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wlalias 1.5 released - Create email aliases for Domains for Windows Live

An update to the wlalias tool has been released. This release is mostly a bug fix release. The most significant change is that SoapExceptions now attempt to retrieve the internal error information provide the information to the user.

A couple of questions by users have come up, so without further ado, a mini FAQ:

  • How many aliases can I add to a user?

    The actual Windows Live documentation says 15 aliases can be added (see the remarks section) but end users have reported that they can only add 5 aliases to one user using this tool. I am still looking in to the issue.

  • I've received a SoapExecption. What do I do?

    If you're using version 1.0 of the tool, upgrade now to 1.5 and try again. There are many, many reasons why the SoapException can occur, but the most common reason mentioned occurs when attempting to add an alias using an email address that is already in use by an actual Windows Live account. Until I see what the actual error description is, I can't really know though.

  • What's next for the tool?

    I have plans to add support to evict and import members. Evicting members will allow you to kick out existing accounts that may have been registered using your domain before it was added to Windows Live for Domains. Importing members will allow you to import an unmanaged user in to your domain if it was registered in your domain. These two methods should help provide solutions for the question above.

If you haven't already, go download release 1.5 now and see if it helps. If you haven't used it, but want to add aliases to your Windows Live domain, give it a run, it should work. No new features have been added, so see the initial post on wlalias 1.0 on a tutorial of the program.

Imported Comments

Paolo Rodríguez on Monday, December 24, 2012 at 9:52 PM wrote:

You are fantastic, thank you very much for this tool.

Nicolas Lagalaye on Thursday, February 7, 2013 at 8:23 AM wrote:

The tool is great, thanks for sharing it. So good it is a command line one: clear and straightforward. As for 2.0 version, will it be able to import unmanaged accounts or only evict? I'm so looking forward to it!

Talidorn on Monday, February 25, 2013 at 11:51 PM wrote:

The reason that the users of your script can only add 5 alias addresses is that you are limited to 15 max... 5/year. So, add 5... add a reminder to add another 5 on your calendar for next year and then add them... then add a reminder to add another 5 on the 3rd year (2 years from first alias addition) to add the remaining 5.

tada! 3*5=15.... and you are all maxed out.

Stuart on Friday, April 5, 2013 at 9:03 AM wrote:

I've just tried using your tool for the first time to add an alias to an account and am getting the SoapException error:

"Creating alias...The call failed with outcome:
SoapException Error 3001: Invalid member name."

The email address that I'm trying to add an alias for also has a Windows Live account with the same name - does this mean I can't add aliases to this email?

Stuart on Friday, April 5, 2013 at 10:22 AM wrote:

Found my issue - I wasn't using the full email address for the alias. Working great now. Thanks for the tool!