The free/busy publish range reverts back to the default setting when you direct book a resource in Outlook 2003

Assume a scenario where a Microsoft Office policy was used to set the number of months that are in the free/busy publish range in Microsoft Office Outlook 2003. Then, you direct book a resource in Outlook 2003. However, in this scenario, the free/busy publish range reverts back to the default setting.

This problem was first fixed in a hotfix that is now contained in a service pack. If you installed the latest Office 2003 service pack, you do not have to install the hotfix.

Service pack information

This problem is corrected in Office 2003 Service Pack 3. To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Office 2003. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Hotfix information

How to obtain the hotfix

This issue is fixed in the Outlook 2003 post-Service Pack 2 Hotfix Package that is dated November 7, 2005. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: Note This hotfix addresses a scenario where the free/busy publish range in the Outlook user interface (UI) differs from the free/busy publish range that is sent to the server.

After you install this hotfix, the free/busy publish range that is maintained in the registry is automatically sent to your Local free/busy message. Additionally, Outlook 2003 runs an additional two remote procedure calls (RPCs) at the start of each session after you install this hotfix.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.

This problem was first corrected in Office 2003 Service Pack 3.

For more information about how to direct book a resource, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: