Bearbear said:
When a sender sends a email and turn on read receipt, the
recipient has the option to send/never send/ask me before
sending a return receipt. This can be configured in
Tools, Options,E-Mail Options, Tracking Options
under 'Use this response to decide how to respond to
requests for read receipts.'
However, how can the 'tracking option' section to change
this setting be disabled (greyed off) so that end-user is
not able to change this option?
Check the following registry key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Outlook\Options\Mail
A data item named "Read Receipt" got added and a value of 1 assigned
when I switched from Ask to Never. This registry key didn't exist
before (when I had Ask selected which was the install-time default).
When I switch between the options, the data value changes:
Never send: Read Receipt = 2
Ask me: Read Receipt = 1
Always send: Read Receipt = 0
So if this data item is not defined under this registry key, the default
is to use a value of 1 (Ask me). Setting this value will NOT disable
the user from changing the selection back to whatever they want. This
is the only key that was added or modified when changing the selection.
Since this is a user option, it probably cannot be defeated. Maybe
someone who has administered a domain can say if group policies can
override a particular registry data value (it is so indicated at
http://www.exchangeadmin.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=39497 but I
don't subscribe to them). I believe this tracking option is disabled
when using Exchange transport, and that tracking this way is only
enabled for Internet transport (POP3). Fact is, I haven't found a good
use for the read receipt. If you always send a receipt, the sender
thinks you read it and will take action on it, and then calls you hours
later wondering why you haven't gotten to it yet (and you might've
simply just deleted it because you don't care about their message). The
sender thinks that you are actually going to do something because your
read their e-mail and sent back a read receipt.
The recipient may not want to always send a read receipt. I'm sure
spammers would love to be able to force read receipts so they can check
if the targeted e-mail address is valid. That's why I set mine to
always ask me because I'm obviously NOT going to send a read receipt to
a spammer!
