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Deploy Outlook mail profile settings via GPO or script

When an end-user starts Outlook for the first time in a managed environment, he or she usually
expects that Outlook is fully configured already and simply opens to the Inbox. Being a good

administrator, you obviously want to create this experience for your users as well.

AutoDiscover in Exchange 2007/2010 together with AutoConfigure in Outlook 2007/2010 alleviates

some of this pain already by presenting the
user with dialogs for which they only have to click Next
and Finish or prompt them to supply commonly known information such as their email address and
password. Outlook then figures out the technical configuration itself and has the user quickly up
and running.

As this still requires end-user interaction, which could lead to confusion or errors, you can take this
a step further by deploying Outlook mail profile settings. The Office installation offers various

options for this.

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Deploy Office with a customization file (msp-file) hyperlinks
Directly deploying Outlook mail profile settings when deploying Office is the best way to go. By Tool Tip!
Instant aliases with a +
using the Office Customization Tool (OCT) you can prepare your deployment and specify default
for Outlook.com and
settings for your users including Outlook mail profile settings.
Gmail
Download: Office 2007 Office Customization Tool (OCT) Disable Conversation
Download: Office 2010 Office Customization Tool (OCT) View in Outlook Web
App

Installing and running the OCT Toolbox

To be able to use the OCT you must do the following; Add to Favorites
1. Execute the downloaded OCT for your version to extract it to a convenient location. Popular Add-ins Subscribe to RSS
2. Copy the contents of your Office 2007/2010 installation media to the deployment location. Add to Outlook RSS
3. Copy the Admin folder from the extracted OCT location to the installation directory of your Attachment Save
Office deployment folder. ABF Outlook Backup Print this page
If your installation DVD contains both the 32-bit and the 64-bit version of Office 2010,
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Mail Merge Toolkit
you’ll have to copy it to the x86 or x64 folder, respectively.
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4. Start setup.exe from the deployment location with the /admin switch;
setup.exe /admin MAPILab Toolbox
DataNumen Outlook
Note: Repair
The OCT works for any Office Suite. Be aware of the fact though that the Home and Bells & Whistles for
Student version doesn’t contain Outlook. Outlook

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http://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/deployprf.htm[5/30/2014 18:13:42]
Deploy Outlook mail profile settings via GPO or script | HowTo-Outlook

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The mail profile can be configured in the Outlook section of the OCT. Upgrading to Outlook
(click on image to enlarge) 2013
36 Short questions and
Deploying Office with the msp-file tips for Outlook 2013
Once you’ve configured all the settings that you want, use File-> Save As… to save the msp-file to What do the Outlook
the Updates folder of your Office deployment folder. When Office is being installed, it will Icons Mean?

automatically apply the msp-file and configure the settings for the user. Where can I find…?

For further customizations required to deploy Office 2010 via a GPO see; Migrate from Outlook
Deploy Office 2010 by using Group Policy computer startup scripts Express or Windows
(Live) Mail to Outlook
Outlook doesn’t Start
Bug:
Outlook 2010 SP1 introduced a bug which affects the function of importing a prf-file Outlook doesn’t Close
when it contains settings for an Exchange account. To properly process the prf-file, Backup and Restore
you must set the OverwriteExisitingService value in Section 4 of the prf-file to Yes Creating Signatures
(open the prf-file in Notepad to make the changes);
OverwriteExisitingService=Yes Mail Merge

This OverwriteExistingService setting applies to Section

6 and Section 7 of the prf- Popular Tips
file and not to any already configured mail profile or mail account which are controlled
Setting the Sent Items
by the OverwriteProfile and ModifyDefaultProfileIfPresent options in Section 1.
folder for IMAP
To apply this customization when creating an msp-file, export the prf-file, make the accounts in Outlook
customization and then set the OCT setting to Apply PRF and point it to the modified 2013
prf-file. Links do not open: This
operation has been
Without this modification, Outlook will ignore the configuration specified in the prf-file cancelled due to
and start the “Microsoft Outlook 2010 Startup Wizard” as usual. restrictions in effect on
this computer
This issue has been first fixed in hotfix KB2584053 and is also included in later
updates. Windows 8, Windows
8.1 and Outlook
compatibility
Starting Outlook in Safe
Mode
No Mail icon in Control
Deploy a msp-file if Office is already installed Panel
Book
If Outlook 2007 or Outlook 2010 is already installed on the client computers, you can create a new Inbox Repair Tool
msp-file via the OCT which only holds mail profile settings and nothing else. You can then deploy (scanpst.exe)
this msp-file. Enlarge font in Reading
Pane
This deployment can be done via Microsoft System Center Configuration
Manager or via a different
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deployment application within your organization.
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If you want to do this via a Group Policy, you’ll have to do it
via a startup script as the installation integration?
requires Administrator level rights. Since users usually don’t have installation rights, a logon script
Opening eml-files with
will fail. The command to use in your startup script would be similar to;
Outlook
msiexec.exe /p "\\server\share\custom.msp" My book written with Sue
Mosher Awards
Outlook 2003
If you are still using Outlook 2003, then you can use the Office Resource Kit (ORK)
to create a
Custom Maintenance Wizard File (cmw-file). To apply this to
your users, deploy the Maintwiz.exe
file to the Office directory of the
user’s machine and execute it with a the location of the cmw-file
as
the parameter in a GPO startup script.

http://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/deployprf.htm[5/30/2014 18:13:42]
Deploy Outlook mail profile settings via GPO or script | HowTo-Outlook

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Maintwiz.exe" "\\server\share\custom.cmw"

Deploy a prf-file via a (Group Policy) logon script

The OCT or ORK also allows you to export the Outlook mail profile as a
prf-file. This prf-file can
then be distributed to your users via a logon script. As logon scripts work on user instead of
computer level, it will allow you to more easily deploy different mail profiles to different sets
(Organizational Units) of users. Outlook offers 2 built-in mechanisms for this.

/importprf startup switch

One method is to import prf-files via the /importprf command line switch. The downside of this
command line is that it will also directly launch Outlook and will execute at each logon and could

therefore possibly also modify end-user alterations to the mail profile.

ImportPRF Registry value

The ImportPRF Registry value has the benefit that it can be set without needing to open Outlook.
The first time that Outlook is launched, Outlook will look at this value and if it is set, it will use the
specified prf-file to configure Outlook.

Key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\<version>\Outlook\Setup
Value name: ImportPRF
Value type: REG_SZ
Value: path to prf-file

For this Registry value to work, the FirstRun and First-Run value may not exist in the Setup key.

Deployment script
While setting the key for the fist time isn’t hard to do, once the FirstRun or First-Run
values
have been set, updating the mail profile without ending up applying it each time the user logs on is
a bit more complicated. To prevent this, you can use the vbs-script below which has the following

characteristics.

Checks if the profile already exists. If it does, it won’t import the prf-file again.
Allows for setting a version for your prf-file. By increasing the version in the script, you can
force the (updated) prf-file to be reapplied again.
It doesn’t start Outlook.
Can be used as a (Group Policy) logon script.
Works at user-level rights.
Works for all versions of Outlook.

Download: deployprf.zip

The following code is contained in the zip-file download. You can use
the code below for review or
manual creation of a vbs-script.

'This script determines if a specified mail profile already exists.

'If it doesn't, it will set the path to the prf-file containing
'the mail profile configuration settings.

'Script created by: Robert Sparnaaij

'For more information about this file see;
'http://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/deployprf.htm

'=====BEGIN EDITING=====

'Name of mail profile as in the prf-file

ProfileName = "Outlook"

'Path to the prf-file

ProfilePath = "\\server\share\profile.prf"

'Increase the ProfileVersion whenever you want to reapply the prf-file

ProfileVersion = 1

'======STOP EDITING UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING=====

const HKEY_CURRENT_USER = &H80000001

const HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE = &H80000002

strComputer = "."
Set objRegistry = GetObject("winmgmts:\\" & _
strComputer & "\root\default:StdRegProv")

strKeyProfilePath = _

Click in the "Software\Microsoft\Windows

area above and press NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles\" _
CTR+A to select all. Press CTRL+C to copy the code.
& ProfileName & "\9375CFF0413111d3B88A00104B2A6676"
strLastChangeVer = "LastChangeVer"
objRegistry.GetBinaryValue _
HKEY_CURRENT_USER,strKeyProfilePath,strLastChangeVer,strValueLastChangeVer
Last modified: November 7, 2011
If ProfileVersion > 1 Then
strKeyProfileVersionPath = "SOFTWARE\HowTo-Outlook\DeployPRF"
strProfileVersionName = ProfileName
objRegistry.GetDWORDValue _
HKEY_CURRENT_USER,strKeyProfileVersionPath,strProfileVersionName,strValueProfileVersion

If IsNull(strValueProfileVersion) OR ProfileVersion > strValueProfileVersion Then

ReapplyPrf = True
End If
End If

If IsNull(strValueLastChangeVer) OR ReapplyPrf Then

'The mail profile doesn't exist yet so we'll set the the ImportPRF key and remove the FirstRun keys

'Determine path to outlook.exe

strKeyOutlookAppPath = "SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\OUTLOOK.EXE"
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strOutlookPath = "Path"
18:13:42]
Deploy Outlook mail profile settings via GPO or script | HowTo-Outlook

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