Remove the RSS Folder

Some people just don't like the RSS feature in Outlook. Fortunately you can disable the RSS capability using group policy. While group policy is considered by many to be a ‘corporate’ feature, anyone can change their local group policy, or simply edit the registry.

Create the following key if it does not exist and restart Outlook:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\Options\RSS
DWORD: Disable
Value: 1

This turns off the RSS capability but does not remove the RSS folder from your message store. Personal folders created after you enable this registry value will not include the RSS folder; however, you will not be able to delete existing RSS folders using the Outlook UI. You’ll need to use a MAPI editor, such as Exchange Server MAPI Editor or Outlook Spy, to delete the folder.

To use the group policy template:

1. After extracting the files, go to Start menu, Run and type MMC
2. Choose File, Add/Remove Snap-in
3. Click Add
4. Select Group Policy and press Add
5. Press Finish, Close and then OK to return to the MMC
6. In the left column of the MMC expand Local Computer Policy then right click Administrative Templates in User Configuration and choose Add/Remove Templates
7. Browse to the location where you extracted the templates to and select OUTLK12.ADM

Download the policy templates from:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=92d8519a-e143-4aee-8f7a-e4bbaeba13e7&displaylang=en 

There are templates for each version of Outlook (and Office) available. Links to all versions of the Office Resource Kits are at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/ork2003/default.aspx - the policy templates are found in the Toolbox.

Links to Outlook Spy, Exchange Server MAPI Editor and others:
http://www.slipstick.com/addins/dev.asp 

Display OWA Contacts

A reader had this question about OWA: "Currently we're using Exchange 2003 for our mail server. We have a problem in OWA. Can OWA list all the contacts, like in Outlook? For example when you open the Global Address List, it’s empty. It's not easy to memorize the names and then click find when we want to send email. "

The GAL is searchable, but the addresses aren't displayed by default. You don't need to remember full names though - you can use partial names or even just a space in the search field.

Reset OWA's Folder Names

A reader wanted to know how to change the folder names to a different language when they only use OWA, not Outlook.

The easiest way is to use Outlook and the /resetfoldernames switch. Unfortunately, all you can do from OWA is change the browser's default language setting and rename the folders yourself. You'll also need to make sure you empty the browser cache so the context menus update.

What is Type Down?

Last week I mentioned that Outlook's "type down" feature works best when all contacts use the same File As order. A couple of people wanted to know more about it.

Type down is a cool feature. When you are in any view that doesn't use in-cell editing or the folder list, you can type a letter to jump to the items beginning with that letter. In Contact's card view, it means you don't need to use the Index and a mouse, you can type any letter to jump ahead. Note that it doesn't work with all group or sort by options.