Hello,

we are using Outlook 2003 with Exchange 2007 and manage the out of office assistant with powershell-scripts. So we disabled with GPO the option "Tools, Out of Office Assistant" in Outlook for users.

The problem now is that when out of office for a user is on and the user starts Outlook the message "Out of Office is currently on. Would you like to turn it off?" appears. Is there a way to disable this prompt, that a user is not able to turn off the out of office assistant?

best regards,



Sarge

Hi,

The problem is that what you're describing is the opposite of what most people want to do, i.e., turn it OFF when the user starts Outlook. I mean, there not out of office, they've just logged in!

I'm not aware of a way to do this in Outlook. There may be a way in Exchange, I'm not sure.

I think if it were me, I would continue to disable access via GPO, turn off the OOF (to prevent any more prompts), then set replies that come from outside the company to automatically respond with an OOF-type response (either through rules or custom programming). Just my two cents.

Hi,

the user still receive a message that OOF is currently on, but from another (custom) program. When the user activates OOF trough our custom program (powershell scripts / Exchange 2007), the OOF in outlook are also set. Therefore the he receives the message "Out of office is currenty on" twice. Maybe there is no possibility to prevent that message...

best regards,

Sarge