Update an Outlook 2007 configuration by using the Office Customization Tool
Updated: April 9, 2009
Applies To: Office Resource Kit
This Office product will reach end of support on October 10, 2017. To stay supported, you will need to upgrade. For more information, see , Resources to help you upgrade your Office 2007 servers and clients.
Topic Last Modified: 2016-11-14
You can update your Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 installation by using the Office Customization Tool (OCT) to reconfigure Outlook settings, save the updated settings in a file, and apply this file to your users' installations. You can use the OCT to update feature settings as well as to reconfigure options in Outlook profiles.
Note
Updating Outlook profiles by distributing a new PRF file is another strategy that you might choose. For example, if you saved a PRF file with your users' Outlook profile configurations when you installed Outlook and you are making minor changes to the profile, you might choose to make the change in the PRF file and distribute the files to users. For more information about updating profiles by using a PRF file, see Apply an Outlook Profile (PRF) File to configure Outlook profiles.
Using the OCT to update your installation, you can, for example, specify features to install or uninstall, change Outlook options to a new default value, deploy registry key settings, choose to modify existing profiles (for example, to move users to a new Microsoft Exchange server) or add new profiles (for all users).
The OCT is run from users' computers by using Office Setup with the /Admin option. When it runs, you can configure options, then save them in a Setup customization file to run on the client computer.
Example: updating an Outlook installation to change the default delivery location for messages
The following procedure shows how you might use the OCT to update an Outlook installation. In this example, you change the users' default delivery location for messages from specifying a PST file as the delivery location to delivering messages to an Exchange server instead.
To change the default message delivery location to users' Exchange server
In the OCT, on the Customize Default Profile page in the Outlook section, click Modify Profile, then click Next.
On the Specify Exchange Settings page, specify Configure an Exchange Server connection.
Specify an Exchange server name. This should be an Exchange server which is likely to be available to users when they start Outlook for the first time after they update their Outlook installation. The correct Exchange server for each user will be located and updated in each profile when Outlook starts. This step ensures that new Outlook users have the appropriate configuration as well as existing users.
On the Add Accounts page, choose Customize additional Outlook profile and account information.
From the drop-down list, choose Exchange Server.
Save the Setup customization file.
Deploying the updated Outlook installation to users
After you create the Setup customization file, you deploy it to your users to update their installation of Outlook, using the deployment method for your organization. For example, you might use Systems Management Server (SMS) or Group Policy to deploy Office products.
For more information about deploying Office by using SMS, see Using Systems Management Server 2003 to deploy the 2007 Office system.
For more information about deploying Office by using Group Policy, see Use Group Policy to assign computer startup scripts for 2007 Office deployment.
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