An administrator wanted to know how to pre-configure Outlook 2013's To-do Bar for all users, using either OCT, the registry, or Group Policy.
The settings are not in the current GPO admin files but the configuration for the pinned peeks is stored in the registry, with each folder type having it's own registry key and 15 combinations of docked peeks to choose from. All peeks use the same values for the possible combinations. The values can be added to the Polices key. While users will be able to make changes during an Outlook session, the Policies settings will be loaded each time Outlook starts
Note: Outlook reads these settings at start-up. It's my experience that it writes the entries when it shuts down, therefore Outlook needs to be closed when setting these keys.
For example, to show the tasks and calendar peeks at 250 pixels wide on the mail and task module (as seen in the screenshot), you'd use this registry key and set the following values (where nn is your Outlook version. Outlook 2013 is 15, Outlook 2016 is 16.)
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\nn.0\Outlook\Preferences\ DWORD: PinMail Hexadecimal Value: 24 DWORD: PinTasks Hexadecimal Value: 24 DOWRD: PinBoxWidth Decimal Value: 250
The DWORDS and their values are stored in the registry under the Preference key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Outlook\Preferences\ HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Preferences\
If you always want to use the same layout but occasionally undock the peeks or resize them, you can set the keys under Policies. This will load the setting when Outlook restarts. (Set the peeks as desired, export the registry key then add Policies to the registry path. Save and run.)
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Outlook\Preferences HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Preferences
DWORD | Navigation Module |
---|---|
PinAddr | Contacts |
PinAppt | Calendar |
PinFTree | Folder List |
PinLog | Journal |
PinMail | |
PinNote | Notes |
PinOToday | Outlook Today & Shortcuts |
PinSolution | BCM or Dynamics CRM |
PinTasks | Tasks |
The possible values are listed below. (Note the pattern in the hexadecimal values is in bottom-to-top order.)
Peek(s) shown (top-to-bottom order) | Hexadecimal Value | Decimal Value |
---|---|---|
No peeks | 0 | 0 |
Calendar | 2 | 2 |
Favorite People | 3 | 3 |
Tasks | 4 | 4 |
Calendar & People | 32 | 50 |
Calendar & Tasks | 42 | 66 |
Tasks & Calendar | 24 | 36 |
Tasks & People | 34 | 52 |
People & Calendar | 23 | 35 |
People & Tasks | 43 | 67 |
Calendar, Tasks, People | 342 | 834 |
Calendar, People, Tasks | 432 | 1074 |
Tasks, People, Calendar | 234 | 564 |
Tasks, Calendar, People | 324 | 804 |
People, Calendar, Tasks | 423 | 1059 |
People, Tasks, Calendar | 243 | 579 |
In addition to which peeks are shown, you also need to set the width. This is set in the DWORD PinBoxWidth, as a Decimal value in pixels. This setting is uniform for all modules.
Each module has a *Sizes value in the registry. It varies with each module, based on the height of each peek that is docked. I'm not sure (yet) how it is calculated. Leaving it at decimal 0 with all 3 peeks pinned results in 3 equally sized peeks, but pinning all 3 peeks from the UI sets an 8-digit value, such as Decimal 16515581 on a high resolution monitor and 11075917 on a smaller monitor.