Thanks to Autodiscover it is easy to set up Outlook profiles for Exchange Server. Users only have to click "Next" a few times and the corresponding profile is created. The following dialogs should therefore be familiar to most people:
However, since no user interaction is necessary here in the case of Exchange Server and a correct autodiscover configuration and the user only has to click on "Next" anyway, these dialogs can also be omitted.
ZeroConfigExchange is a registry key that directly creates the Outlook profile without the user having to click through the wizard. The following short video illustrates the difference:
The registry file that is added to the Windows registry in the video only contains the following lines for Outlook 2016:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\AutoDiscover] "ZeroConfigExchange"=dword:00000001
All you have to do is add a DWORD value to the registry to disable the setup wizard. As can be seen in the video, once the DWORD has been set, the wizard is no longer displayed and a profile is created directly. Of course, the product key query does not appear if the corresponding licenses are managed with a KMS server.
The registry files can be downloaded here for Outlook 2007, 2010, 2013 and 2016:
Of course, the registry value can also be set via group policy. A new group policy can be created for this purpose:
A new registry element can be added under "User configuration -> Settings -> Windows settings -> Registry":
The properties of the registration item then look as follows for Outlook 2016:
- Structure: HKEY_Current_USER
- Key path: SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\AutoDiscover
- Name: ZeroConfigExchange
- Value type: REG_DWORD
- Value data: 1 (decimal)
For older Outlook versions, only the key path changes as follows:
- Outlook 2013: SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Outlook\AutoDiscover
- Outlook 2010: SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Outlook\AutoDiscover
- Outlook 2007: SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\AutoDiscover
A little hint: If there is already an Outlook profile for the user on the computer, it will not be created, but the existing profile will continue to be used. If the default profile has been deleted, Outlook will also ask ZeroConfigExchange for a new profile name:
The rest of the setup is then done automatically.