Outlook 2003 - Disable Reading Pane with GPO?

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Guest

Does anyone know if disabling the Outlook 2003 Reading Pane with a GPO is possible?

I have the OUTLK11.ADM file and I see an option for User Configuration~Administrative Templates~Microsoft Office Outlook 2003~Tools|Options~Other~Preview Pane but setting it to disabled has no effect (that I can see). I have a Windows 2000 AD domain and Outlook 2003.

Any help is appreciated.
 
Have you confirmed on the client machine that the setting is being applied
(with the gpresult utility)?

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Brian Desmond
Windows Server MVP
(e-mail address removed)12.il.us

Http://www.briandesmond.com


mcron said:
Does anyone know if disabling the Outlook 2003 Reading Pane with a GPO is possible?

I have the OUTLK11.ADM file and I see an option for User
Click to expand...
Configuration~Administrative Templates~Microsoft Office Outlook
2003~Tools|Options~Other~Preview Pane but setting it to disabled has no
effect (that I can see). I have a Windows 2000 AD domain and Outlook 2003.
 
Brian, thanks for your reply. I have confirmed that the policy is applied to the client PC (W2K Pro) with the gpresult utility. I can select a different setting from the administrative template and it works. Some of our PCs have Outlook 2000 and the rest have Outlook 2003 so I would like to disable the Preview Pane for the OL2K clients as well. I understand that I would use the OUTLK9.ADM file for the OL2K clients.

The motivation here is security. I have heard that the Reading Pane does not allow script execution and such (like the OL2K Preview Pane). Do you have any insight into this?

Regards,
 
mcron,

I have the same issue using Group Policy. However, I found it is
possible to accomplish this using switches:

OUTLOOK.EXE /safe:1

I tried this and it works like a champ. Here's more info form MS:

http://tinyurl.com/3zbk7

Cheers,

Tim
 
In
qwertytpn1134 said:
mcron,

I have the same issue using Group Policy. However, I found it is
possible to accomplish this using switches:

OUTLOOK.EXE /safe:1

I tried this and it works like a champ. Here's more info form MS:

http://tinyurl.com/3zbk7

Cheers,

Tim
Click to expand...

Don't use /safe for regular/daily use. It's for troubleshooting only. Post
in microsoft.public.outlook for more info, and perhaps more help in general
as regards the GP issue.

I admit, I'm rather stymied as to why on earth one would wish to disable the
reading pane - it's a godsend, and finally works as it should (the old
preview pane was awful). If users don't want it, it's one quick mouse click
to make it go away. If I tried to take it away from all users, they'd kill
me, and justifiably so, I think.
 
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