Configure Outlook Anywhere in Outlook 2013

Applies to: Office 365 ProPlus, Outlook 2013

Summary: Explains how administrators can configure Outlook Anywhere in Outlook 2013.

Audience: IT Professionals

Outlook Anywhere enables Outlook 2013 users to access their Exchange Server accounts over the Internet without using virtual private network (VPN) connections when they travel or when they work outside the organization firewall.

This article describes the requirements and options for administrators who configure groups of Outlook user accounts to use Outlook Anywhere. Customization of Outlook Anywhere settings is optional and only necessary if you want to change the default configuration settings.

In this article:

• Overview

• Before you begin

• Use the OCT to configure Outlook Anywhere

• Use Group Policy to lock down Outlook Anywhere settings in the user interface

• Verification

Overview

Customization of Outlook Anywhere settings is optional and only needed if you want to change the settings from the default configuration. By default, Exchange pushes down the Outlook Anywhere settings by using the Autodiscover service the first time that Outlook is started. We recommend that you first deploy Outlook to a test environment that has the default configurations. Review the default configurations to identify which settings, if any, you want to customize.

If you have identified settings that you want to change from the default configurations, you can configure Outlook 2013 with Outlook Anywhere as part of an Outlook deployment by enabling the option in the Office Customization Tool (OCT) and (optionally) specifying additional settings, such as security-level requirements, to communicate with the Exchange Server computer. After you specify these options, you save the settings together with other configurations in the Setup customization file (.msp file) that you use to deploy Outlook to users. For more information about the OCT, see Office Customization Tool (OCT) reference for Office 2013.

You can also lock down some Outlook Anywhere settings by using Group Policy. For more information about Outlook Anywhere Group Policy settings, see Use Group Policy to lock down Outlook Anywhere settings later in this article. For more information about Group Policy, see Overview of Group Policy for Office 2013 and Use Group Policy to enforce Office 2010 settings.

Outlook Anywhere was known as RPC over HTTP in earlier versions of Outlook.

Before you begin

• Before you start deployment, review Overview of Outlook 2013 planning and Plan a Cached Exchange Mode deployment in Outlook 2013 to determine the settings that you might have to configure for Outlook Anywhere.

• We recommend that you first deploy Outlook to a test environment with the default configurations. Review the default configurations to identify which settings, if any, that you want to customize.

• We recommend that the user accounts that you configure for Outlook Anywhere use Cached Exchange Mode. For more information about Cached Exchange Mode in Outlook, see Plan a Cached Exchange Mode deployment in Outlook 2013.

• Download the Group Policy Administrative template for Outlook 2013. To download the template files, see Group Policy Administrative Template files (ADMX, ADML) and Office Customization Tool (OCT) files for Office 2013.

• Before you configure Outlook Anywhere for Outlook 2013 in an Exchange 2007 or Exchange Server 2010 environment without the Autodiscover service, obtain the URL for the Exchange proxy server that is configured for Outlook Anywhere. This URL is available from the organization's Exchange administrator.

Use the OCT to configure Outlook Anywhere

Use this procedure to use the OCT to configure Outlook Anywhere.

To configure Outlook Anywhere by using the OCT

1. In the OCT, in the tree view, locate Outlook, choose Add accounts, and then choose Customize additional Outlook profile and account information.

2. Choose the Exchange account that you want to configure and then choose Modify.

3. If you are defining a new Exchange Server computer for users, enter a value or replaceable parameter in User Name.

   For example, you might specify =%UserName% to use the exact logon name for each user. This helps prevent user prompts when Outlook asks users to decide among several variations.

4. If you are defining a new Exchange 2007 or Exchange Server 2010 computer, in the Exchange Server text box enter the name of the Exchange Server computer.

   Skip steps 3 and 4 if you are configuring Outlook Anywhere for existing Exchange users who are not moving to a new Exchange Server computer.

5. Choose More Settings.

6. In the Exchange Settings dialog box, on the Outlook Anywhere tab, select the Configure Outlook Anywhere check box and then select the Connect to Exchange Mailbox using HTTP check box.

7. In the text box that follows these check boxes, type the server name for the Outlook Anywhere proxy server.

   Do not enter http:// or https:// as part of the name.

8. If you want users to connect through Secured Sockets Layer (SSL) only, select Connect using SSL only. If you want to support both server authentication and client authentication, select Mutually authenticate the session when the system connects with SSL and enter the principal name of the proxy server.

9. Select whether to reverse the default way in which Outlook decides which connection type to try first, LAN (TCP/IP) or Outlook Anywhere (HTTP). The default is LAN (TCP/IP) first, then Outlook Anywhere (HTTP). If you expect users to connect when they are outside the corporate network more frequently than when they are inside the corporate network, we recommend that you configure Outlook to try Outlook Anywhere (HTTP) first.

10. Select an authentication method from the drop-down list.

    The default method is Password Authentication (NTLM).

11. Choose OK to return to the Exchange Settings dialog box, and then choose Finish.

12. Complete other Outlook or Office configurations, and on the File menu, choose Save to create the customization file that you can deploy to users.

Use Group Policy to lock down Outlook Anywhere settings

Use this procedure to use Group Policy to lock down Outlook Anywhere. The Configure Outlook Anywhere user interface options policy setting allows you to determine whether users can view and change user interface (UI) options for Outlook Anywhere.

• If you enable this policy setting, users can view and change UI options for Outlook Anywhere.

• If you disable, or do not configure this policy setting, users can use the Outlook Anywhere feature. However, they will be unable to view or change UI options for it.

To lock down Outlook Anywhere settings in the user interface by using Group Policy

1. In the Group Policy Object Editor, load the Outlook 2013 Administrative template (Outlk15.admx).

2. Open the Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) and in the tree view expand Domains and then expand Group Policy Objects.

3. Choose the policy object that you want and then use its shortcut menu (right-click) to choose Edit. The Group Policy Management Editor window opens.

4. In the tree view, expand User Configuration, expand Administrative Templates, expand Microsoft Outlook 2013, expand Account Settings, and then choose Exchange.

5. In the reading pane, in the Setting column, open (double-click) Configure Outlook Anywhere user interface options.

6. If you do not want users to be able to view or change UI options for Outlook Anywhere, select Disabled.

7. If you want users to view or change UI options for Outlook Anywhere, select Enabled. Then choose an option in the Choose UI State when OS can support feature drop-down list.

8. Choose OK.

Verification

After you have finished your configurations, apply the configurations in a test environment. In the test environment, open Outlook and verify that the configurations are applied as expected.

See also

Plan a Cached Exchange Mode deployment in Outlook 2013
Overview of Outlook 2013 planning

Outlook Anywhere with Exchange Server 2013