The following articles were included in our Exchange Messaging Outlook (EMO) newsletter published on July 5, 2018.
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Today's Highlights:
- Group Policy Update: Do Not Send a Response
- Only one version of Outlook can run at a time
- Deleting Calendar entries using PowerShell
Group Policy Update: Do Not Send a Response
In the last issue of Exchange Messaging Outlook, I explained how to use group policy to disable the tentative response option. The July 3 Outlook 2016 update builds in the ability to remove the “Do not Send a Response’ option.
This update is in Outlook 2016 Click to run and added to volume licensing version in the July 3 2018 update .
To hide the Do not Send a Response option, browse to the following registry key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Options\Calendar
Add a new DWORD named ForceMtgResponse and set the value to 1.
You'll need to restart Outlook.
Administrators can add the key to the policy path at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Options\Calendar
In Outlook 2013, the only option is to disable the menu option, adding it to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\x.0\Outlook\DisabledCmdBarItemsList key. The command id is 19987.
Instructions to use Group Policy to disable commands are at
Bug: Only one version of Outlook can run at a time
The problem: If Outlook is running and you click the taskbar icon, instead of another Outlook window opening, an error message comes up, telling you that Outlook is having trouble starting and you can only run one version of Outlook at a time.
“Sorry, we’re having trouble starting Outlook. Only one version of Outlook can run at a time. Check to see if another version of Outlook is running or try restarting your computer.”
Users with Insider builds have had this message for several weeks and it’s just now rolling out in the current releases.
The error message is annoying and pointless, as a second Outlook window opens after you click OK to dismiss the dialog.
The only way to stop it (until Microsoft fixes it) is to add the /Recycle switch to the Outlook shortcut.
- Open File Explorer and browse to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs.
- Right click on the Outlook Shortcut and choose Properties. Add /recycle to the Target path. "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\OUTLOOK.EXE" /recycle
- Save and close the properties dialog.
Repeat with the Outlook shortcut at C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\TaskBar
After you make this change, when you click on the pinned taskbar icon or the start menu shortcut, the open Outlook window will come into focus, without opening additional windows or displaying an annoying dialog.
Deleting Calendar entries using PowerShell
The problem: a user’s calendar is a mess, with calendar items each duplicated hundreds of times. We want to delete everything and start over. Deleting the from Outlook for Mac is a lesson in futility as list view only displays one month at a time.
If you have a computer with Outlook for Windows installed you could open the mailbox, switch to list view and select all, then delete. It will be slow and tie up Outlook until the events are all deleted.
The administrator can use PowerShell to delete all events on the calendar.
Log into office 365 using the admin account then run this command on the user's mailbox to move everything into the delete items recovery.
Search-Mailbox –identity email@address –SearchQuery kind:meetings –DeleteContent
New & Updated Exchange KB Articles
Event ID 2080 from MSExchangeDSAccess
https://support.microsoft.com/help/316300
Outlook 2013 or 2016 may not connect using MAPI over HTTPs as expected
https://support.microsoft.com/help/2937684
Public folder permissions for Exchange Server
https://support.microsoft.com/help/2573274
New & Updated Office 365 KB Articles
Cancel or turn off recurring billing for a Microsoft subscription
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4027815
How to set language and region settings for Office 365
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4018959
Hybrid free/busy lookups fail between Exchange Server 2016 CU8 and O365
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4058297
Office 2019 Commercial Preview frequently asked questions
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4133312
Preparing for the mandatory use of TLS 1.2 in Office 365
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4057306
Security Settings for COM objects in Office
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4058123
New & Updated Outlook KB Articles
How to scan Outlook by using the Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant tool
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4098558
July 3, 2018, update for Outlook 2016 (KB4022230)
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4022230
Outlook freezes when creating a Skype meeting in Skype for Business 2016 running in a terminal server session
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4294969
Synchronization is unsuccessful after mailbox items are changed through EWS calls in cached-mode Outlook client
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4093129
You can't sign in after you update to Office 2016 build 16.0.7967 or later on Windows 10
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4025962