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ApostolisDrakakis-6881 avatar image
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ApostolisDrakakis-6881 asked JeffYang-MSFT commented

M365 Preferences Changed with Registry

This is driving me crazy...

Hello everyone!

I am trying to change some M365 desktop apps preferences via Regedit and I am hitting a brick wall of inconsistency.

For example:
I want to change ReadingPane preferences in Outlook 365 desktop app.

At first I added:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Preferences
DWORD: PreviewDontMarkUntilChange and PreviewMarkMessage both valued: 0

At first it seemed to work with both options greyed out in the Outlook Options GUI.

Checking after a reboot the options where again available.

So I added:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Preferences
DWORD: PreviewDontMarkUntilChange and PreviewMarkMessage both valued: 0

Does not seem to work consistently.
Attempted with both registry locations, attempted with either one on its own. There are some magical times when it works, and some others where it doesn't...

I am trying to automate some preferences for a M365 Business Premium Tenant...and I am hitting a brick wall.

Any help is welcome.
Thank you for your time.

windows-10-generaloffice-outlook-itpro
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Since your issue is more related to Outlook, I will add Outlook related tag and loop Outlook support engineer for help. Thank you for your understanding!

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JeffYang-MSFT avatar image
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JeffYang-MSFT answered JeffYang-MSFT commented

Hi @ApostolisDrakakis-6881,

Welcome to Q&A forum.

If you mean that you would like to disable the Reading Pane options in Outlook like below, please continue:
90135-10-07-08.jpg


So I added:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Preferences
DWORD: PreviewDontMarkUntilChange and PreviewMarkMessage both valued: 0

According to my test, this Registry Path should be able to work fine. I added these values in my Win10 with Outlook 365 like below, they can always work fine regardless of restarting Outlook or doing other operations.
90127-10-23-30.jpg

It is suggested for you to try the same tests on other devices to see if the issue has any difference there. If you can indeed got the same result as mine, we might be able to infer that the key of your issue is not related to these registry path and values but some other possible factors from your Windows, maybe we need to troubleshoot from other angles?

For more related information: Reading Pane.

Any update, please feel free to post back.


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10-07-08.jpg (23.7 KiB)
10-23-30.jpg (48.2 KiB)
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Thank you for your time Jeff!

Regrettably I have attempted this on 4 different machines (both physical and virtual) with no luck.

The machines have to be Windows 10 Business and have been fully updated.
It is noteworthy that those machines are not managed by Group Policy (at least currently - and preferably so If I can avoid it).

The first picture you attached is the intended outcome. However it is not properly applied on my side.

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JeffYang-MSFT avatar image JeffYang-MSFT ApostolisDrakakis-6881 ·

Hi @ApostolisDrakakis-6881,
Thanks for your reply and update.
Weird! I did not install Office template in Group Policy as well, and it can still work fine even until now.
Do these four machines have any common points, for example, all have joined the same domain? Are there any restrictions on Outlook or Office within your organization which may influence that?

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Thank you for still returning!

As I previously mentioned all 4 machines are logging in Windows with Azure AD accounts -for the same tenant/domain. However no relevant policy has been setup from Azure for those workstations.

I searched high and low if there is some kind of policy on such plane-jane configurations but no luck!

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