Outlook 16.58+ default to classic mode

[hansjoerg_watzl]

Beginning with Outlook Build 16.58 (February 2022 update) Outlook will default to the New Outlook experience. But we want to default to the "Classic Mode" when Outlook will be started the first time after Onboarding. (User can switch to New Outlook later, if wanted. But it should first start with Classic Mode as default.)

In this blog from macadmins, there's a solution for this:

2. Can I configure the settings ahead of time so that my users don't see any change when 16.58 rolls-out?
Yes. Your best option is to explicitly set the EnableNewOutlook preference to integer value 1. You can do this via the defaults command or through a Configuration Profile.
The defaults command is: defaults write com.microsoft.Outlook EnableNewOutlook -integer 1

But this does not work for us. We created a Policy with the Office 16.58 package and entered this command as process. After onboarding and starting Outlook the first time, the new Outlook is set as default.

Anybody know, how we can set this configuration, so it's active for the first start of Outlook?

[scottlep]

All the info you need is here, this is a site maintained by the MS Mac Office engineers - https://macadmins.software/feb15/

[Tribruin · Accepted solution]

You can't run that exact command as a process command. That command expects to be run a user context and Files & Process runs under root context. You are better off setting up a configuration profile with a custom payload instead. 

Jamf has this option as an "Application & Custom Settings" payload in Config Profiles. Create a new profile, choose the "Application & Custom Settings" payload, then choose "External Applications". 

Choose "Add"

Source: Jamf Repository

Application Domain: com.microsoft.Outlook

Version: 10.57 (I know that new option says 10.58, but the 10.57 version has this option)

Variant; Microsoft Outlook.json.

The first option listed is the one you want to change. You can remove the other options if you don't need them. 

Don't forget to name and scope your profile as well. 

[hansjoerg_watzl]

@Tribruin Many thanks for this!

Do I need to configure this Configuration Profile as "User Level" or would "System Level" work too?

I'm asking, because all of our Configuration Profiles are installed as System Level. And I know, that user level profiles are only assigned to "MDM capable users", which is unfortunately a little bit a mess on our devices. Some of our users have enrolled the device with another local account and then later created a second one. But only the first one is a "MDM capable user" in Jamf, so we can't deploy a user level configuration profile to the second account. (And we don't know how to later add additional MDM capable users.)

[Tribruin]

It works fine with System Level profiles. We don't use User Level profiles either. 

[AJPinto]

We disable new outlook with a computer level configuration profile with a custom settings payload. I would advise against setting this with a command. Keep in mind if you try to run or script a command from JAMF it is running as the root user.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
  <dict>
    <key>EnableNewOutlook</key>
    <integer>1</integer>
  </dict>
</plist>

[hansjoerg_watzl]

I  can confirm, that the Configuration Profile approach (even as System Level) does work as expected.

Unfortunately, there's still an annoying big popup for "testing" the new outlook. (And this popup even contains wrong button texts in german and french localization.)

[erichughes]

Anybody got a EA or Smart group recommendation to see how many users are actually running New Outlook so we can switch them back to old Outlook that mostly works?

[scottlep]

This is the EA we use

#!/bin/sh

# Displays whether or not the user has enabled the New Outlook.
# Script will return the info as an extension attribute.
# Author: jwsherrod@mac.com
# Version 1.0 : 10-23-2020

loggedInUser=$( scutil <<< "show State:/Users/ConsoleUser" | awk '/Name :/ && ! /loginwindow/ { print $3 }' )

NewOutlook=$(/usr/bin/defaults read /Users/$loggedInUser/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Outlook/Data/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.Outlook.plist IsRunningNewOutlook)

if [ $NewOutlook -eq 1 ]; then
	echo "<result>New Outlook</result>"

else echo "<result>Old Outlook</result>"

fi

[erichughes]

Perfect, thank you.