The History of Lucatec® Mask

Lucatec MASK 2.3.6 - 2010-06-14
Minor Service Release
  • Fixed an issue where specifying a Public Folder Favorite as the target folder for sent items caused a misleading error message on send.
  • Fixed an issue where messages based on drafts created during a previous Outlook session were not moved to their designated target folders.
  • Implemented a workaround for an issue specific to the combination of Windows Vista (or higher), Outlook 2003 (or lower) and use of the WordMail-editor where the Message Options dialog would often freeze for several minutes.
  • Fixed an issue that occurred in Outlook 2010 RTM where the sender display was only updated correctly on the first message created during an Outlook session.
  • Trial expiry date set to 2010-11-30
Lucatec MASK 2.3.5 - 2010-03-16
Minor Service Release
  • Fixed an issue where unauthorised users (in Citrix/Terminal Server environments) were able to manually enable the addin and thus unnecessarily use up licenses.
  • Fixed an issue where, after an error during message preparation, dummy signature text would be inserted into the message.
  • Pressing Ctrl-C on the License Details dialog will now copy the "raw" license information to the clipboard (i.e. just licensee name and license key without caption or other additional info), ready to be pasted into the Registration dialog.
  • Fixed an issue where in non-Exchange environments inserted senders were often not accepted, prompting incorrect error messages about failed name resolution.
  • This release was successfully tested with Exchange 2010. Note that there currently exists a known issue when using Outlook 2003 or older in Online Mode (i.e. Cached Exchange Mode disabled) affecting Lucatec® Mask in such a way that sent messages will not be processed (i.e. moved). We are currently investigating possible workarounds.
  • When making changes to the Valid Senders list the OK button on the Options dialog will now be enabled.
  • Fixed outdated description in dummy signature text.
  • Updated several third-party libraries involved in building the product.
  • Trial expiry date set to 2010-08-31
Lucatec MASK 2.3.4 - 2010-01-11
Minor Service Release
  • Fixed an issue where after disabling the signature insertion feature the Outlook default signature was reset on every second Outlook restart.
  • Fixed an issue that affected automatic detection of senders and target folders under Outlook 2000.
  • Added an installer option to allow entering licensing information also in Express Setup Mode
  • Made sure OfficeHook addin respects addin's inactive state as well (only applies to Office 2003 and earlier).
  • Updated several third-party libraries involved in building the product
Lucatec MASK 2.3.3 - 2009-10-06
Minor Service Release
  • Rather than just displaying "<None>", the names of configured signatures that do not or no longer exist in the local user profile will now be displayed using a grayed-out, italic font in the signature selection boxes.
  • Made sure that the From field is properly updated in the Outlook 2010 Tech Preview.
  • Trial expiry date set to 2010-05-31
Enterprise Mode only:
  • Fixed an issue where in Restricted Mode it was still possible to activate and deactivate the addin.
  • Fixed an issue where Restricted Mode was not enforced while the addin was inactive.
  • Fixed compatibility issue with Windows 2008 in ADM-file
Lucatec MASK 2.3.2 - 2009-06-24
Minor Service Release
  • Fixed a regression in the "OfficeHook" module that caused the "Send to mail recipient as attachment" function in Word and Excel to longer work
  • When you disable the option to verify message options after manual changes to the From field the message options dialog will now really no longer be shown given that the sender you entered manually has already been set up in the list of Valid Senders.
  • Fixed an issue where after the latest Office updates Lucatec® Mask would often and unexpectedly display error messages with non-user-friendly texts such as "Error in IMsgStore::OpenEntry: MAPI_E_NOT_FOUND" - (note that this fix only applies for Outlook XP and later)
  • Implemented a new default mechanism for resolving sender names in an attempt to resolve occasional errors in medium to large installations (100 users or more)
  • Slightly improved a situation that could occur if a sender name could not be resolved via the GAL. Previously such a sender would always be removed and as a result Lucatec® Mask would display a misleading warning about a changed sender asking the user to select a new sender. Now the addin will display a proper error message alerting the user to the name resolution problem.
  • Trial expiry date set to 2009-12-31
Lucatec MASK 2.3.1 - 2009-05-26
Minor Service Release
  • Implemented a workaround for an issue introduced by Service Pack 2 for Office 2007 where sent items would no longer be moved. Also see this blog entry for details.
  • When installing on a Terminal Server the setup will now offer an option to install the addin in inactive state, so it could later be explicitly enabled for those users that will actually use it.
  • Fixed an issue where the addin failed to load on startup.
  • Fixed an issue where an incorrect signature could be inserted when the desired signature did not exist in the required format (i.e. HTML/TXT/RTF)
  • Fixed an issue where under rare circumstances the actual sender name would be transmitted to the recipient.
  • Fixed an issue where some error message popups would display misleading version information in the title bar.
  • A message will now be displayed on the main options tab when there are pending changes to the configuration that require Outlook to be restarted to become effective.
  • Added extended version and credits information, available by clicking the version label on the main options tab.
Lucatec MASK 2.3.0 - 2009-04-09
Major Technology Milestone and Minor Feature Release
  • Separated addin into a "loader" component and a "core" component to alleviate some special case issues related to the licensing mechanism.
  • The "core" addin will no longer load (and thus unnecessarily use up licenses) for "hidden" instances of Outlook, e.g. as are invoked by mobile device synchronization software like Microsoft ActiveSync.
  • Redesigned main addin options GUI
  • The "Save actual sender with sent messages options" can now be set via the main addin options.
  • The two options "Save replies with original message" and "Don't save messages in same folder for non-mail-enabled Public Folders" can now also be set via the main addin options.
  • The settings previously combined under the label "User Options" have now been relabelled as "Default Message Options" as the previous moniker was confusing to a lot of users.
  • The installer now supports an "Express install mode" which allows skipping manual configuration and instead using typical settings (or simply keeping previous settings in case of an update installation)
  • The installer now allows to specify that on the next Outlook startup a one-time-only Profile Scan for valid senders should be performed.
  • Fixed a bug in the License-by-registry code that was incorrectly assuming that licensee names and license keys had to be case-sensitive.
  • Updated several third-party tools and libraries involved in building the product.
  • This release has been successfully tested on Windows 7 Beta 1 (Build 7000)
Lucatec MASK 2.2.3 SR1 - 2009-03-18
Minor Hotfix Release containing some stability fixes
  • Made signature insertion code more robust against issues caused by other applications interfering with file access (e.g. anti-virus or indexers)
  • Added feature that allows administrators to deploy license modification keys in a single step during an unattended installation (contact mask@lucatec.de for details)
  • Removed some more potential reasons for the addin getting disabled under rare circumstances
  • General stability improvements
  • Trial expiry date set to 2009-09-30
Lucatec MASK 2.2.3 - 2009-01-30
Minor Service Release containing a couple of stability fixes
  • Added feature that allows administrators to deploy licensing information to existing installations via registry entries (contact mask@lucatec.de for details)
  • Improved on overall fault-tolerance. Possibly fixes some issues that sometimes occurred on Outlook 2003 and earlier where the addin would silently get disabled.
  • Fixed an issue where when opening multiple new message windows the Message Options dialog would not be auto-displayed before sending for any but the first window.
  • Fixed a bug where buttons on the main options tab would sometimes become invisible.
  • Updated several third-party tools and libraries involved in building the product.
  • Trial expiry date set to 2009-06-31
Lucatec MASK 2.2.2 - 2008-12-03
Minor Service Release containing third-party updates and customer-requested experimental features
  • The folder selection tool will now start with the previous selected folder.
  • Fixed an issue where senders were inserted into the wrong message window when opening multiple WordMail editors at the same time.
  • Fixed an issue that made it impossible to define a blank target folder (i.e. prevent sent messages from being moved) by pressing DEL in the relevant Folder Options entry box.
  • On customer request, implemented option to control default sent target of non-mail-enabled folders (can now be blank - for now, configurable via registry only - contact mask@lucatec.de for details).
  • On customer request, added experimental option to have replies and forwards stored in the same folder as the original message (for now, configurable via registry only - contact mask@lucatec.de for details).
  • Updated several third-party tools and libraries involved in building the product.
Lucatec MASK 2.2.1 - 2008-09-15
Major Service Release
  • You can now add an additional column to your folder views (via the Folder Options) which will display the actual sender of outgoing messages for internal reference Note: This will only apply to messages sent since the option was first enabled - it can not add this information for messages sent in the past.
  • Error messages for common internal errors during message preparation should now be more descriptive.
  • Fixed an issue where HTML signatures with embedded images that were saved by Microsoft Word in Unicode format did not get inserted correctly.
  • Improved handling of signatures with special characters in their names. Note that signatures with certain special characters (especially Unicode ones) appearing in their names can currently not be handled by Lucatec® Mask. Such signatures will now no longer be available for selection from the Folder Options and User Options dialogs. Note that this restriction only applies to the name of a signature, not its actual contents.
  • Fixed an issue where the toolbar icon would always indicate modifications to the Message Options even when there weren't any.
  • Fixed several issues that could cause the From field display not to be updated.
  • Made the Office Hook component (introduced in Lucatec® Mask 2.2.0) optional in the installer. Note that the Office Hook is only needed for Word/Excel 2003 and earlier.
  • Fixed a regression introduced in version 2.2.0 where the addin would no longer show the Select Names dialog when a user entered an invalid or ambiguous sender name into a Sender entry field (e.g. on the Folder Options tab).
  • The addin will now automatically retry to resolve a sender name in case of unexpected errors. This should allow the addin to cope better with unstable or high-load network environments. By default it will retry the name resolution up to 3 times at a 50ms interval.
  • Fixed an issue where the installer was not picking up options set in a previous installation
  • Lucatec® Mask will now display a warning message when setting up target folders that other users might not have access to.
  • Fixed an issue where signatures created with Microsoft Word would sometimes not show up in the drop-down selection lists
  • Minor performance optimizations
  • Fixed some minor memory leaks in third-party libraries.
  • Trial expiry date set to 2009-03-15
Lucatec MASK 2.2.0 SR2 - 2008-03-26
Minor interim hotfix release
  • Fixed an issue where Target Folders stored in Sender Options did not become effective after changes to a message's sender when User Options were in effect.
  • Fixed a long standing issue where the pre-send checks (i.e. detection of manual sender changes or auto-displaying the Message Options) would no longer trigger if closing the message window had previously been cancelled.
  • Fixed an issue where the From display was sometimes not updated on non-English versions of Outlook 2003 and earlier when using Word to edit E-Mails.
  • Fixed an installer issue that caused sending documents from Word or Excel not to work properly when using Outlook 2007 together with earlier versions of Word or Excel.
  • Trial expiry date set to 2008-09-30
Lucatec MASK 2.2.0 SR1 - 2008-01-25
Minor interim hotfix release
  • Fixed an issue where it was sometimes not possible to override the sender for replies from shared mailboxes.
  • Fixed an issue where setting a blank sender (i.e. "send as self") in the Folder Options sometimes had no effect.
Lucatec MASK 2.2.0 - 2007-12-14
Major platform compatibility release
  • Signature insertion now also works in Outlook 2007 or when using Word to edit E-Mails. *
  • The From display is now also updated when using Word to edit E-Mails. *
  • The Message Options toolbar button is now also available when using Word to edit E-Mails. *
  • Added a large Message Options button for the Outlook 2007 Ribbon Control (on the Options tab)
  • Fixed: Under Outlook XP with WordMail enabled, creating a new message or changing the sender of a message sometimes triggered a security prompt.
  • Updated a third-party component that was responsible for various Vista-related issues.
  • Fixed: On Windows Vista Lucatec® Mask failed to detect the correct Sent Items folders for secondary mailboxes.
  • Various subtle GUI tweaks to better "fit in" with Windows Vista
  • Signature insertion can now do everything that Outlook's built-in signature feature can, including embedded images.
  • The option to have deleted items moved into the deleted items folder of the mailbox they were deleted from can now be preset via the installer.
  • As Outlook XP does not use XP themes itself and enabling that option also led to some minor display quirks, the XP Themes option has been disabled in the installer for that Outlook version.
  • The Message Options toolbar button finally got an icon!
  • Lucatec® Mask now also works when invoking a new message from Word or Excel using File | Send to > Mail recipient (as Attachment)
  • Fixed a regression issue (introduced around v2.1.1) where manually clearing the "From" field no longer resulted in the Sender and Sent target being reset.
  • Fixed: When changing the From field manually and no Valid Senders were defined the addin would sometimes store the sent item to the wrong folder.
  • Loads of minor fixes and optimizations
  • Trial expiry date set to 2008-06-30
Important notes about backwards-compatibility in this release:
  • As a side-effect of the completely rewritten signature insertion code, you can no longer have Outlook insert the default signature in addition to the one inserted by Lucatec® Mask. If your setup is currently relying on that ability and you see no other way of implementing your requirements, please contact us ASAP.
  • The "Use Reply-To instead of From" option has been temporarily disabled. It will be brought back in a future release. If you are currently using this feature, please contact us ASAP.
  • If in Outlook 2000 the option to use Microsoft Word for editing E-Mails is enabled the addin does not work at all. If you require this functionality please contact us ASAP.
  • In Outlook 2000 signature insertion does currently not work correctly.
  • In Outlook 2000 editing the Folder Options of a mailbox's root folder does currently not work (message "Insufficient rights").
Lucatec MASK 2.2.0 Beta 2 - 2007-11-23
First public Outlook 2007/WordMail and Windows Vista compatibility preview release
Lucatec MASK 2.2.0 Beta 1 - 2007-10-15
Private Outlook 2007/WordMail compatibility preview release
  • Fixed WordMail/Outlook2007-specific issues with signature insertion and displaying the auto-inserted sender in the "From"-field
    (See Lucatec MASK 2.2.0 for details)
Lucatec MASK 2.1.2 - 2007-08-28
Minor service release
  • You can now turn off the Message Options auto-popup that appears after a sender has been entered or changed manually in the From field. Note that the dialog will still pop up when the entered sender has not been configured in the Sender Options. This is so you can still choose a suitable target folder for the sent message.
  • The overall handling of manual From entries has been improved - the behaviour should now be more robust and predictable, especially when no Sender Options have been configured.
  • Trial expiry date set to 2008-03-31
Lucatec MASK 2.1.1 - 2007-07-18
Medium feature release
  • Message Options dialog: allows you to modify the Sender and Sent Item target folder after a new message has been created. It's available via a new button on the new message inspector. This means that you can now send messages on behalf of other users from any folder without having to bother about where the sent message goes - in earlier versions of the addin there was no way to change this once the message had been created.
    • The Message Options can optionally be shown automatically whenever you send a message, thus allowing you to verify that the correct options will be used or simply to set them at that time.
    • If you enabled the option to automatically show the Message Options dialog on send, you can also specify a list of individual recipients or email domains for which you want to suppress this behaviour - for instance you might not want to be bothered by the dialog when sending internal messages to co-workers.
  • Sender Options: These allow you to set up a list of valid senders that you can later choose from in the Message Options dialog.
    • In addition to merely defining a list of senders you can also associate these senders with their corresponding message options (currently only the Sent Item target folder but likely to be extended in the future) with the effect that selecting a sender on the Message Options dialog will automatically set the remaining message options accordingly.
    • In order to make the setup of the Valid Senders list as easy as possible we have included a Profile Scan function that will automatically populate the list based on the information already available in your Outlook profile. This can also be set to run automatically when Outlook starts up so your list will always be up to date.
  • Improved "From" handling: The addin will now notice when you change the contents of a message's From field after the message has already been created. If your changes differ from the sender that the addin would have inserted based on folder context, it will use the Valid Senders information to adjust the remaining message options (i.e. the Sent Item target folder) accordingly. Upon sending your message it will allow you to verify and confirm these settings via the Message Options dialog.
  • If a user does not have sufficient privileges to edit the Folder Options in a folder the options will be disabled right from the start instead of showing an error message only on Apply.
  • Recursive Folder Options now work correctly with Favorite Public Folders, i.e. they will pick up their parent's options even when the parent was not a favorite itself.
  • Folder Options can now also be configured for non-mail folders.
  • Preliminary support for XP visual styles aka "themes". (Note that enabling this option will potentially affect other third-party addins as well.)
  • Lots of under-the-hood changes and optimizations.
  • Trial expiry date set to 2008-01-31
Lucatec MASK 2.1.0 - 2006-10-12
Customer-requested feature release
  • Show Message Options before sending from mailbox accounts
    (See Lucatec MASK 2.1.1 for details)
Lucatec MASK 2.0.1 - 2007-01-04
Hotfix release
  • Fixed a regression bug: Sent items were moved even after the sender had been manually cleared.
  • Updated all third-party tools and libraries involved in building the product.
  • Trial expiry date set to 2007-07-31
Lucatec MASK 2.0.0 - 2006-05-23
Major feature release
  • Recursive Folder Options: Options set on a folder can now automatically propagate to sub-folders.
  • Signatures: Auto-insert individual signatures on a folder-by-folder basis. (Note that signature-insertion does currently not work when you use Microsoft Word to compose eMail messages.)
  • Use Reply-To instead of From: You can now configure Lucatec® Mask so that it will no longer set the sender address of sent messages but instead insert that address as the reply address of the message. (Note though that this does currently not work (reliably) when you use Microsoft Word to compose eMail messages.)
  • Folder Options inside Own Mailbox: You can now control all Mask options (i.e. sender/reply address, target folder for sent items and signatures) for folders inside your own primary mailbox as well. No Public Folders or shared mailboxes required anymore!
  • No more Exchange Server required: As a consequence of the above it is now possible to use Lucatec® Mask in Exchange-free environments as well. All you need is a mail server that allows specifying an address other than your own in the From field. Even if your mail server does not support this setup you can still use the new Reply-To functionality (see above). (Note that Lucatec® Mask does currently not affect which internet mail account gets used. Thus getting the From-field approach to work will often require some additional server-side configuration.)
  • Smart Reply/Forward handling: When replying or forwarding, the message options are now based on the parent folder of the message being replied to/forwarded rather than the currently selected one. This finally enables Lucatec® Mask to kick in when replying to items opened from a New Message Notification window or Advanced Search results. Previously the addin would do nothing at all in those cases. This change also resolves the somewhat confusing situation where you open a message from one folder, change the folder selection and then later reply to the opened message.
  • Sent items moving/copying is no longer tied to changing the sender address, i.e. you could now also move or copy messages that are sent on your own behalf.
  • Ambiguous address book entries are now resolved automatically. No more need to fiddle with SMTP addresses.
  • Surfaced undocumented Outlook option to move deleted items into the Deleted Items folder of the mailbox they were deleted from.
  • Lots of bug fixes and cosmetic changes.
  • Expiry date for trial versions is 2006-12-31
Lucatec MASK 1.2.4 - 2006-03-23
Service Release, fixing all known issues to date
  • General stability improvements - should affect Outlook 2003 the most.
  • Fixed several issues of varying severity related to opening messages from .msg-files stored on disk.
  • "Sub-options" (e.g. "Put copy in Sent Items") were sometimes effective even though their "parent-option" (e.g. "Move sent items") was unchecked.
Lucatec MASK 1.2.3 - 2005-12-27
Another service release
  • Fixed an access violation that could occur under certain circumstances when sending mail from a "virtual" folder, such as Outlook 2003's Search Folders.
  • Fixed problem that could occur when setting User Options to move sent items into own Sent Items folder.
  • Improved overall robustness and memory usage.
  • Expiry date for trial versions is now 2006-12-31
Lucatec MASK 1.2.2 - 2005-09-01
Service release
  • Fixed an obscure issue related to opening non-mail items.
  • Fixed an issue where sent items would be moved to the originating folder instead of the appropriate Sent Items folder when overriding the sender for a folder inside a shared mailbox.
  • Updated contact links in installer and on Options pages. The new, dedicated contact address for Mask now is mask@lucatec.de.
  • Minor installer tweaks.
Lucatec MASK 1.2.1 - 2005-07-22
Customer-requested feature release
  • Added per-user options to globally override the sender address and target folder for sent items for all messages, even those sent from within the user's own mailbox. Individual folder settings may still override this on a folder-by-folder basis.
  • Massive UI overhaul.
Lucatec MASK 1.2.0 - 2005-06-21
Customer-requested feature release
  • Sender address and target folder for sent items can now be overridden for individual folders via a new tab on the folders' property page. This requires Owner privileges on the relevant folder!
  • Enhanced installer to allow specifying default settings for all users at install time.
  • Improved overall error handling
  • Massive internal code cleanup
  • Expiry date for trial versions is now 2006-06-30
Lucatec MASK 1.1.5 - 2005-07-14
Service release
  • Resolved issue with ambiguous account names (e.g. "MyCompany" and "MyCompany Management") where Outlook 2000 would just crash and later versions would fail to move sent items. If you are experiencing this problem, make sure you activate the "Use SMTP Address" option in this version.
  • Expiry date for trial versions is now 2006-06-30
Lucatec MASK 1.1.4 - 2005-04-18
Service release
  • Resolved issue where the add-in would fail to work when using Microsoft Word as the mail editor in Outlook XP and later.
  • Added option to correct the sender based on eMail-address rather than display name in order to avoid ambiguity warnings about similar address book entries.
  • Enhanced installer for better support of automated mass-installations.
Lucatec MASK 1.1.3 - 2005-03-08
Service release
  • Resolved issue where Outlook 2003 would occasionally hang on shutdown.
  • Internal code cleanup.
Lucatec MASK 1.1.2 - 2005-01-07
First online release
  • Resolved issue where messages would also be moved when the user manually set the From address to a different one than the one suggested by the add-in.
  • Added "Contact support" link to Options page.
  • Resolved potential issues with other third-party Outlook Add-ins.
  • Completely rewrote and enhanced licensing functionality.
  • More UI and installer tweaks.
Lucatec MASK 1.1.1 - 2004-10-27
Customer-requested service release
  • Added option to leave copy of sent message in own Sent Items folder.
  • Improved installer's update behaviour.
Lucatec MASK 1.1.0 - 2004-09-21
First release with Public Folder support
  • Added functionality for setting the sender based on the email address of a Public Folder.
  • Completely rewrote Move Sent Items code.
  • Refactored sender correction code.
  • Improved error handling.
  • Performance tweaks.
  • Improved licensing.
  • UI and installer tweaks.
Lucatec MASK 1.0.1 - 2004-04-06
Bug fix release.
  • Resolved timing issues in Move Sent Items code
  • Minor UI and installer tweaks.
Lucatec MASK 1.0.0 - 2003-07-09
First Stable Release
  • Resolved issue where corrected Sender address was not immediately visible in the From field.
  • More installer tweaks
Lucatec MASK 0.9.1 - 2003-07-01
First Release Candidate
  • Improved Move Sent Items code
  • More installer tweaks
Lucatec MASK 0.5.2 - 2003-06-30
Finalized product name
  • Implemented licensing
  • UI and installer tweaks
MASC 0.5.0 - 2003-06-27
First feature complete build
  • More Option page tweaks
  • Allowed functionality to be toggled
  • Made options persistent
  • Minor performance tweaks
  • Fixed problem where non-Mail items were processed
MASC 0.2.5 - 2003-06-24
  • Option page tweaks
  • Added sent message moving
  • Improved error handling
Multi-Account Sender Corrector. 0.2.4 - 2003-06-23
First internal release