UW Exchange

Summary: This site describes the features of UW Exchange and its client software, some introductory technical information, how to obtain the service, and how to get support.

Topics on this page

• UW Exchange: A Better Way To Communicate and Collaborate
• Getting Started With UW Exchange
• Basic Concept of Exchange: Clients and Servers
• Example Client Software Program Screen

UW Exchange: A Better Way To Communicate and Collaborate

UW Exchange is the University of Washington's centralized service providing email, calendar, contacts, and task management using Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. Powerful features and tight integration with Microsoft Office products offer many benefits for productivity and collaboration, such as:

• Access to email, calendar, and other data from Windows, Macintosh, or Linux computers.
• Easy remote access to email, calendar, and other data from a Web browser or mobile device.
• Integration of email and calendaring with Microsoft applications. For example, if you are reading your email remotely through a Web browser, you can view an attachment such as an Excel file, even if you don't have Excel installed on the computer that you are using.
• Users of Microsoft Office products can easily learn to use Exchange features through a familiar graphical user interface.

UW Exchange is available to UW faculty and staff as part of the Microsoft Collaborative Applications Initiative. UW Exchange is a fee-based service available to departments and schools on request.

Getting Started With UW Exchange

To Get Started With UW Exchange:

1. If you are not familiar with Exchange, you might want read about what UW Exchange is.
2. Learn how to subscribe to UW Exchange.
3. UW Exchange is server software that can be used with a variety of client software programs. Choose the client software that you want to use.
4. Once your client software is installed on your computer, connect to the Exchange server.

Basic Concept of Exchange: Clients and Servers

The following diagram shows the basic client-server concept of Exchange:

• Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 runs on a group of servers, which are dedicated computers that provide services to users on the network. One of the servers contains your Exchange account and your data, such as your email messages, your calendar, any tasks that you set up to manage, and any contacts that you create.
• You connect to the Exchange server using client software that runs on your computer or mobile device. Client software programs allow you to make use of the services offered by the Exchange servers, such as calendar and email. Client software programs are available for Windows computers, Macintosh computers, Web browsers, and mobile devices (in the diagram, click one to learn more about it).

Example Client Software Program Screen

The following screen shot demonstrates how your UW Exchange experience might appear using Outlook Web Access Premium, a client software program that runs on Internet Explorer versions 6 and 7. The task bar on the left contains links to the four main Exchange feature areas: Mail, Calendar, Contacts, and Tasks.