• Article

Configure Outlook Anywhere in Outlook 2010

 

Applies to: Office 2010

Topic Last Modified: 2012-02-29

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

Learn how to use the Office Customization Tool (OCT) and Group Policy to manage Outlook Anywhere settings for users.

Outlook Anywhere enables Microsoft Outlook 2010 users to access their Exchange Server accounts over the Internet without using virtual private network (VPN) connections when they travel or work outside the organization firewall.

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

To configure Outlook 2010 with Outlook Anywhere as part of an Outlook deployment, you enable the option in the Office Customization Tool (OCT) and (optionally) specify additional settings, such as security-level requirements, to communicate with the Exchange Server computer. After you specify these options, you save the settings 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 in Office 2010.

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 Group Policy overview for Office 2010 and Use Group Policy to enforce Office 2010 settings.

If your messaging server is Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 or Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, you can use the Outlook 2010 Autodiscover feature to automatically configure Outlook Anywhere. For more information about automatic account configuration, see Outlook Automatic Account Configuration (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkID=79065).

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

Before you begin

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, and then click Add accounts. Click the Exchange account that you want to configure and then click Modify.

  2. 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.

  3. If you are defining a new Exchange Server computer, in the Exchange Server text box enter the name of the Exchange Server computer.

    Skip steps 2 and 3 if you are configuring Outlook Anywhere for existing Exchange users who are not moving to a new Exchange Server computer.

  4. Click More Settings.

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

  6. 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.

  7. Decide whether you want users to connect through Secured Sockets Layer (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.

  8. Select whether or not 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.

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

    The default method is Password Authentication (NTLM).

  10. Click OK to return to the Exchange Settings dialog box, and then click Finish.

  11. Complete other Outlook or Microsoft Office configurations, and on the File menu, click 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.

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

  1. In the Group Policy Object Editor, load the Outlook 2010 Administrative template (Outlk14.adm).

  2. To customize Cached Exchange Mode options, open the Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) and in the tree view expand Domains and then expand Group Policy Objects.

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

  4. In the tree view, expand User Configuration, expand Policies, expand Administrative Templates, expand Classic Administrative Templates (ADM), expand Microsoft Outlook 2010, expand Account Settings, and then click Exchange.

  5. In the reading pane, in the Setting column, double-click the policy that you want to set. For example, double-click Configure Outlook Anywhere user interface options.

  6. Select Enabled.

  7. Click an option in the Choose UI State when OS can support feature drop-down list.

  8. Click 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.