<p>Microsoft has cancelled the Outlook Configuration Analysis Tool (OCAT) and replaced it with the Office Configuration Analysis Tool (OffCAT), which can be downloaded from the Microsoft web site. Like OCAT, OffCAT is developed by the Microsoft support organization and is based on the learning from the resolution of the most common support problems that are reported by customers. The development team broadcasts news on Twitter @MS_OffCAT.</p><p>OCAT, which lasted just over a year, provides a useful method to detect problems with an Outlook installation on a PC. OffCAT incorporates OCAT's functionality and expands it to deal with the most common Microsoft Office applications (Access, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel). Other Office applications like Visio and OneNote are not supported at this time. If you continue to use OCAT and download updates for that application, you will be prompted to replace it with OffCAT.</p><p>Installing OffCAT is easy using the downloaded .msi file. Like OCAT, OffCAT uses the Exchange Best Practice Analyzer framework to present its options and display its findings. A command line version of OffCAT is also available (OffCATcmd.exe) to allow administrators to include scans in procedures that process multiple user PCs.</p><p>OffCAT supports Office 2013 applications, including the click-to-run variant of Office 2013, which can run alongside previous versions. Legacy versions of Office (2010, 2007, and 2003) are also supported. You cannot scan multiple programs at one time, so the first order of business is to select what application you want to check. Given OffCAT's ancestry, it's not surprising that more rules exist for Outlook than for any other application. However, the OffCAT developers intend to enhance and expand the rule set for all the applications over time.</p><p><a href="http://windowsitpro.com/blog/microsoft-replaces-ocat-offcat-office-configuration-analysis-tool">Keep reading...</a></p>