Exchange Server 2013 supports the following minimum versions of Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Entourage for Mac:

Although these are the minimum versions please also take into consideration this important note from Microsoft:

The information above provides the minimum versions required for a client to connect to Exchange and Exchange Online. We strongly recommend that you install the latest available service packs and updates available so that your users receive the best possible experience when connecting to Exchange and Exchange Online.

Outlook clients earlier than Outlook 2007 are not supported. Email clients on Mac operating systems that require DAV, such as Entourage 2008 for Mac RTM and Entourage 2004, are not supported.

Support for Outlook Web App on the wide variety of operating systems and devices is also documented by Microsoft here.

Updated information on the latest available updates for Outlook is documented by Microsoft here. Unless there is some other reason in your environment not to, it is recommended to deploy the very latest available updates for Outlook and Office when planning to deploy Exchange Server 2013.

Knowing the minimum Outlook versions supported we can now look at what versions are running in our environment as we plan the upgrade to Exchange Server 2013.

Often customers have no software inventory system that can provide a fast and accurate report of this information, so other tools need to be used instead. Here are two methods.

Using the Exchange User Monitor (ExMon) to Discover RPC Client Versions

The Microsoft Exchange Server User Monitor can be used to display the client versions for connected users.

Simply install and run the tool on your Exchange servers and observe the client versions connecting in real time.

exmon

You can use the “By User” tab to identify specific users of any client versions that need further attention from you.

More detailed information on how to use ExMon is available on TechNet.

Using Log Parser to Discover RPC Client Versions

Another method for discovering client versions is to use Log Parser to analyse the RPC Client Access logs on the Client Access servers.

The RPC Client Access logs are stored in the LoggingRPC Client Access folder of the Exchange installation path, eg C:Program FilesMicrosoftExchange ServerV14LoggingRPC Client Access.

The log files are in CSV format and therefore can be analysed using Log Parser. Two of the fields of interest are:

  • client-software
  • client-software-version

So a Log Parser query to show us the number of hits per client software version would look like this.

SELECT client-software as Software,
client-software-version as Version,
Count(*) as Hits
FROM *.log
GROUP BY Software,Version
ORDER BY Software

To run this query in Log Parser from the location of the RPC Client Access log files:

"C:Program Files (x86)Log Parser 2.2logparser.exe" "SELECT client-software as Software,Client-software-version as Version,Count(*) as Hits FROM *.log GROUP BY Software,Version ORDER BY Software" -i:CSV -nSkipLines:4 -rtp:-1

Depending on the applications and systems running in your environment you will likely see software other than Outlook appearing in the output of that command. For example, Symantec Enterprise Vault services make RPC/MAPI connections to Exchange, so would likely appear in the report.

Software                  Version                 Hits
------------------------- ----------------------- -------
OUTLOOK.EXE               11.0.8303.0             16
OUTLOOK.EXE               12.0.6606.1000          47
OUTLOOK.EXE               14.0.6025.1000          420
OUTLOOK.EXE               14.0.6126.5000          6969
OUTLOOK.EXE               14.0.6131.5002          77698
OUTLOOK.EXE               14.0.7010.1000          995
OUTLOOK.EXE               14.0.7104.5000          7221
OUTLOOK.EXE               14.0.7108.5000          583320
OUTLOOK.EXE               15.0.4420.1017          379
OUTLOOK.EXE               15.0.4551.1004          388

If you spot versions of Outlook that do not meet the minimum supported version you can run additional queries to find the specific user accounts for those versions so that you can investigate further.

For example, this query will return the client names for any version 11.x or 12.x client software that is appearing in the logs.

SELECT EXTRACT_SUFFIX(client-name,0,'=') as Name,
client-software as Software,
client-software-version as Version,
Count(*) as Hits
FROM *.log
WHERE Version LIKE '11.%' OR Version LIKE '12.%'
GROUP BY Name,Software,Version
ORDER BY Name

To run this query in Log Parser from the location of the RPC Client Access log files:

"C:Program Files (x86)Log Parser 2.2logparser.exe" "SELECT EXTRACT_SUFFIX(client-name,0,'=') as Name,client-software as Software,Client-software-version as Version,Count(*) as Hits FROM *.log WHERE Version LIKE '11.%' OR Version LIKE '12.%' GROUP BY Name,Software,Version ORDER BY Name" -i:CSV -nSkipLines:4 -rtp:-1

Summary

As you can see even without robust software inventory tools we can still gather information about the names and versions of software connecting to Exchange when planning an Exchange Server 2013 migration.

About the Author

Paul Cunningham

Paul is a former Microsoft MVP for Office Apps and Services. He works as a consultant, writer, and trainer specializing in Office 365 and Exchange Server. Paul no longer writes for Practical365.com.

Comments

  1. Unais

    HI,

    We are planing migrate exchange 2010 to exchange 2016, We have Two Server Mail ( CAS/HUB) and MAILB ( MAIL BOX). my smtp domain mail.mydomain.com and CAS/HUB server host name mail.mydomain.com, now we need to migrate to 2016 please advise best practice. can we have two Server Exchange 2016 without any load balancer ( two server two reduce mail box load).
    Also same mail server running Activate Directory Root CA.

    thanks
    unais

  2. Oliver

    Hello Paul,
    This covers PC and Mac clients but what about the various tablet clients out there. How do we cover these?
    Kind regards
    Oliver

    1. Loon

      That would be the IIS log files typically under, you would need log parser to get through them all efficiently:

      c:inetpublogsLogFilesW3SVC1

  3. Vijay Prabhu C

    Hello sir,

    We are planing to migrate exchange 2007 to exchange 2013. i need to collect outlook versions for 2600 mailbox. i used the following comment (Get-Mailbox | Get-Logonstatistics | Select UserName, ClientVersion | Export-csv c:tempclients.csv). I got csv file with duplicate values. When i removed the duplicates. List remain only 1756. Some of the mailbox not listed.
    I checked all missed mailbox login. All are remains.
    Help me to find all missed mailbox outlook versions….THANKS IN ADVANCE.

  4. Peter

    Have you heard about exmon for ex2013 or something equivalent?

  5. Turbomcp

    Thanks
    interesting as always
    don’t forget there is mdop

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