved these files to local data folder, hence reducing adverse impact on login times
    • %localappdata%\Microsoft\MSCRM
• Battery should last longer for laptop client users
• Machine sluggishness post CRM Outlook client installation should not be noticeable anymore
• Core Fixes
  • Pre UR7 we kept the hoster process and SQL DB running even when user was not working in offline mode
  • Post UR7 we run hoster process and SQL only when user is offline
    • Additionally, the need to run hoster process for desktop client has been eliminated

Outlook Startup

• Users will not have to wait for CRM add-in to load fully until they can read their emails
  • This is specifically relevant for slow network connections
• Core Fixes
  • Loading of CRM add-in has been moved to background thus reducing Outlook email blockage
  • Additionally background CRM add-in load times have been reduced by as much as half relative to pre UR7 client

Outlook Performance

• Inbox will not hang anymore on a periodic basis
  • This benefit should be clearly noticeable to users with large Outlook Inbox containing large number of CRM tracked emails
• Core Fixes
  • Email tagger process has been moved to background hence unblocking foreground Outlook operations from tagging of CRM tracked emails
• Tagging Process
  • Keep index of known emails (tracked and recently received) to directly update, instead of searching
    • When an email is received, its Message Id and Entry Id are stored in the RecentEmailsTable
    • When an email is promoted or tagged, its Message Id, Entry Id and CRMID are stored in the EmailIdMappingTable
    • When an email is moved/deleted, it’s Entry Id might change, so notifications are tracked and updated in the SQL CE tables
    • When an email needs to be tagged, these tables in SQL CE are searched first
• Outlook will not become sluggish every 15 minutes or so
• Core Fixes
  • Pre UR7 CRM Outlook sync used to run every 15 minutes while blocking Outlook UI operations
  • Post UR7 this process was moved to a background thread
• Address Book Provider (ABP) sync will not hog Outlook memory
• Core Fixes
  • ABP run-time storage of in-memory ABP xml has been moved to a SQL CE in memory representation
    • This helps us manage ABP CRUD in a very efficient manner

State Management

• CRM add-in will not require restart each time it gets disabled due to network connectivity changes/disruptions
• Core Fixes
  •  State management logic has been added to CRM add-in so that it can handle network/authentication and sleep/hibernate transitions smoothly
  • CRM add-in will automatically transition to offline mode when remote CRM server cannot be contacted and automatically go back online when connection is restored. This is true to AD-IFD transitions as well

Background Sync

• Syncing CRM contacts/tasks/appointments to Outlook will take minutes instead of hours. Specifically true for users syncing large number of CRM contacts/tasks/appointments
• Core Fixes
  • Pre UR7 during a sync cycle, Outlook folders were scanned for each record changed in CRM. This was done in order to decide whether this change should be processed as a new item in Outlook or it should simply update an already tracked CRM record in Outlook. This was a costly operation and was primarily responsible for slowness of sync with large number of records
  • Post UR7 the link information was stored between CRM and Outlook for CRM tracked record in a separate table thus avoiding costly scans
• Reliability of sync process will improve
• Manually syncing with CRM will produce item level failure details
• Core Fixes
  • Fixed the sync code to handle row level failures such that it does not cause the entire sync process to fail
  • Additionally, improved sync progress dialog box to display the list of specific record level failures thus making it symmetric to Offline sync experience
• Random offline sync failures will not corrupt offline database anymore thus helping users avoid associated re-configurations and re-installations
• Core Fixes
  • Transacted key parts of offline sync process in order to ensure that offline DB is not left in an inconsistent state due to sync failures

Synchronization

• Uses MAPI instead of Object Model
• Updated sync pipeline to keep CRM and Outlook changes in SQL CE database
• Provide more info for outlook sync errors and allow users to ignore errors in subsequent syncs
  • Sync only properties were changed at the column level to improve sync
  • Delegate Mailbox Support

Client Setup

• Improved success rate
  • –Client setup is more streamlined
  • Client configuration is more streamlined
• Core Fixes
  • Implement BITS for component downloads
  • Removed unnecessary screens
    • Reduced environment check set (eliminated redundant checks)
      • EDW won’t even appear if no issues are found
  • Removed the need to stop Outlook for initial configuration
    • Configuration wizard will launch automatically upon Outlook restart post installation
  • Configuration will not fail due to bits left from previous uninstallation
• Database Improvements
  • No longer require admin privileges on SQL (SMS+)
  • Grant privileges on pre-built database to BUILTIN\Users
  • SQL only runs when offline, must start/stop during setup as well
  • MDF files moved to appdata local instead of roaming
  • SMS silent install now works for Laptop Client since we don’t assign SQL privileges to end user (also added MIF file)
• Other Changes
  •  New Prereq installers: MSI 4.5, SQL Express SP3, VCRedist 9, .NET Chart component

Client Setup Updates

• Self Healing Setup
• Updates will not require admin privileges
  •  Post UR7 install

Setup Client Web Link

• Link in the web app to download and install Client Setup
• Web App link hidden if installed & configured client
• Retrieves ClientInstaller.exe from server
  • (webroot)\_root\ClientInstaller.exe
• Self extractor only contains SetupClient.exe, VCRedist dlls and config file
• How to disable
  • HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSCRM
    • DisableOutlookSetupLink REG_DWORD 1
• Download from local location
  • HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\MSCRMClient
    • InstallerUrl (REG_SZ)
    • If key doesn’t exist, we download it from Microsoft download site.