Outlook

A page about Outlook on this wiki? Sounds weird isn't it?
Well, blame my employer.

We migrated from Lotus Notes, with crappy hacked outdated client so Outlook is still better but...
At least under Lotus Notes it was possible to add an IMAP account (BTW Lotus Notes crashed quite often when talking IMAP...)
Here: Tools->Account Settings->This feature has been disabled by your system administrator

References

• Microsoft Office 2007 Resource Kit (official documentation from Microsoft)
  • Documentation page
    • Security for the 2007 Office release
    • Group Policy overview for the 2007 Office release
  • Administrative template (ADM,ADMX,...) files
    • Use 7-zip to decompress this file without installing it. Don't miss the summary excel sheet inside.
• Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003, By Sue Mosher, Robert Sparnaaij, Charlie Pulfer, David Hooker.
  • Excellent book for administering Outlook 2003. Content can be browsed/searched on Google Books.
• Excellent 3rd party page on Outlook policy: http://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/policies.htm
• Folder with interesting policy settings on Outlook [1].

Unlocking

Main registry keys

Apparently important registry keys are under:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles\Outlook
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook

Some tips here (french)

IMAP settings

We can remove the admin barrier on account management:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\Setup\ModifyAccounts
=0

Another way without modifying the Registry is to use the import feature:
If e.g. Outlook Express client is also present on the Windows machine

• In Outlook Express:
  • Wizard -> typed my IMAP&SMTP settings
• In Outlook:
  • File -> Import and Export... -> Import Internet Mail Account Settings -> Microsoft Outlook Express or Microsoft Windows Mail -> Wizard allowing to edit the imported settings :-)
  • Then write a new mail -> Account (below Send button) -> select your new account -> Send test mail -> Prompted to choose the sent folder, ok -> you've a multiple tabs config view of your new account, possibility to switch servers to TLS, changing name of the account, saying you need auth to talk to your SMTP etc etc
  • If you need to tune IMAP settings later, go to registry and reset key (000000NN must be replaced with the number of your IMAP profile)

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles\Outlook\9375CFF0413111d3B88A00104B2A6676\000000NN\IMAP Sentitems
= 0

Note that I also tried importing from Eudora Light & Eudora but Outlook didn't see anything

Cached Exchange Mode

The following keys were set in my configuration, preventing to change the settings related to Cached Exchange Mode. In particular the mode selection was disabled, ie. the options Download full items, Download headers and then full items, Download headers were all grayed out.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\Cached Mode]
"CachedExchangeMode"=dword:00000001
"Enable"=dword:00000001
"NoDrizzle"=dword:00000001
"NoFullItems"=dword:00000001
"NoHeaders"=dword:00000000
"NoManualOnlineSync"=dword:00000001
"SyncPFFav"=dword:00000001

To unlock all settings, and eg. allow download full headers, simply delete values CachedExchangeMode, NoDrizzle, NoFullItems, NoHeaders, and NoManualOnlineSync (ie. all but Enable and SyncPFFav).

Changing JunkMail levels

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\Options\Mail\JunkMailProtection
No Protection = 0xffffffff = 4294967295
Low = 6
High = 3
Trusted Lists Only = 0x80000000 = 2147483648

To enable the JunkMail otions in the Options->Preferences->E-Mail->Junk E-mail menu

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\DisableAntiSpam
=0

All in one registry file

You can also put all the above registry modifications in one single file [{{#file:Outlook.reg}} Outlook.reg]

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook]
"DisableAntiSpam"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\Cached Mode]
"NoFullItems"=-
"NoDrizzle"=-
"NoHeaders"=-
"CachedExchangeMode"=-
"NoManualOnlineSync"=-

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\Options\Mail]
"JunkMailProtection"=-

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\Setup]
"ModifyAccounts"=dword:00000000

...and modify the registry at each startup with the following command:

regedit /s Outlook.reg

Note: the hyphen after the registry value indicates a request to delete the value. See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310516 for details.

Group Policy and other configuration hints

• Configure Outlook security and protection features
• Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

To use the Group Policy for Microsoft Outlook 2007 you may need to install the Outlook Group Policy template Outlk12.adm

1. Copy the policy template Outlk12.adm into %WINDIR%\inf
2. Open Group Policy Editor: Start-> Run-> gpedit.msc
3. Add template:
   1. Select User Configuration
   2. Right-click on Administrative Templates
   3. Select Add/Remove properties-> Click Add button
   4. Browse to %WINDIR%\inf and select Outlk12.adm

iCalendar

Outlook does not handle correctly the iCal file (*.ics) with recurrent event.

Problem: when opening (eg.: double-click on the attachment) an iCal file with multiple events, ie. multiple VEVENT sections, Outlook tries to add a complete calendar. Your are prompted with a dialog box with the following question: Add this Internet Calendar to Outlook. It is probably not what you want. Most probably you just need to add the multiple events in your existing calendar.

The solution requires to save the iCal file on your hard drive and import it back using the import function.

1. Save file as...
2. File -> Import and Export...
3. Select Import and iCalendar (*.ics) or vCalendar (.vcs)
4. Browse and select your saved iCal file, done.

Solution source: https://events.sfu.ca/manual/en/iCalExporter.htm.

Moving PST location

cf this post

1. Close Outlook.
2. Open Control Panel -> Choose Mails -> Click on Data files.
3. Select the Account name and check for the location of the PST file. Leave the window open.
4. Open the folder containing the PST. Move the PST to the desired location.
5. Do NOT rename the file - if you do Outlook creates a new file in the default location again.
6. Switch to the Data Files window (as opened in Step 2) and double click on the PST file location.
7. This displays an error window, Ignore the error, and point to the new location. Close the windows.
8. Restart Outlook.
9. Outlook may create a new PST in the default location again, delete it, in such a case.

Recovering PST password

Password protection of PST is terribly wrong.

Get PstPassword, a free Outlook PST Password Recovery, launch it and launch your PST, you'll get instantly a password, actuallt many passwords, and they will all work! How is it possible? Read this.

Note that McAfee detects the program as "Potentially Unwanted Program", a "Generic PUP.z":
McAfee(R) Avert™ recognizes that this program may have legitimate uses in contexts where an authorized administrator has knowingly installed this application
But still no question, the program is simply erased by McAfee.
One easy solution: open it under andLinux and run it with WINE :-)

Apparently this can work both on "compressible encryption" and "high encryption" types of PST.

Macro Send & Save

Lotus Notes can prompt the sender to specify what folder a message should be saved in. In Outlook, you can set the storage folder on the Options dialog. This VBA code reproduces something closer to the Notes behavior by popping up the Select Folder dialog when the user sends the message. (see here and there)
UPDATE: Avoid treating appointments as it fails.

Private Sub Application_ItemSend(ByVal Item As Object, _
    Cancel As Boolean)
  Dim objNS As NameSpace
  Dim objFolder As MAPIFolder
  Set objNS = Application.GetNamespace("MAPI")
  If TypeOf Item Is MailItem Then
    Set objFolder = objNS.PickFolder
    If TypeName(objFolder) <> "Nothing" Then
         Set Item.SaveSentMessageFolder = objFolder
    End If
  End If
  Set objFolder = Nothing
  Set objNS = Nothing
End Sub

To install it:

• Alt-F11 in Outlook
• Open Project1 -> Microsoft Office Outlook Objects -> ThisOutlookSession (double-click)
• copy/paste code
• close & save

Then allow unsigned macros:

• Tools -> Macro -> Security -> Macro Security -> Warning for all macros

You'll have annoying popup at startup but there is no way around

Interoperability between Exchange/Outlook & Linux

PST to Maildir

• In Outlook:
  • New -> Outlook Data File... -> Outlook 97-2002 Personal Folders file
  • Copy/Move mails to it
  • Right-Click on it -> Close it (probably safer)
• In Linux:
  • Convert to mbox using readpst, then to Maildir using mb2md

mkdir pst
readpst -r -o pst backup.pst
find pst -name mbox -size 0 -exec rm {} \;
find pst -mindepth 2 -type d -print0|xargs --null -I XXX mb2md -s "$(pwd)/XXX/mbox" -
find pst -mindepth 2 -name mbox -print0|xargs --null rm

I tried the PST Import plugin v1.2 for Thunderbird but it failed finding any mail in the PST

Openchange

I tried the one from Debian Experimental (version 1.0~svn679-1)

mapiprofile --address=A.B.C.D --username=name --password=passwd --domain=DOM --workstation=BLABLA --profile=test --create

-> segfault from libmapi0

I tried to compile the libmapi0 from the SVN, no segfault anymore but still failed

Evolution

Apparently ther is an attempt to support MAPI in a development branch but it has too much recent dependencies for me to compile it...

svn checkout http://svn.gnome.org/svn/evolution/branches/EXCHANGE_MAPI_BRANCH

svn diff http://svn.gnome.org/svn/evolution/trunk http://svn.gnome.org/svn/evolution/branches/EXCHANGE_MAPI_BRANCH