• Article

Enable SharePoint Server 2010 Colleague in Outlook 2010

 

Applies to: Office 2010

Topic Last Modified: 2012-02-03

Banner stating end of support date for Office 2010 with link to more info

You can use either Group Policy or the Office Customization Tool to enable the Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Colleague Add-in in Microsoft Outlook 2010.

The procedures in this article will help you configure the add-in in Outlook 2010.

In this article:

  • Overview

  • Before you begin

  • Configure Colleagues for My Site

Overview

The SharePoint Server Colleague add-in in Microsoft Outlook 2010 scans the user’s Sent Items folder to look for names and keywords along with the frequency of those names and keywords. The list of possible colleagues is updated periodically and stored under the user’s profile on the user’s local computer. This list is accessed by the Add Colleagues page on a user’s SharePoint My Site where they can choose the colleagues they want to add to their My Site. The user can approve or reject contact names and keywords before they are added to the Ask Me About Web Part.

By default, the Colleagues scan is turned on. You can disable this feature by using Group Policy.

You can lock down the settings to customize the Colleagues scan by using the Office Group Policy Administrative template (Office14.adm). Or, you can configure default settings by using the Office Customization Tool (OCT), in which case users can change the setting from the configuration you deploy.

Configure Colleagues for My Site

Use the following procedures to configure Colleagues settings. The first two procedures are for administrators to configure Colleagues by using Group Policy or the OCT. The third procedure describes how to deploy the My Site registry keys for users by using the OCT. You must deploy the My Site URL registry data for the Colleagues scan to work. The last procedure provides steps for users to turn off this feature in Outlook 2010.

To configure Colleagues by using Group Policy

  1. In Group Policy, load the Office 2010 template (Office14.adm). Steps vary according to the version of Windows that you are running.

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

  3. Right-click the policy object that you want, and then click Edit. The Group Policy Management Editor window opens.

  4. In the tree view, expand User Configuration | Policies | Administrative Templates \ Classic Administrative Templates (ADM) \ Microsoft Office 2010 \ Server Settings \ SharePoint Server.

  5. Double-click Enable Colleague Import Outlook Add-In to work with Microsoft SharePoint Server.

  6. Select Enabled to enable the policy setting. Or, select Disabled to disable the policy.

  7. Click OK.

  8. If you enable the policy, you can also set other policies in this folder, such as Maximum number of recipients in an Outlook item to scan to determine the user’s colleagues for recommendation and Minimum time before starting Colleague recommendation scan.

  9. Save the Group Policy.

To configure Colleagues by using the Office Customization Tool

  1. Start the OCT by running Setup with the /admin command-line option.

  2. On the Modify User Settings page, expand the tree to Microsoft Office 2010 system \Server Settings \ SharePoint Server.

  3. Double-click Enable Colleague Import Outlook Add-In to work with Microsoft SharePoint Server.

  4. Select Enabled to enable the policy setting. Or, select Disabled to disable the policy by default.

  5. If you enable the policy, you can also set other policies in this folder, such as Maximum number of recipients in an Outlook item to scan to determine the user’s colleagues for recommendation and Minimum time before starting Colleague recommendation scan.

  6. Complete other Office 2010 configurations. On the File menu, click Save to create the customization file that you can deploy to users.

To set the My Site URL by using the OCT

  1. Start the OCT by running Setup with the /admin command-line option.

  2. In the Additional content area, click Add registry entries.

  3. Click Add to add the registry entries that are shown in the following table.

    Root Data type Key Value name Value data

    HKEY_CURRENT_USER

    REG_SZ

    Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\14.0\common\Portal\Link Providers\MySiteHost

    URL

    Your My Site URL – for example, http://Office/MySite.

    HKEY_CURRENT_USER

    REG_SZ

    Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\14.0\common\Portal\Link Providers\MySiteHost

    DisplayName

    The name to display to the user – for example, MySite.

  4. Complete other Office 2010 configurations. On the File menu, click Save to create the customization file that you can deploy to users.

To manually turn off Colleagues in Outlook 2010

  1. In Outlook 2010, on the File tab, click Options.

  2. In the Outlook Options dialog box, select Advanced.

  3. In the Other section, clear the check box Allow analysis of sent e-mails to identify people you commonly e-mail and subjects you commonly discuss, and upload this information to the default SharePoint Server.

  4. Click OK.