Outlook 2016

[garethEds]

Evening All,

 

I'm after some advice on configuring the Outlook 2016 client so that the server/username/password details follow the user around (as they log on to different machines in school) - but we do not use roaming profiles and the email domain is seperate to the school domain and so cannot be auto-configured or auto-detected.

 

Can it be pre-configured into a file that Outlook 2016 can load on startup?

 

Does this make sense? I'm trying to avoid my staff having to log into their Office 365 account to read their email but need a way of configuring the desktop app one time (and then let it follow them).

 

Cheers

 

Gareth

[MatthewL]

Not sure on the latest versions of Outlook but certainly in Outlook 2003 we used a PRF file, I think these days with the autodiscover its just a case of open Outlook and press next a few times.

[garethEds]

Not sure on the latest versions of Outlook but certainly in Outlook 2003 we used a PRF file, I think these days with the autodiscover its just a case of open Outlook and press next a few times.

 

Autodiscover is great if the email server is on the LAN, but this is an Office 365 server with a different set of credentials.

 

Gareth

[MatthewL]

I setup an autodiscover record for my O365 so it just prompts for the password.

 

Do you have your AD setup to sync to O365 with the domain UPN suffix? Could they not login as their email address which then autodiscover would work and have sync'd passwords then there should be no issue?

[garethEds]

I setup an autodiscover record for my O365 so it just prompts for the password.

 

Do you have your AD setup to sync to O365 with the domain UPN suffix? Could they not login as their email address which then autodiscover would work and have sync'd passwords then there should be no issue?

 

Haaa - we did, but then the LEA want us to change our tenancy to the 'All-Wales Tenancy'. - different username, different password. I tried to fight it but we are being forced.

 

Gareth

[FN-GM]

It is possible. Modern authentication has to be enabled up on the Office 365 tenant. You also need ADFS setup with your domain.

 

Then you set this Group Policy

 

“User Configuration\Policies\Administrative Templates\Microsoft Outlook 2016\Account Settings\Exchange\Automatically configure profile based on Active Directory Primary SMTP address” to Enable.

Edited June 30, 2016 by FN-GM

[Fazza]

Like others have said you have two choices:

 

1 Use roaming profiles so everything follows them around (including Outlook settings) - the larger the roaming profile the longer it takes to load though

2 Use Autodiscover so when the user opens up Outlook they just click 'Next' a couple of times and Outlook auto-configures itself - they just have to wait for it to synchronise with the server so the larger their mailbox the longer it will take before they can see all their emails.

 

I guess another option is to show them how to access their emails via webmail when not on their 'main' computer?

[FN-GM]

Like others have said you have two choices:

 

1 Use roaming profiles so everything follows them around (including Outlook settings) - the larger the roaming profile the longer it takes to load though

2 Use Autodiscover so when the user opens up Outlook they just click 'Next' a couple of times and Outlook auto-configures itself - they just have to wait for it to synchronise with the server so the larger their mailbox the longer it will take before they can see all their emails.

 

I guess another option is to show them how to access their emails via webmail when not on their 'main' computer?

 

If you use the GPO above you don't need to press the next buttons in option 2.

[welshman]

Couldn't they just use the Outlook web app for email communication? I don't see the rationale behind transitioning to the cloud whilst still tying yourself to the desktop version of the applications. Using the web apps will ensure a consistent user experience across all devices and negates the requirement to install software, which can be buggy, needs updating, crashes etc.

[garethEds]

@welshman - Yes. This is the way we will be going in September.

 

Thanks

 

Gareth

[zag]

We use office 2016 and office 365 together.

 

Staff are able to setup a new outlook setup by just launching it and entering their email and password. No config other than that should be needed as far as I know.