Outlook Security

Outlook Security:
Starting with Outlook 98 and Outlook 2000, Microsoft introduced a security update to help prevent viruses from accessing your address book and unknowingly sending emails on your behalf. This security protection is built it into Outlook XP and 2003, but is available for Outlook 98 and 2000 only through an update from www.microsoft.com. The security update warns you when a program other than Outlook either accesses your address book or sends an email. This behavior directly impacts the behavior of GP Agent and TPS. If you do accept the default configuration of Outlook, whenever GP Agent or TPS attempt to lookup an email address, you will be prompted with a message asking you how long you want to allow the program to access your address book: 1 to 10 minutes. After that time period, you will be prompted again.

You can use Exchange Server settings to avoid this prompt with Outlook 2000, Outlook 2003 and Outlook XP. With Outlook 2000 and Outlook XP, you must follow the instructions below that utilize a change in the registry settings on each workstation. With Outlook 2003, Microsoft added the ability to use a Group Policy Administrative Template, so that you could either use this or the registry setting. With Outlook 2007 you cannot use the registry setting, and must use a Group Policy Administrative Template to disable the prompt.

If you are using Dynamics GP, whenever you email a report or document from within GP Agent or TPS, you will get another message that will warn you “Another program is attempting to send an email on your behalf…” You will, after a 5 second delay, be able to click on the OK button to allow the email to be sent. You will get this message for every individual email. This will make it impractical to use the emailing features of TPS, and make it cumbersome to email documents with GP Agent.

You can get information on Outlook behavior by referring to the following links:
Q262631 OL2000:  Information About the Outlook E-mail Security Update.
Q262701 OL2000:  Developer Information About the Outlook E-mail Security Update

Configuring Outlook with Exchange Server
If you not using Exchange Server and are storing your primary address book and inbound emails, then you are likely using a .PST file (also known as a personal folders file). This will not allow you to configure outlook to ignore the Security Update behavior. You must be using an Exchange Server folder, or an .OST (off-line personal folder) file. You can configure Outlook so that users are not prompted for address book access whenever eContact tries to find an email address by using a custom Outlook Security Form. For more information about this, refer to the following links:

Q263297 OL2000: Administrator Information About the Outlook E-mail Security Update
Q262634 OL2000: Known Issues with the Outlook E-mail Security Update
Q264567 OL2000: Known Setup Issues with the Outlook E-mail Security Update
Q264128 OL2000: Known Interoperability Issues with the Outlook E-mail Security Update

Configuring Outlook with a Group Policy
If you are using Outlook 2007, refer to the following links to get more information about disabling the security settings.

Technet: Configure Outlook security and protection features
Technet: Customize programmatic settings in Outlook 2007
Download Administrative Templates: 2007 Office System Administrative Templates (ADM)

Security Notice
If you follow these steps to eliminate these messages, you should install virus protection software that is compatible with Outlook and protects you from email viruses.

Sample Settings
This is a sample of the settings you need to enable eContact to read the address book. You need enable only the address book items. You should not change any of the items that impact programs that can send emails, as this is not necessary for eContact.