Often we are asked if we can automate the creation or modification of new Outlook profiles, en-masse, for Exchange accounts....without user interaction. Typically, a PRF file, which is generated through the Office Customization Tool (OCT), can be used for most situations.  

However, with Exchange Online, the PRF file is not supported to create or modify an Exchange Online account. This is because the PRF file requires an Exchange server name to be hard coded.  This is normally fine with an on-premise environment but in Exchange Online, the server name contains a variable GUID that can change from time to time, even from user to user. 

The use of a PRF file is being replaced by AutoDiscover. This doesn't mean you can't still use a PRF in your on-premise environments, it's just that the focus should really be on AutoDiscover.  Plus, it can be used for On Premise AND Exchange online configurations.

So, how can we automate the Outlook profile creation?

ZeroConfigExchange (ZCE)

Enter in, ZeroConfigExchange (ZCE).  ZCE can be used only to create new profiles for users with minimal user interaction.  That is, the user does not have to enter any configuration data, only data that every user should already know (account name and/or password) or with which they can create a profile (a simple name).  

ZCE is a registry setting that tells Outlook to create a new profile using the SMTP address from Active Directory and then leveraging AutoDiscover.  It's important to note that ZCE is not an Exchange Online implementation only, it can be used in an on-premise environment as well.  It's also important to note that there are no supported tools for modifying an Exchange Online account.

Again, ZCE is used as a way to automatically configure an Outlook profile for all users (or a single user) for Exchange Online or Exchange on-premise accounts.  It cannot modify. 

However, the way that things have evolved, AutoDiscover is the mechanism used for gathering configuration data for your connection to Exchange.

Implementing ZCE

Implementing ZCE is easy.  It can be added (through a login script) to the user's registry or as a GPO for all users.  Here's how:

1.  In the Registry, navigate to the appropriate place for each version of Outlook that is in use:

For Outlook 2016:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\AutoDiscover

As a policy:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\AutoDiscover

For Outlook 2013:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Outlook\AutoDiscover

As a policy:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Outlook\AutoDiscover

 For Outlook 2010

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Outlook\AutoDiscover

As a policy:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Outlook\AutoDiscover

For Outlook 2007:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\AutoDiscover

As a policy:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\AutoDiscover

2. Once the key is created, Right-click in the right pane and point to New, click DWORD Value and type in “ZeroConfigExchange” (sans the quotes) and then press ENTER. 

3. Finally, right-click ZeroConfigExchange, click Modify and then in the Value data box, type 1, and then click OK.

ZCE can be used in a couple of scenarios, with each behaving differently.  It can be used in an initial Outlook Deployment for automatic profile creation, or, when Outlook profiles already exist and a change is requiring a new profile in an automated fashion, such as a change to a different server.  Either way, the user is not required to enter, or even know, configuration details.

Initial Outlook Deployment

An initial Outlook deployment would be where Outlook is installed on the user’s machine for the very first time. This means that there are no Outlook Profiles already on the machine.   ZCE can be configured through the OCT. 

In this case, Outlook starts and the Outlook profile is automatically created during Outlook's first-run process.  In a perfect case, there will be no prompts. However, there may be a prompt for a username and password, depending on your Exchange Online configuration.  Again, the user will not need to know, or enter, any configuration details.

Creating a New profile with Profiles already in existence

This scenario can be a little tricky and will require another registry key to be created or pushed out to the user.  Education and communication are key to this scenario because the user will need to answer some prompts, again, no configuration information.

We must have the user set to prompt for a profile to be used.  They key to push out would be:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Exchange\Client\Options
String Value: PickLogonProfile
Data: 1

If we do not have this registry setting set, Outlook will use the current default profile and the ZCE process will be bypassed. 

With the registry setting in place, Outlook will prompt the user for a profile to be used:

The user will need to click on the "New" button, name the profile and then, once the profile name appears in the "Profile Name:" box, click "OK" (see below):

Again, in a perfect case, there will be no more prompts. However, there may be a prompt for a username and password, depending on your Exchange Online configuration.

That's it for ZCE.  Create new profiles with minimal user interaction. Plain and simple.

There may be times where you need to enable Outlook logging to capture the account creation process which may be failing in Outlook. Use the steps below to create a PIM (Personal Information Manager) profile in Outlook.

1. Close Outlook if it is running.
2. Open the Mail item in Control Panel, and then click Show Profiles.
3. Click Add in the Mail dialog box.
4. Type PIM for the name of the new profile, and then click OK.
5. In the Auto Account Setup window, click Cancel.
6. Click OK when you are prompted to create a profile that contains no e-mail accounts.
7. Check the feature Prompt for a profile to be used.
8. Click OK to close the Mail item.
9. Start Outlook and on the Outlook 2016 Welcome screen, click Next.
10. In the Add and Email Account dialog box, select the No, and then click Next.
11. Check Use Outlook without an email account feature and click Finish.

This will launch Outlook 2016 without any email accounts setup. You can enable logging by going to File > Options > Advanced > Other and checking the Enable troubleshooting logging (requires restarting Outlook) feature. Restart Outlook and add the email account by going to File > Add Account tab. Type in the details of the account which you are troubleshooting and click Next. The autodiscover process will kick off and will be captured under %temp%\outlook logging folder. The ETW logs which are in the format Outlook-########.etl will be the logs that need to be reviewed for root causes. The logs can only be reviewed thru Microsoft.

Starting with Outlook 2013, forwarding a meeting has a different effect on the existing meeting in the organizer and attendee’s calendars. If you are a meeting attendee that frequently forwards meetings to other users, then you will want to know about a particular Outlook 2013 enhancement.

Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2010 behavior

Let’s start with the behavior in previous versions of Outlook. If you used Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2010 to forward a meeting, the additional recipient was immediately reflected not only in your Scheduling Assistant, but also in the Scheduling Assistant of both the new attendee and the organizer.

Here are some screenshots to help you visualize the behavior. User A uses Outlook 2010 to organize a meeting and invites User B:

User B opens the meeting invitation and sees this in her Scheduling Assistant view:

User B accepts the meeting invitation, but also decides her colleague might want to attend, so she forwards the meeting to User C. Once forwarded, User B’s Scheduling Assistant now shows User C as an attendee:

Additionally, User C now shows as an optional attendee on the organizer’s Scheduling Assistant:

This behavior allows User B to see User C as an attendee within the Scheduling Assistant. However, it gives User B a potentially incorrect view of who is attending the meeting. Continuing with the above example, let us say User C decides to decline the meeting request. Since User B is not the organizer, she will not receive a meeting notification indicating User C declined the meeting. She is also unable to use the Meeting Tracking feature to see who accepted or declined the meeting. Hence, User B may use the Scheduling Assistant to attempt to identify the meeting attendees. In this scenario, it can look to User B as if User C may attend the meeting, since User C is listed under the “All Attendees” list:

Enhanced Outlook 2013 behavior

The above scenario can give User B an unrealistic view of who will attend the meeting. Because of that, this behavior is improved starting with Outlook 2013. In Outlook 2013, the forwarder’s view of the Scheduling Assistant is not automatically updated after forwarding the meeting. In order for the forwarder’s view of the Scheduling Assistant to update, the meeting organizer must send a meeting update to all attendees. Only after the organizer’s update is sent does the forwarder’s view of the Scheduling Assistant reflect the updated list of attendees.

To show this functionality change, let us use the same example as before. User A invites User B to a meeting:

User B opens the meeting invitation and sees this in her Scheduling Assistant view:

User B accepts the meeting invitation, but also decides that her colleague might want to attend, so she forwards the meeting to User C. Once forwarded, User C is added as an optional attendee to the meeting organizer’s (User A’s) Scheduling Assistant:

However, the main difference here is that User B’s Scheduling Assistant is not automatically updated:

During this process, User A (the meeting organizer) receives a meeting forward notification:

Later, when User C processes the meeting, the meeting response (ex. Accept, Decline, or Tentative) is received by the organizer. In this example, User C accepted the meeting:

If User A wants to ensure everyone sees an updated view of the attendees, User A must simply open the meeting and click the “Send Update” button to send the update to all attendees:

After sending the update, User B’s view of the Scheduling Assistant is updated to reflect User C as an attendee:

As you can see, Outlook 2013 meeting forwarding behavior is intentionally different to ensure that any attendee who forwards a meeting does not mistake who is and is not attending the meeting.

            Consider the scenario where you, as Wingtiptoys, acquire an existing Contoso. Contoso has a client portfolio with which she has encrypted communication. In order to be able to use the encryption certificates to communicate with the Clients of Contoso you need to find a way to access the Certificate Information of the Clients.

            There are a couple of ways by which this can be achieved, one of them being the creation of an LDAP Address Book in your Organization’s Active Directory. Below you find the steps in order to set this up and get it working.

Note1: You need to have an Encryption Certificate issued for your User and configured in your Outlook 2013 Client in order to be able to send an encrypted email to the LDAP contact 

Note2: You can add the LDAP Contact to your Outlook Contacts Folder; however you need to update the contact from your Outlook Contacts Folder when the Certificate Information expires. We recommend to use the LDAP Contact directly in order to be sure the most recent and valid Certificate Information is being used for Email Encryption.

1. In your Active Directory Server open the Active Directory Users and Computers Window, right click your Domain and create a New Organizational Unit. I will name mine NewLDAPAddressBook.

 2. In the New Organizational Unit move the Contacts from the Address Book of Contoso 

So until now we have created a location that is accessible throughout the Organization of Wingtiptoys and Contoso.  Now we need to open the new Address List from the Outlook Client side in order to use the Contacts of Contoso.

3. From the Outlook Client, in this case Outlook 2013, go to the Outlook File – Info – Account Settings – Account Settings, Select the Address Books Tab and click New

4. In the Add Account Window select the Option Internet Directory Service (LDAP) and click Next

5. Enter the Server Name where the LDAP Address Book is being stored  

6. Check the This server requires me to log on checkbox and enter your Domain Credentials

7. Click on the More Settings Options and configure the following:

Note:

Characteristics of a Global Catalog Search

The following characteristics differentiate a Global Catalog search from a standard LDAP search:

• Global Catalog queries are directed to port 3268, which explicitly indicates that Global Catalog semantics are required. By default, ordinary LDAP searches are received through port 389. If you bind to port 389, even if you bind to a Global Catalog server, your search includes a single domain directory partition. If you bind to port 3268, your search includes all directory partitions in the forest. If the server you attempt to bind to over port 3268 is not a Global Catalog server, the server refuses the bind.

• Global Catalog searches can specify a non-instantiated search base, indicated as "com" or " " (blank search base).

• Global Catalog searches cross directory partition boundaries. The extent of the LDAP search is the directory partition.

Global Catalog searches do not return subordinate referrals. If you use port 3268 to request an attribute that is not in the Global Catalog, you do not receive a referral to it. Subordinate referrals are an LDAP response; when you query over port 3268, you receive Global Catalog responses, which are based solely on the contents of the Global Catalog. If you query the same server by using port 389, you receive referrals for objects that are in the forest but whose attributes are not referenced in the Global Catalog.

          a. In the Connection Tab enter the Display Name of the LDAP Address Book, as you want it to be displayed in the Address Book menu, and leave the default Port 389 set  (see additional reading section for more Details)

          b. In the Search Tab in the Search Base Section enter the Custom Field enter the distinguished name of the Domain Controller Organizational Unit as displayed in ADSIEdit.

Also enable the Browsing within the LDAP Address book so that when selected all Items of the LDAP Address Book are visible

8. Click Finish in order to complete the Account Changes performed in the Address Book Section

Note: The Server Name you can find in the Active Directory Users and Computers top left corner

9. Restart Outlook 2013, go to the Address Book from the Ribbon and select the new LDAP Address Book visible in the Address Book pull down menu.

10. Select the LDAP Address Book and choose a contact you want to send an email to

Additional reading:

Add or remove an address book

https://support.office.com/en-au/article/Add-or-remove-an-address-book-fd067150-ba37-42a4-b88e-5b15f3dba4e6

Understanding S/MIME

https://technet.microsoft.com/library/aa995740(v=exchg.65).aspx

Outlook S/MIME certificate selection

http://blogs.technet.com/b/pki/archive/2008/12/17/outlook-s-mime-certificate-selection.aspx

Publish S/MIME certificates for external contacts to Active Directory for use with Exchange Server 2007

http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2008/04/23/3405402.aspx

Plan for e-mail messaging cryptography in Outlook 2010

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/cc179061(v=office.15).aspx

What are rules in Outlook and how can they help you manage your email? Simply put, rules are conditions set upon incoming and outgoing messages. When one or more of these conditions are met, Outlook takes an action that you specify. You can create rules from a template, from a message or by using your own custom conditions. There are two types of rules that Outlook uses: Client- rules and server rules. These rules perform very differently. Rules that have actions that require Outlook are client-side rules and only run if Outlook is running. Rules that do not require Outlook to process are considered server-side rules. Let’s look at the two rule types more in-depth.

Client Rules

The most important thing to know about a client-side rule is that Outlook must be running in order for the rule to work. If Outlook is not running, a client-side rule cannot be processed. Client rules also will not run unless the same user who created the rule logs into Outlook.

Creating rules in Outlook is simple. In Outlook, click the File tab and then click the Manage Rules and Alerts button. By default, the Email Rules tab is selected. To create the rule, click New Rule. This will launch the Rules Wizard.

In the Rules Wizard you can select from a set of pre-designed templates or use a blank rule to handle messages the way you want them handled.

Some examples of a client rule include the following:

• Moving mail from a company such as Fabrikam.com to a folder called ‘Fabrikam’

• Moving specific messages to a PST file

• Play a specific sound when mail from your uncle Jim arrives

It’s also important to note that when it comes to client rules and server rules, the Exchange Server will look at incoming messages and apply its rules first if applicable. Afterward, client rules are applied when Outlook is running. Also, if a server rules moves a message when Outlook is not running, a client rule that exists in Outlook and that applies to the message may not run. This is known as a rule conflict and is discussed more later. Also, if a mailbox exceeds its size limit, rules that send replies or forward items will not run.

Rules created on the client are stored in a Filename.RWZ file where Filename is the name of the user that created the rule. You can also check which rules are client rules by clicking the Rules button under the Move section of the Home menu on the Ribbon. Then click Manage Rules and Alerts. Any rules that run on the client with have “(client –only)” appended to the end of the rule.

Tip

When you create a rule you are given the option to run the rules for all emails in your inbox. If you missed this checkbox, you can always go back and run the rules anytime. Go to the Manage Rules and Alerts dialog and select Run Rules Now.

Server Rules

Server rules are handled entirely by the Exchange Server and are applied to messages that arrive in your inbox even when Outlook isn’t running. Server rules handle rule operations that don’t require the Outlook client. Server rules are created two ways – by using Outlook Web Access (OWA) or by using Outlook. Rules created in OWA are always saved as server-side rules.

Some examples of a server rule include:

• Changing the importance of a message

• Moving the incoming message to a specific folder on the user’s mailbox

• Deleting a message

To create a rule using OWA, go to the navigation pane and click Rules and in the Rules area toolbar, click New. This will open the Edit Rule dialog box. You can also right click any email message in OWA and left click Create Rule.

To create a server rule in Outlook, select an email you have already received. Click the Home tab in the ribbon if it is not already selected. In the Move group select Rules then Create Rule.

Rule Conflicts

Rules conflicts happen when you have more than one rule that will affect an incoming message. Let’s say, for example, you receive an incoming email from “John Doe” and the subject line is “Widget report for last week”. Let’s say you have two rules set – one that looks for mail from John Doe that forwards the mail to a subfolder in your inbox called “John Doe” and another rule that’s set to look for they keyword “Widgets” in the subject of a message.

If these are both client-side rules, the rule listed first in the rules list will take precedence. The mail from John Doe will end up in the John Doe subfolder and not the Widgets folder. If new mail was received from “Jane Doe” with ‘Widgets’ in the subject then the item would be moved to the Widgets subfolder since the criteria for the first rule was not met.

Let’s say that you have a client-only rule set to look for the word “Widgets” in the subject line and a server-side rule set to look for mail from “John Doe” and move it to the “John Doe” folder. Let’s also say Outlook is not running. When the mail is received, Exchange processed the server rule for “John Doe” and moves it to the “John Doe” folder. When you launch Outlook, the rules are applied, but because the new mail is not in the inbox, the “Widgets” rule is not processed and the email remains in the “John Doe” folder.

For more information on server and client rules on the Mac for Office 2011, see the following blog post.

Special thanks to Will Buffington and Melissa Shellito

Providing an initial OST file for an Outlook Cached Exchange Mode deployment

Outlook Cached Exchange Mode allows you to smoothly work online and offline with the Mailbox Information, hence allowing you to access mail, calendar, address book, and other Outlook information by using a local cache file, the Offline Folder (OST) file.

It is best to allow Microsoft Office Outlook 2013 to create the initial cache files (including the OST file), but it can be a slow process if users have large mailboxes and slow network connections.

With Outlook 2013 the option of using the Sync Slider Control might come in handy in order have only part of your Mailbox Information available locally such as the last 12 Months of Email Information.

Another way to avoid delays in accessing the full Mailbox Information offline is to bring the user's computer to a location that has a fast Internet connection and enable Cached Exchange Mode at that time.

Should that not be possible, the creation of an initial OST file and sending it to the remote user (for example, by copying the file to a CD or Flash Drive) is a valid option.

This article provides step-by-step procedures for creating an initial OST file, and then configuring Outlook on the user's computer to use the file when Cached Exchange Mode is enabled. It is important that you follow the procedures for creating and using the initial OST file exactly. The process works similarly for Office Outlook 2010, Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2013.

   Note   For information about configuring and deploying Cached Exchange Mode, see Plan a Cached Exchange Mode deployment in Outlook 2013.

Use the following procedure to create—as the administrator on a local computer—an up-to-date initial OST file for a specific Outlook 2013 user.

To create an initial OST file

1. Log on as administrator at a workstation with Outlook 2013 installed. The administrator account must have permission to open the mailbox of the user for whom you plan to create the initial OST file. In most cases the fastest way is by providing Full Access Permissions to the user’s Mailbox using the Exchange Control Panel.

2. Delete all Outlook profiles. In Control Panel, click the Mail icon, and then click Show Profiles to view the list of configured profiles for Outlook.

3. Also, delete any files in the default folder location of the user for Outlook OST files.

   Note   Should you not be able to see the AppData Folder from the Explorer menu go to Organize – Folder and search options and from the Folder Options Window under the View Tab select the Option to Show hidden files, folders and drives

By default, Outlook OST files are located in the following folder:

Windows 8

drive:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook

or

drive:\Users\<username>\Roaming\Local\Microsoft\Outlook

Windows 7 / Windows Vista

drive:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook

4. Create a new Outlook profile (for the user you are creating the initial OST file for). By Default the cached Exchange mode setting is enabled and the Sync Slider set to the default value of 12 months.

5. After the new profile is created, start Outlook and wait for the mailbox to be completely synchronized between the client and the Exchange server. The status bar displays the synchronization status and reads All Folders Are Up to Date when the synchronization is complete.

6. Exit Outlook. Then copy the OST file from the Admin Appdata folder and place it in the User AppData Folder, where the file can be accessed by the user:

Windows 8

drive:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook

or

drive:\Users\<username>\Roaming\Local\Microsoft\Outlook

Windows 7 / Windows Vista

drive:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook

Now that you've created the initial file you can copy it any computer where the user logs on in order to configure his Outlook profile.

To use the initial OST file on the remote user's computer

1. Log on to the user's computer as the user (not as administrator).

   Note   If you have more than one computer on which you want to use the same user’s OST file, you must create separate OST files for each computer. This is because each OST file is a unique replica of the mailbox and maintains a synchronization state that is unique to that file. 

2. Copy the OST File you created in the previous procedure to the proper Outlook folder on the user's computer. For example, if the user's profile uses the default location for Outlook files, copy the files to the following folder:

Windows 8

drive:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook

or

drive:\Users\<username>\Roaming\Local\Microsoft\Outlook

Windows 7 / Windows Vista

drive:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook

3. Create an Outlook profile for the user. For step-by-step instructions on creating a new profile, see How to create and set up an e-mail account in Outlook. The Use Cached Exchange Mode is enabled by default for the new profile.

   Note   DO NOT Start Outlook in order to create the new Outlook Profile. Create the new profile from the Control Panel – Mail – Show Profiles Window

4. Next, verify that the Outlook OST files are in the correct location.

• In Control Panel, click Mail, and then click E-mail Accounts.

• Click View or change existing e-mail accounts.

• Click Change, and then click More Settings.

• On the Advanced tab, click Offline Folder File Settings.

• Verify that the name and path of the OST file shown in File: match the name and path of the OST file you copied from the computer on which you were logged on as administrator.

• The only way you can change the OST file is on the initial profile creation, before finishing the wizard, by selecting Change account settings

5. Start Outlook, using the newly created profile. Be sure to log on when a network connection is available. When Outlook starts with the new OST file, a connection to the Exchange server is required to validate that the user is authorized to use the OST file.

The remote user's computer is now configured to use Outlook 2013 with Cached Exchange Mode, starting with the initial OST file you provided as the basis for a synchronized mailbox.

Have you ever looked at your Outlook or Outlook for Mac build number and wanted to know when that build was released or what KB article corresponds with it? Maybe you wanted to know how many updates have been released since then and what those later updates contain.

Previously, it may have taken a lot of time to find this information, and perhaps you would not have been able to find it at all. Now there is a TechNet Wiki page that lists this information in one central location:

Outlook and Outlook for Mac Update Build Numbers

This Wiki page lists the build information for Outlook for Windows 2013, 2010, 2007 & 2003, and Outlook for Mac 2016 & 2011. You will find the date the update was released, the build number, and a link to the corresponding KB article. This Wiki will be updated when new updates are released (typically within a few days of the release), so it's a good way to monitor for updates of multiple versions of Outlook.

In addition to the build number information, a link to the Microsoft Support Lifecycle page is included after each version, so you can easily click the link to find the product support information for that version of the product.

A common process when managing Tasks in Outlook is to set the Start Dates & Due Dates, and change these dates when needed.  The logic in Outlook does not allow you to set a Due Date to a date before the Start Date or set the Start Date to a date after the Due Date.  This blog post will describe the results you can expect for various scenarios when you change the Start and Due Dates of a Task.

Scenario #1. You change the Due Date of a task before the Start Date.

Result:

Outlook for Mac 2011 & Outlook 2016 for Mac – The Start Date is automatically moved to be the same as the Due Date.
Outlook 2010 & 2013 – You receive an error “The due date of a task cannot occur before its start date.”

Examples:

Windows Outlook 2013 or 2010:

The Tasks Start Date is April 1 and the Due Date is April 5.
You try to change the Due Date to March 30.
You receive this error message.

Outlook 2016 for Mac or Outlook for Mac 2011:

The Tasks Start Date is April 1 and the Due Date is April 5.
You change the Due Date to March 30. The Start Date changes to March 30 automatically.

Scenario #2: You change the Start Date of a Task that also has a Due Date set.

Result:

All Outlook versions: The Due Date automatically changes preserving the duration of the task.

Example:

You have a task that starts on April 1 and is due on April 5.
You then change the start date to April 3, and the Due Date automatically changes to April 7.

Scenario #3: The Start Date of a task is initially set to None with a Due Date set, and then you set the Start Date to a date later than the Due Date.

Result:

All versions of Outlook: The Due Date will change to the same date as the new Start Date that was set.

Example:

The Task Start Date is set to None, and the Due Date is set to April 5.
You set the Start Date to April 10
The Due Date is automatically changed to April 10.

When searching for emails in Outlook 2013 using Instant Search the returned results may be limited. By default, 12 months of your email is available offline, but you can control how much mail is kept offline. In order to improve performance of the Instant Search feature in Outlook, by default the search results list is limited to the most recent 250 items that match your search query in Outlook 2013. Below the search results you will see Showing recent results… followed by More.

When clicking on the More tab the search query switches to using Exchange Search and no longer uses the local search. There is a 250 cap limit set on the Exchange Search side so the search results will be limited to 250 items even though there may be more items on the server related to the query. This cap is set at the Exchange side for performance reasons.

If you have an Online Archive mailbox attached to your Outlook 2013 profile the search queries are performed by the Exchange Server. Outlook doesn't create a local copy of the archive mailbox on a user's computer, even if it's configured to use Cached Exchange Mode. Users can access an archive mailbox in Online mode only. You can tell the mailbox is in Online mode by viewing the Status Bar at the bottom of Outlook.

Often we are asked if we can automate the creation or modification of new Outlook profiles, en-masse, for Exchange accounts… without user interaction. Typically, a .PRF file, which is generated through the Office Customization Tool (OCT), can be used for most situations.  

However, with Exchange Online, the .PRF file is not supported to create or modify an Exchange Online account. This is because the .PRF file requires an Exchange server name to be hard coded. This is normally fine with an on-premises environment, but in Exchange Online, the server name contains a variable GUID that can change from time to time and from user to user. 

While you can still use a PRF in your on-premises environments, it is recommended that you use Autodiscover, which is supported for creating Outlook profiles in both on-premises and Exchange Online environments. 

So, how can we automate the Outlook profile creation?

ZeroConfigExchange (ZCE)

Enter ZeroConfigExchange (ZCE). ZCE can be used to create new profiles for users with minimal user interaction. That is, the user does not have to enter any configuration data… only data that every user should already know (account name and/or password) or with which to create a profile (a simple name).  

ZCE is a registry setting that tells Outlook to create a new profile using the SMTP address from Active Directory and to then leverage Autodiscover. It's important to note that there are no supported tools for modifying an Exchange Online account.

Again, ZCE is used as a way to automatically configure an Outlook profile for one or many users with Exchange Online or Exchange on-premises accounts.

However, the way that things have evolved, Autodiscover is the mechanism used for gathering configuration data for your connection to Exchange.

Implementing ZCE

Implementing ZCE is easy.  It can be added (through a login script) to the user's registry or as a GPO for all users. Here's how:

1.  In the Windows Registry, navigate to the appropriate subkey for each version of Outlook that is in use:

For Outlook 2016:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\AutoDiscover

As a policy:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\AutoDiscover

For Outlook 2013:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Outlook\AutoDiscover

As a policy:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Outlook\AutoDiscover

 For Outlook 2010

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Outlook\AutoDiscover

As a policy:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Outlook\AutoDiscover

For Outlook 2007:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\AutoDiscover

As a policy:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\AutoDiscover

2. Once the key is created, right-click in the right pane and click New, click DWORD Value and type in “ZeroConfigExchange” (without the quotes) and then press ENTER. 

3. Finally, right-click ZeroConfigExchange, click Modify and then in the Value data box, type 1, and then click OK.

ZCE can be used in a couple of scenarios, with each behaving differently. It can be used in an initial Outlook Deployment for automatic profile creation, or when Outlook profiles already exist and a change is requiring a new profile in an automated fashion, such as a change to a different server. Either way, the user is not required to enter, or even know, configuration details.

Initial Outlook Deployment

An initial Outlook deployment would be where Outlook is installed on the user’s machine for the very first time. This means that there are no Outlook Profiles already on the machine. ZCE can be configured through the OCT. 

In this case, Outlook starts and the Outlook profile is automatically created during Outlook's first-run process. In a perfect case, there will be no prompts. However, there may be a prompt for a username and password, depending on your Exchange Online configuration. Again, the user will not need to know, or enter, any configuration details.

Creating a New profile with Profiles already in existence

This scenario can be a little tricky and will require another registry key to be created or pushed out to the user. Education and communication are key to this scenario because the user will need to answer some prompts, but again, without the need to provide any configuration information.

We must have the user set to prompt for a profile to be used. They registry value to push out is:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Exchange\Client\Options
String Value: PickLogonProfile
Data: 1

If we do not have this registry setting set, Outlook will use the current default profile and the ZCE process will be bypassed. 

With the registry setting in place, Outlook will prompt the user for a profile to be used:

The user will need to click on the "New" button, name the profile and then, once the profile name appears in the "Profile Name:" box, click "OK" (see below):

Again, in a perfect case, there will be no more prompts. However, there may be a prompt for a username and password, depending on your Exchange Online configuration.

That's it for ZCE. Create new profiles with minimal user interaction. Plain and simple.

There may be times where you need to enable Outlook logging to capture the account creation process which may be failing in Outlook. Use the steps below to create a PIM (Personal Information Manager) profile in Outlook.

1. Close Outlook if it is running.
2. Open the Mail item in Control Panel, and then click Show Profiles.
3. Click Add in the Mail dialog box.
4. Type PIM for the name of the new profile, and then click OK.
5. In the Auto Account Setup window, click Cancel.
6. Click OK when you are prompted to create a profile that contains no e-mail accounts.
7. Check the feature Prompt for a profile to be used.
8. Click OK to close the Mail item.
9. Start Outlook and on the Outlook 2016 Welcome screen, click Next.
10. In the Add and Email Account dialog box, select the No, and then click Next.
11. Check Use Outlook without an email account feature and click Finish.

This will launch Outlook 2016 without any email accounts setup. You can enable logging by going to File > Options > Advanced > Other and checking the Enable troubleshooting logging (requires restarting Outlook) feature. Restart Outlook and add the email account by going to File > Add Account tab. Type in the details of the account which you are troubleshooting and click Next. The autodiscover process will kick off and will be captured under %temp%\outlook logging folder. The ETW logs which are in the format Outlook-########.etl will be the logs that need to be reviewed for root causes. The logs can only be reviewed thru Microsoft.

The October 2015 update KB 3085579 for Outlook 2013 introduced the option to set the font, font size and font color for the message preview (AutoPreview) in Outlook.

3085579 October 13, 2015, update for Outlook 2013 (KB3085579)
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/3085579/EN-US

Message preview can be enabled in the View ribbon and can be set to Off, 1 line, 2 lines, or 3 lines: 

The message preview dialog allows you to select a font:

Unfortunately, the color options Auto and Black are included in the list, but cannot be used. Even if you select them, Outlook will fall back to Gray (Custom).

This is the expected behavior as having the message preview font set to Black causes some incompatibilities with the Office color theme and does not align with the color scheme used in Outlook 2016. Therefore, this color option isn't recommend.

In Microsoft Outlook, by default the unread item count for public folders is not displayed.  If you would like to display the unread item count for public folders, you can add the public folder to your Public Folder Favorites.  If you prefer, you can then show the public folder in your Favorites list in the Mail navigation pane.  Read on for more details on how to do this.

First, you need to keep in mind that there are 2 types of “favorites” in Outlook:

• Public Folder Favorites:  This is the Favorites folder listed in Public Folders (shown below). When you add a public folder to the Public Folder Favorites, the unread item count is displayed and the items in the public folder can be cached, if the “Download Public Folder Favorites” option is enabled in your Account Settings (shown below). If this setting is disabled, or if it’s enabled but there are public folders that are not added to favorites, the items in the public folders are accessed as needed in Online mode because they are not cached.
  
  
• Favorites: These are listed in the upper left when in the Mail navigation pane.  Any folder can be added to this set of favorites and will appear in this Favorites list, including public folder favorites.
  

With the two types of favorites in mind, here are the steps to follow to first add a public folder to the Public Folder Favorites, and then, if you prefer, show it in the Favorites list.

1. Open your Folder List in Outlook and find the public folder that you want to display the unread item count for.  In the following example, we will use the public folder named ‘test PF’.
   
2. Right-click the public folder, and then click Add to Favorites.
   
   • Note: Now the public folder is added to your Public Folder Favorites. When you expand the Favorites folder, you’ll see the unread item count is displayed (if there are unread items in the public folder).
3. Right-click the public folder that is listed under the Favorites folder, and click Show in Favorites.
   
4. The public folder will appear in the Favorites section when you go to the Mail navigation view, and the unread item count will be displayed here.
   

Would you prefer to use your keyboard to access and navigate the Room Finder in Outlook? The main thing to remember is the F6 key. When you are in a Meeting form, press F6 to move the focus to the Room finder. From there, use the arrow keys and Tab key to navigate around the Room Finder pane. Keep reading for more details.

To put the focus on the Room Finder pane, press F6 on your keyboard, and the focus will be on the calendar at the top of the pane. Use the arrow keys to navigate through the dates on the calendar.

Press Tab once to select the Show a room list drop-down, where you can use the arrow keys to select a room list.

Press Tab again to select a room in the Choose an available room box, and then use the arrow keys to select a room.

Press Tab again to move to the Suggest times box, and then use the arrow keys to select a suggested time.

Press Tab again to move back to the Calendar at the top of the Room finder pane.

Once you are done and want to leave the Room Finder pane, press F6 one time to move the focus to the ribbon controls, or press F6 again to move the focus to the meeting form.

Accessibility; keyboard navigation;

In Microsoft Outlook 2016, Outlook 2013 and Outlook 2010, you are not able to modify the Exchange Server or User Name in the Account Settings of an Exchange account that already exists. In Outlook 2016, the Exchange Server field is not listed in the Change Account dialog box, and in Outlook 2013 and 2010, the Server field is listed but it is not editable. This behavior is by design in these products with existing Exchange accounts.

In Outlook 2010 (version 14.0.7012.1000 and earlier) and earlier versions of Outlook, you could modify the Exchange Server and the User Name fields in the Change Account dialog box if you accessed it from Mail in the Control Panel while Outlook is not running. Starting with version 14.0.7155.5000 (the August 2015 update) of Outlook 2010, this was changed and you can no longer change these settings for an existing Exchange account.

With POP and IMAP accounts, you can modify the accounts mail server settings in any version of Outlook.

Instead of trying to change the Exchange Server in an existing account in Outlook, you should either remove the current account and re-add it, or if you prefer to not remove the account, create a new Outlook profile and setup a new account in the new profile. See the following articles for more information:

Create an Outlook profile in Outlook 2013 or Outlook 2010 – https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Create-an-Outlook-profile-F544C1BA-3352-4B3B-BE0B-8D42A540459D

Outlook email setup – https://support.office.com/en-US/article/Outlook-email-setup-6e27792a-9267-4aa4-8bb6-c84ef146101b

FAST Search

The term FAST Search may not be entirely new to you if you managed SharePoint sites anytime during this decade. With Microsoft Exchange Server 2016, the FAST search architecture has been introduced to Exchange. With FAST search, various new features are made available to Exchange 2016 mailbox users, including Search suggestions and People suggestions. These suggestions are dynamically computed based on your previous searches and the names of people that you frequently communicate with. The new feature set is readily available when using Outlook on the Web to connect to a mailbox on Exchange Server 2016 or Exchange Online. Additionally, the newer Outlook 2016 desktop client also takes advantage of the new FAST search when connecting to these same mailboxes.

The evolution of Search in Outlook

As far back as in Outlook 2003, Outlook has utilized Windows Desktop Search (WDS) to index Outlook Data (.pst) and Offline Outlook Data (.ost) files. These indexes are created on the local disk. At the same time, Outlook uses the same WDS architecture to search these local indexes when you initiate a search. The use of WDS in Outlook is sometimes referred to as Instant Search.

Let us focus strictly on searching Exchange mailbox content… Exchange content is indexed by WDS when Outlook is configured to connect to the Exchange mailbox using Cached Exchange Mode. When an Exchange email account is in Cached Exchange Mode, the mailbox contents are synchronized to the local .ost file. It is this local file that is indexed by WDS. WDS does not index the mailbox store directly. Why am I still talking about WDS? Because it is still relevant, even when using the latest and greatest versions of Outlook and Exchange.

Search in Outlook 2016

In Cached Exchange Mode, Outlook 2016 still queries WDS desktop search indexes… and it queries Exchange 2016 and Exchange Online using FAST Search.

Assuming FAST Search is not disabled by policy, Outlook 2016 actually submits simultaneous queries to both WDS and FAST Search. But only one set of results are displayed by Outlook. Assuming that the FAST Search results are returned in a timely manner (about 5 seconds), these are given precedence. But, if the FAST Search timeout is reached before a server response, then the WDS search results are displayed. Alternatively, Outlook also assesses the performance of the network connection and if it determines there is latency, it defaults to displaying the WDS results. But wait, there’s more! Some search scopes set search criteria that cannot be processed by FAST. If you set the scope to All Outlook Items, Subfolders, or All Mailboxes Outlook defaults to WDS results. The search scope is set next to the Search text box, as shown here:

To recap, Outlook 2016 uses FAST search and/or returns results using FAST, except if any one of the following conditions are true:

• You are connected to a mailbox on Exchange Server 2013 or earlier
• Outlook 2016 is connected to the mailbox in online mode
• The FAST search feature is disabled via policy or local user registry setting (more on administering the feature below)
• The FAST search query results are not returned in a timely manner (about 5 seconds)
• Outlook 2016 assesses the performance of the network connection and determines there is latency
• You are searching a secondary mailbox (there’s an exception to this exception, as explained later)
• The search scope is set to All Outlook Items, Subfolders, or All Mailboxes

Am I seeing WDS or FAST results?

To determine which results Outlook 2016 has chosen to display, assuming both queries were submitted, you can focus on a small user interface cue:

If the results displayed are those generated by FAST, the bottom of your message list will display the following cue:

If the results displayed are those generated by WDS, the bottom of your message list will display the following cue:

Of course you were going to ask what clicking More does… this sends a non-FAST query to Exchange. Yes, Exchange Server 2016 supports both FAST and legacy Exchange Search functionality. The latter is still required for backward compatibility with Outlook 2013 and earlier versions.

Secondary mailboxes

When Outlook 2016 released, the plan was to only support FAST search on your primary mailbox. However, you may currently find that in some situations, Outlook 2016 will attempt to use FAST search when you are viewing secondary stores, such as a Shared Mailbox and the like. Under these conditions, the FAST query is submitted in the context of the logged on user (you), resulting in the search results being pulled from your mailbox, not the secondary mailbox that currently has the focus in your Outlook client. To work around this, you have a few options:

• Change the search scope to All Outlook Items, Subfolders, or All Mailboxes
• Disable Outlook 2016’s use of FAST search via policy or local user registry setting (see the next section)

Administer FAST Search in Outlook 2016

To disable FAST search (server assisted search) and revert back to using WDS, an administrator can apply a group policy or implement the following user registry values:

The DisableAssistedSearch and DisableServerAssistedSuggestions are DWORD values and should be set to 1 to enforce.

These and other related registry values are documented in the Outlook 2016 – Deployment Guide for Admins on Microsoft TechNet.

Special thanks to Paul Slaathaug for reminding me to get this blog wrapped up and for providing additional topics to cover.

Starting in mid-2016, some Outlook 2013 and Outlook 2016 users began noticing rendering issues and posting reports in our forums and communities. Then, in late 2016, similar reports started filtering into our support teams. The symptoms have included:

• Buttons on the Outlook ribbon failing to paint properly
• Email messages displaying either blank or black in the Reading Pane
• The Navigation Pane failing to draw all folders properly
• Various rectangles appearing in the Outlook user interface (UI)

The frequency of the problem has varied by user. Some have seen drawing failures once a week, while others two, three, or more times per day. These problems can affect all Office deployment technologies, including perpetual (also called MSI) and subscription (also known as Click-to-Run or C2R for short).

In this post, we describe the architecture of the Office/Outlook rendering model. Additionally, we share steps to proactively mitigate the rendering issues. And lastly, we give you a peek inside the continued development efforts aimed at resolving these problems.

Background

Outlook is the main messaging application within the Office suite. Outlook uses shared Microsoft Office (MSO) code to perform many functions. Examples include Outlook's use of Microsoft Word for spell checking and HTML rendering and Outlook's use of shared Office ADAL code to perform Modern Authentication related operations.

Office 2013 introduced a new rendering engine called Airspace to all the Office applications. Airspace's promise was to better leverage the hardware based graphics from DirectX in Windows 8 to enable new design experiences like animations and layered composition. Outlook continues to use Word and other shared office code like Airspace in the 2016 version.

The initial release of Airspace as the Office/Outlook rendering engine came at a time when many devices did not have sufficient video hardware to accommodate the new rendering feature set. As a result, many users and firms forcibly deployed policies to disable hardware graphics acceleration, despite the fact that Office code was designed to turn the feature off if the hardware did not support it. Such policies still exist in many enterprises, although in most cases today, they could safely be removed (except for a few, very specific instances).

Rendering Issue Specifics

The players in the various iterations of the Outlook rendering problem are:

• Outlook (our hero)
• AirSpace (Office rendering engine)
• Word (key for many Outlook functions)
• Windows 32-bit application virtual address space composition (the law)

The primary cause of the rendering failure is memory pressure within the 32-bit Outlook process. Technically speaking, Outlook runs out of space for memory allocations within the process' virtual address space, resulting in rendering failures.

This memory pressure comes in two forms, both viewable with the VMMAP tool:

• A smaller than required available contiguous memory block (example: a texture requires a 128 kb memory block to render, but the smallest contiguous block available is 96 kb)
• Low virtual memory available to the Outlook process (less than 250 MB free of the 2 GB total that Windows gives to all 32-bit processes)

Interested readers can dive deeper with VMMAP here, and download the tool here.

Contributors to memory pressure in Outlook include the following:

• High resolution monitors
• Outlook content spread across multiple monitors
• Touch screens used to scroll through email and other messages within the UI (because of the bandwidth required to render screen content)
• Use of unneeded or excessive COM add-ins
• Large numbers of PST files added in the Outlook profile
• DirectX failures due to older drivers
• Dock/undock scenarios where resolution changes suddenly
• Heavy use workflows (keeping many messages open, keeping many attachments open, crafting email with lots of graphic effects from WordArt, etc...)

The rendering issue seems to surface most frequently on high-resolution monitors. Older monitors rendered in 1600x1200 pixels. However, newer monitors may render at 3840x2160, or four times more pixels. Last year's spike in support cases for the rendering issues correlates to increased adoption of higher-end hardware. Drawing the same UI surface for Outlook requires more pixels on the higher-res screens, and more pixels translate to more memory required, hence the quicker exhaustion of memory resources dedicated to the Outlook process. In simple terms, a full screen Outlook window that required 8 MB on an older monitor now requires 32 MB on a 4K display. Factor in lots of redraws and you understand how memory is quickly exhausted, leading to rendering failures.

And a final note on high-res monitors: there is no vendor bias involved... the resolution on Microsoft Surface is similar to devices from Lenovo, Dell, or other hardware manufacturers, each vulnerable to 32-bit Outlook rendering pains.

Mitigation

The best mitigation for these issues -without question- is to move to 64-bit Microsoft Office. Windows provides four thousand times the addressable user-mode memory to 64-bit processes than it does to 32-bit processes. More memory is the best way to fight memory depletion issues.

Note Some may get stuck on this recommendation, mostly due to add-in compatibility concerns and other concerns. Maybe your add-in vendor provides a 32-bit version of the add-in without an option for a 64-bit version. If this is your situation, we advise that you open a support case with your add-in vendor and insist on a 64-bit version of their product. The 32-bit limitation is immutable, hardware continues to get better, and extending Outlook with COM Add-ins is commonplace. 32-bit is not the future of desktop computing.

Once you verify that you have rendering issues caused by a low memory state within the Outlook process, determined on your own or by working in tandem with Microsoft Support, there are steps you should take immediately to start mitigation:

• Patch to the latest available versions of Outlook, Word, and MSO
• Ensure hardware graphics acceleration is enabled:
  • Start any Office application
  • Click the File tab, then Options
  • Then click the Advanced group
  • In the Display section, ensure that the Disable hardware graphics acceleration check box is cleared, as shown here:

• Update video drivers to the latest provided by the video card manufacturer

For impacted users that cannot go to 64-bit Office for one reason or another, and for whom the previous steps do not fully resolve the rendering problems, there are other options to relieve memory pressure. To this end, some or all the following may help:

• Restart Outlook regularly
• Change DPI settings to greater than 200% on high-res monitors
• Modify your Outlook workflow
  • Keep fewer Outlook windows/messages open
  • Disable or remove unneeded Outlook COM Add-ins
  • Remove PST files from the profile when not used
  • Avoid touch-scrolling through messages
  • Avoid multiple monitor use with Outlook
• For extreme cases:
  • Use OWA
  • Use Office 2010/Outlook 2010 (works past the problem since Office 2013 introduced Airspace)
  • Update to Office 2016/Outlook 2016 (where we first implement product changes)

Roadmap

During the first eight months of 2017, the Airspace, Outlook, and Word development teams shipped over twenty code changes and optimizations into Office to reduce the frequency and severity of the 32-bit Outlook rendering issues. These changes address the glaring problems found during investigations of this past year. The bulk of this work shipped in June 2017, and further coding and testing continue through the time of this writing in order to eliminate other problems that we've isolated.

Today, we are researching more complex rendering scenarios like multi-mon and docking/undocking scenarios for potential solutions. We are working on enabling a "large address aware" (LAA) Outlook, a step taken last year by the Excel team, and recently introduced to Office Insider Fast by Outlook development. LAA promises to increase available process memory on 64-bit Windows to 4 GB, or a factor of one hundred percent.

While the LAA increase is less than that of moving to a native 64-bit Office deployment, the important note is that Microsoft is looking at every possible angle to improve Outlook rendering. So far, all fixes taken are present in MSI builds of Office 2013 and 2016. Other development work outside the scope of this blog is happening too. Some of these ideas may only prove safe in Evergreen builds of Office 2016. Time will tell.

Going forward, we plan to ship more fixes as we isolate problems. Due to the complexity of these issues and the number of teams involved, we expect that related changes will ship not all at once, but rather in a phased manner over the coming months. This approach mandates that our customers keep current on Office patch levels. And of course, if you have questions, we invite you to open a support ticket and work with our support teams to assist.