Enable or disable Outlook add-ins on a per user basis (as for Citrix)

There are certain scenario’s where you want to enable Outlook add-ins only for specific users. This guide explains how to accomplish this by using the group policy.

1. Open the registry and navigate to: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\Outlook\Addins
2. Find the corresponding key which matches the Outlook add-in you have installed (for example: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\Outlook\Addins\OcOffice.OcForms)
3. Right-click on the key and choose “Copy Key Name”

In every subkey you will find a registry value “LoadBehavior”. By default it has the value “3”. Every value is explained here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/vstudio/bb386106.aspx#LoadBehavior

4. Now edit or create a Group Policy Object and configure the following settings
5. Navigate to User Configuration > Preferences > Windows Settings > Registry
6. Right-click and select New > Registry Item
7. Paste the key you copied earlier in Key Path

• At Value name, type "LoadBehavior”.
• At Value type, choose “REG_DWORD”
• At Value data, type “00000002”, this will unload the add-in

8. Open the Common tab
9. Select “Run in logged-on user’s security context (user policy option)” and “Item-level targeting”

10. Create a security group in your domain
11. Click Targeting… and add the group you just created
12. At Item Options, select “Is Not”

13. Now make a copy of the just created registry setting you made in the policy. In the copied setting, change the registry value to “00000003”, and change the Targeting from “Is Not" to “Is”. This will load the add-in for any user who is a member of the group.

Now you have two settings configured:

• When an user is not member of the group, the add-in will not be loaded.
• When an user is member of the group, the add-in will be loaded.