Auto-configure Outlook via GPO

I was sitting in our weekly change management meeting last week and our help desk manager was expressing a desire to have an automated way of setting up user profiles in Outlook. He wanted to know if Altiris could do the trick. I chimed in that an easier solution would be to use group policy.

This is one of those needs that just about every enterprise has, and the solution is surprisingly simple. This guide should have you auto-configuring Outlook in your enterprise in about 20 minutes.

Step 1 - Build/Configure an Outlook "prf" file. The "prf" file contains all of the settings needed for Outlook to connect your mail environment. The prf file is generated using the Office Custom Installation Wizard built for the version of office that you are using (we use 2003). The wizard is pretty handy, but unnecessary. You can download (and modify) a sample prf from Outlook-Tips.net. If you want to get into the nitty gritty of the contents/functions of the prf file, see this article: Understanding An Outlook Profile (PRF)

Now, for an Exchange environment, copy and paste the following into the sample prf (NOTE: section 5 is blank so delete everything in the sample up to section 6 and replace it with the following). Customize everything in bold/red for your environment.

;Automatically generated PRF file from the Microsoft Office Customization and Installation Wizard

; **************************************************************
; Section 1 - Profile Defaults
; **************************************************************

[General]
Custom=1
ProfileName=Exchange User
DefaultProfile=Yes
OverwriteProfile=No
ModifyDefaultProfileIfPresent=False
BackupProfile=No
DefaultStore=Service1


; **************************************************************
; Section 2 - Services in Profile
; **************************************************************

[Service List]
ServiceX=Microsoft Outlook Client
ServiceEGS=Exchange Global Section
Service1=Microsoft Exchange Server
ServiceEGS=Exchange Global Section
Service2=Outlook Address Book

;***************************************************************
; Section 3 - List of internet accounts
;***************************************************************

[Internet Account List]

;***************************************************************
; Section 4 - Default values for each service.
;***************************************************************

[ServiceX]
CachedExchangeMode=0x00000002
CachedExchangeSlowDetect=TRUE

[ServiceEGS]
CachedExchangeConfigFlags=0x00000100
MailboxName=%UserName%
HomeServer=YourExchangeServer

[Service1]
OverwriteExistingService=No
UniqueService=Yes
MailboxName=%UserName%
HomeServer=YourExchangeServer
OfflineAddressBookPath=%USERPROFILE%\local settings\application data\microsoft\outlook\
OfflineFolderPath=%USERPROFILE%\local settings\application data\microsoft\outlook\outlook.ost
AccountName=Microsoft Exchange Server

[Service2]

;[ServiceX]
;FormDirectoryPage=
;-- The URL of Exchange Web Services Form Directory page used to create Web forms.
;WebServicesLocation=
;-- The URL of Exchange Web Services page used to display unknown forms.
;ComposeWithWebServices=
;-- Set to TRUE to use Exchange Web Services to compose forms.
;PromptWhenUsingWebServices=
;-- Set to TRUE to use Exchange Web Services to display unknown forms.
;OpenWithWebServices=
;-- Set to TRUE to prompt user before opening unknown forms when using Exchange Web Services.


;***************************************************************
; Section 5 - Values for each internet account.
;***************************************************************

Step 2 - Save this prf file to your DFS root (i.e. \\YourDomain\netlogon)

Step 3 - Create a custom adm template. In a previous blog entry I mentioned Yizhar Hurwitz's invaluable Reg2Adm. I used it to create a custom adm template for customizing Outlook. To save you some time, just copy the following into a text file and save it with a .adm extension (again, modify the red text):

CLASS USER

CATEGORY "Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Setup"
KEYNAME "Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Setup"

POLICY "ImportPRF"
PART "ImportPRF"
EDITTEXT
DEFAULT "\\YourDomain\netlogon\YourPRF.prf"
VALUENAME "ImportPRF"
END PART
END POLICY

END CATEGORY




Step 4 - Create your GPO. Kick of gpmc.msc, expand your domain and then scroll down to Group Policy Objects.

• Right click on Group Policy Objects and select New
  
• Name your GPO
• Now, right click on your newly created GPO and select edit
• Since this is a "user" setting, we'll need to add our custom adm to the User Configuration\Administrative templates
• right click on Administrative Templates under User Configuration and select "Add/Remove Templates..."
• Browse to and select the template you created in step two, click OK and then close the "Add/Remove Templates" window
• IMPORTANT - by default, the GPMC only shows settings that can be fully managed. Custom .adms are "preferences" that can be set via GPO, but can be overwritten by the end user. You need to modify the view in order to view the settings of your custom adm.
• Right click on your Administrative Templates folder under User Configuration and select View\Filtering.
• In the next window, uncheck the last option entitled "Only show policy settings that can be fully managed"

Then click OK

• Now expand the Administrative Templates folder and find the folder called "Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Setup" (Note that this is for Outlook 2003 - you'll need to make some changes in the .adm file for 2007 so that it points to 12.0)
• In the right panel you should now see a red icon with a setting called "ImportPRF"
• Double click on the setting and enable the policy. It should now look like this:

Now, click ok.

That's it! Now all you have to do is link the GPO to appropriate OU(s) in your Active Directory tree and the setting will go into effect.








So, what's the magic behind this working? The first time Outlook runs, it looks for the existence of the following two registry keys:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Setup\First-Run

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Setup\FirstRun

If Outlook doesn't find them it will look for the ImportPRF key. If it exists, Outlook will use the file defined in the ImportPRF key's path to configure Outlook.

Time yourself and see if you can get it done in 20 minutes or less!