The Exchange 2010 Management Console no longer starts after the mail gateway has been installed.
Important: Since NoSpamProxy requires Framework 4.6.2, the workaround described below no longer works because Exchange 2010 is not compatible with Framework 4.6.2 (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/Exchange/plan-and-deploy/supportability-matrix?redirectedfrom=MSDN&view=exchserver-2019).
If NoSpamProxy version 7.7 or later and Exchange 2010 are installed on the same server, the Exchange Management Console no longer works properly. The reason for this is the .NET Framework 4.0. The Exchange Management Console requires the Framework version 2.0 as the default handler, while the NoSpamProxy Management Console only works with version 4.0. To use the correct .NET Framework version by default, the NoSPamProxy setup 7.7 creates an environment variable called “COMPLUS_ApplicationMigrationRuntimeActivationConfigPath”.
This variable refers to a path where a config file with the appropriate settings is stored. When any MMC is called, the corresponding variable, and thus the configuration file, is used. This causes the known problems when opening the Exchange MMC. To be able to use the Exchange MMC again, there is only the following workaround:
The environment variable is permanently deleted and the NoSpamProxy MMC must be called via a batch file in which the corresponding environment variable is defined beforehand. The advantage is that in this case the environment variable is only used for programs that are called from the context of the batch file.
To work around the problem, do the following:
First, open Windows Explorer.
Right-click Computer and select Properties.
In this window, click Advanced System Settings. The following window opens:
Click “Environment Variables” here.
In the “Environment Variables” window, select “COMPLUS_ApplicationMigrationRuntimeActivationConfigPath” in the “System Variables” section and then click “Edit”. Copy the path in the “Value” field to the clipboard. Then delete the complete entry. Click on OK, Apply and again on OK.
Now open Notepad. Paste the currently copied path from the clipboard into Notepad. In addition, add the following lines:
set COMPLUS_ApplicationMigrationRuntimeActivationConfigPath=
mmc.exe "C:\Program Files\Net at Work Mail Gateway\NoSpamProxy Management Console\Net at Work Mail Gateway Configuration Console.msc"
Copy the path from the clipboard behind the first line. The Notepad file should then be structured as follows:
set COMPLUS_ApplicationMigrationRuntimeActivationConfigPath=C:\ProgramData\ComPlus Activation Configurations\
mmc.exe "C:\Program Files\Net at Work Mail Gateway\NoSpamProxy Management Console\Net at Work Mail Gateway Configuration Console.msc"
Please note that the file names of the console may differ depending on the version used. Make sure to find the .msc file in the target directory.
Also, please note that the display of the batch file in this article may be distorted by automatic line breaks.
Finally, adjust the path to the Net at Work Mail Gateway Configuration Console.msc if necessary and save the Notepad content as NoSpamProxy-MMC.bat. If you call the BATCH file, the NoSpamProxy MMC should open successfully. Starting with Windows 2008 with UAC enabled, however, you must always run the batch file as administrator. The Exchange MMC should now also open without errors.
