Reading Pane - COMPLETELY DISABLE?

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lalbright

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Outlook version
Outlook 2010 32 bit
Email Account
Exchange Server
Team, I'm looking for a way to completely kill the reading pane and the user's ability to change the setting. The user cannot be able to change the view, etc. I have located most of the UI control numbers for the Office products but I haven't been able to locate the UI control number for outlook layout menu and the reading pane.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to completely disable the reading pane and not allow users to manipulate the setting after? (outlook.exe /nopreview isn't permanent and can be changed)

Thank you!
 
Control Name Control Type Policy ID Ordering
ReadingPaneRight toggleButton 7221 555
ReadingPaneBottom toggleButton 7222 556
ReadingPaneOff toggleButton 7223 557
ReadingPaneOptions button 5516 558

BTW, those came from

Office 2010 Help Files: Office Fluent User Interface Control Identifiers
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?displayid=6627
 
Thank you for your reply! I appreciate it. I am just being able to get back to this project after some other fires... I'm sure you understand that, lol
Question, because I did put *some* of those controls in my GPO utilizing that above sheet, do you have to have the parent control number or just the IU control? The controls that I choose were: 7221, 7222, 7223, 5516, 18768 and I'm not seeing any changes in my Outlook 2010 client.
 
And I am adding the ones that you stated, I'm just curious if I read the document correctly when I choose the numbers that I did. :)
 
I believe its just the UI control. I'm going to test it this week end and see if i can figure out what is going on.
 
I'm still struggling with killing this thing dead. There are reasons why people may not want the reading pane and they are security and content related. Here's what I have done:

GPO: User\Microsoft Office Outlook 2007(yes, it's for 2010 but the ADMX download still has 2007 listed)\Disable Items in the User Interface\Custom : 7221, 7222, 7223, 5516, 18768
User\Microsoft Office Outlook 2007\Tools | Options\Other: Do Not Disaply Reading Pane - Enabled
User\Microsoft Office Outlook 2007\Tools | Options\Other: Reading Pane: Disabled
Registry: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Outlook\Options: DWORD DisableReadingPane Value: 1
Office Customization Tool - Outlook\Other: Do Not Display the Reading Pane: Enabled and Reading Pane: Disabled

I've also done the shortcut for oulook.exe /nopreview and still the users are able to enable the reading pane...

Should I try to completely just kill the layout UI? Not sure if you have any ideas but it would be very appreciated! :)
 
All that and it won't go away? do you want it off by default and let the user turn it on or off forever? If you don't want users to enable it, you need to use the policy keys. Are you using the 2010 keys or the 2007 keys? Check in the registry and verify it's under 14 as the 2007 policy won't apply to 2010.

http://www.slipstick.com/how-to-outlook/group-policy-disable-commands/

Setting 7221,7222,7223 at
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\disabledcmdbaritemslist disabled the options on the View menu in Outlook 2007. 5516 and 18768 didn't do anything in 2007 but the ribbon button was disabled in outlook 2013 (using 15.0 path).

Code:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\disabledcmdbaritemslist]
"TCID1"="7221"
"TCID2"="7222"
"TCID3"="7223"
"TCID4"="5516"
"TCID5"="18768"
 
Looks like 2007 & up have a policy for the reading pane - this is the one for 2010. I'll verify it works on a vm; the Outlook 2013 policy does work - my reading pane was turned off.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\office\14.0\Outlook\options]
"disablereadingpane"=dword:00000001
 
Interesting. With that key set in Outlook 2010, the reading pane is disabled and can't be enabled (i had the command bar items disabled earlier on my outlook 2013 system.) The Reading pane command on the ribbon is disabled, as is the button in options. You don't need to disable the commands using disabledcmdbaritemslist, just set this policy and it does it all.

You need to check the keys you're setting - they are not correct if its not working.

Paste this into notepad and save with the .reg extension then run it:
Code:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\office\14.0\Outlook\options]
"disablereadingpane"=dword:00000001
 
Thank you for your information on this. I have let it "cook" for about a month now in production and no one has been able to get the reading pane on again after I ensured the registry key above... perhaps a mistype?

Thank you again. Much appreciated!
 
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