Policy Template Files Available for Outlook 2003 SP2

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1. Commentary - Policy Template Files Available for Outlook 2003 SP2

2. Peer to Peer - Outlook Tip: Should You Deploy Office 2003 SP2? - Featured Forum: Office Tips - Instant Poll: What are your vacation plans for this summer?

3. New and Improved - Add Synchronization to Your Outlook Folders

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==== 1. Commentary: Policy Template Files Available for Outlook 2003 SP2 ==== by Sue Mosher, News Editor, exadmin@turtleflock.com

Microsoft released Office 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2) back in September 2005, but administrators had to wait until just a few weeks ago to get some key pieces they need to manage settings in that service pack: the .adm administrative template files for use with Group Policy Editor (GPE) and the .opa files that the Custom Installation Wizard and Custom Maintenance Wizard use to manage user settings. These files are now available at the Office 2003 Resource Kit (ORK) downloads site (at the first URL below); look for the file named orksp2at.exe. If you're new to using Group Policy Objects (GPOs) to control Outlook settings, you might want to read my article "Creating a Group Policy for Outlook 2002," (http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=288BF:610453 . The ORK site also has a good background article about Office-related security policies.

The administrative template file that governs Outlook policies is named outlk11.adm. Comparing the new file with the previous version from SP1 turned up a few interesting changes and at least one setting that you might want to tweak before you add the .adm file to GPE. The outlk11.adm file is a text file, so you can open it in Notepad or any other text editor. The easiest way to locate a particular policy setting is to search for its registry value.

First, let's look at the tweak you might want to make. Search the outlk11.adm file for the "ForceOSTPath" registry value. This registry value, discussed in the Microsoft article "You cannot specify a separate folder to store the .ost file when you use the ForcePSTPath value in Outlook 2003" (http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=288C6:610453 ), lets you set a default folder for the offline folders' .ost files that Outlook creates for Cached Exchange mode and classic offline mode. This is a new setting, added in SP2. But in the .adm file, both ForceOSTPath and the similar ForcePSTPath value that appears just above the entry for ForceOSTPath are set up as EDITTEXT values that will create REG_SZ string values in the registry. (ForcePSTPath controls the default path for new .pst files.) What you usually want for a folder path, though, is a REG_EXPAND_SZ expandable string value that can evaluate environment variables such as %username% that are commonly used to point to folder paths that the user controls. To make ForceOSTPath an expandable string value, inside its PART block, change "EDITTEXT" to "EDITTEXT EXPANDABLETEXT." Make the same change to the .adm file entry for ForcePSTFile.

What else is new in the SP2 outlk11.adm file? It provides support for the DisableMeetingRegeneration value discussed in the Microsoft article "Developer information about the calendar changes in Outlook 2003 Service Pack 2, Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 2 and later versions" (http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=288C5:610453 ). This setting allows Office Outlook 2003 SP2 to keep the same meeting behavior as in previous versions, rather than use the new behavior that solves a lot of missing appointment problems. A JunkMailEnableLinks value lets you override the default behavior, which is to disable links in messages stored in the Junk E-mail folder. A new MSGFormat value provides a way to make items dragged to the desktop always store in ANSI .msg format rather than as Unicode .msg files that versions earlier than Outlook 2003 can't read.

Three new policy settings relate to the Offline Address Book (OAB). The DisableLogging value allows you to turn off logging for full OAB downloads, whereas the "OAB v4 Only" value provides a way to prevent Outlook from falling back to an earlier version of the OAB. (OAB 4.0 is a feature of Exchange Server 2003 SP2.) The Microsoft article "Information about the changes that occur to the Offline Address Book after you install Outlook 2003 SP2 and Exchange Server 2003 SP2" (http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=288C7:610453 ) provides more information on this setting and also on the new "Max Full OAB Download Wait" value. This setting helps you set up Outlook so that OAB downloads don't occur for every user at the same time. For example, if you set this value to 5, the maximum number of hours to wait, Outlook will perform its OAB download at some random time between one hour and five hours after Outlook starts.

Interestingly, two registry values for which support was added in a post-SP1 hotfix don't appear in the SP2 file: NewSignature and ReplySignature, documented in the Microsoft article "Description of the Outlook 2003 and Word 2003 post-Service Pack 1 hotfix package: April 28, 2005" ( http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=288C4:610453 ). I don't know why these were removed; perhaps because using them blocks some other features on the Tools, Options, Mail Format dialog box.

Another change is that the description for one of the key policies related to Cached Exchange mode has changed from "Disable Cached Exchange Mode on new profiles" to "Disable Cached Exchange Mode for all profiles." As the ORK article at http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=288BE:610453 notes, this policy setting has always applied to all profiles, new and existing, so it's good to have an accurate description in the .adm file now.

Office 2003 Resource Kit Downloads http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=288C3:610453

Using Security-Related Policies http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=288BD:610453

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==== 2. Peer to Peer ====

Outlook Tip: Should You Deploy Office 2003 SP2? by Sue Mosher, exadmin@turtleflock.com Q: Should I deploy Microsoft Office 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2) in my organization? Find the answer (and links to more great tips): http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=288B5:610453

Featured Forum: Office Tips Got a question about using Microsoft Outlook? Check out the new Office Tips forum at the following URL: http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=288B8:610453

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==== 3. New and Improved ==== by Blake Eno, products@windowsitpro.com

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