Non-Dev : How to disable “Reply to all” button in Outlook 2007 using ADM templates?

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Take a scenario,  there are some email messages where recipients shouldn’t be allowed to ‘Reply to all’ or something important to block “Reply All” feature to get replies from a big distribution list (DL). I found that there is a way in Outlook 2007 to disable the option and prevent users from using it.I tried disabling “Reply to all” button for the email items in Outlook 2007 using ADM templates (non-developer perspective).

I used the following steps to get things done:

  • Download the admin templates from https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=92D8519A-E143-4AEE-8F7A-E4BBAEBA13E7&displaylang=en
  • Extract the templates into a directory
  • Modify the outlk12.adm file with the following changes
  • Goto line 2459 (KEYNAME Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\Security
  • Move the line VALUENAME PromoteErrorsAsWarnings below this line (it should located under VALUEOFF NUMERIC 0 which causes an error when Group Policy reads the file)
  • Find the line CATEGORY !!L_Disableitemsinuserinterface
  • Add the following lines immediately after that line (this will add the ability to disable the Reply to All button)
  • POLICY "Disable command bar buttons and menu items"
    KEYNAME Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\DisabledCmdBarItemsList
    PART "Enter a command bar ID to disable" LISTBOX
    VALUEPREFIX TCID
    END PART
    END POLICY
  • Create a GPO
  • Add the outlk12.adm template
  • Browse to Microsoft Office Outlook 2007\Disable items in user interface
  • Open the Properties for Disable command bar buttons and menu items image
  • Enable this object and select “Apply” and “OK”. The "state" of the policy should now show as Enabled.
  • Click the Show button and Add 355
  • You will be returned to theShow Contents page which should now resemble the following. Click OK.