Some registry/policy options to control the Outlook Social Connector.
Buried on the Microsoft Support site is KB2010103 “How to manage the Outlook Social Connector by using Group Policy” it provides some options for managing the OSC but mostly for network administrators.
These options can apply to Outlook 2010 as well as Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2003 with the Outlook Social Connector installed.
The full list of options available is:
- Loading the Outlook Social Connector
- Configuring People Pane notifications
- Specifying he activity synchronization interval period
- Specifying the global address list (GAL) synchronization interval
- Specifying the social network contact synchronization interval period
- Blocking social network activity synchronization
- Block social network contact synchronization
- Blocking Global Address List synchronization with local contacts
- Preventing configuration of social network accounts
- Blocking the download of Active Directory details
- Blocking on-demand activity synchronization
- Blocking specific providers
- Configuring the specific providers to load
- Displaying contact photos
- Configuring the maximum number of items to display in the People Pane
An enticing option is ‘Do Not display contact photo’ that offers the possibility of removing the pesky silhouette default image on the ‘People Pane’ and make more room available for the useful tabbed info lists.
Alas, it’s not the case. All the policy/registry option does is turn off the display of photos and force the silhouette to always display.
See Also
- New features for all Outlook 2007 & Outlook 2003 customers
- Facebook for Outlook
- Social connections for Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007
