Outlook Tools is a small but very useful program to access additional Outlook settings available only through the registry.

Installation

Download the latest version of Outlook Tools at this link: http://www.howto-outlook.com/products/outlooktoolssetup.msi

The utility is a small installation file weighing only 388 Kb.

System requirements:

Outlook 2000, Outlook 2002/XP, Outlook 2003, Outlook 2007

Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003 Server, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7

Microsoft .NET Framework. Download the .NET Framework 3.5 installer

The installation procedure itself is very simple. For those who are not familiar with English, I’ll say that to install the utility on the system disk in the folder Program Files it is enough to press the Next button several times, and you don’t need to change any parameters.

The installer creates the OutlookTools folder in the Program menu, so that’s where we start the first time.

Now let’s go to the settings of Outlook Tools.

General tab

This tab is mainly for information purposes.

At the very top of the icon is the version of Outlook installed on the computer.

Below is information about the paths to the main Outlook folders, use the Open Folder buttons to open these folders.

Path to outlook.exe is the path to outlook.exe.

Path to roaming Outlook data – the path to the Outlook moving data folder.

Path to local Outlook data – Path to the local Outlook data folder. This is where the user data files (.pst) are located.

Outlook uses the following temporary folder to open attachments – temporary folder to save attachment files before opening them. Often there is a lot of garbage accumulating there, so to quickly clean up this folder the developers provided us with a Clear Folder button.

There are four buttons in the Other Tools section:

Account Settings – brings up the Mailbox Settings window. The same window is invoked when you click on the Mail icon in the control panel;

Run ScanPst – launches Microsoft PST Scan/Repare utility to check and correct errors in local data files;

Run ScanOst – launch Microsoft OST Integrity Check utility to synchronize .ost files stored on the local computer and data on the Exchange server. Used only when working with Exchange;

There are two interesting functions in the Other Options section:

Minimize Outlook to Notification Area – if this option is enabled, the Outlook window is minimized to a tray and not to a taskbar as a normal window.

Read all mail in Plain Text – when enabled, all messages will be displayed in the Plain Text format. Images, fonts and another formatting will be disabled.

Startup Switches tab

On this tab, you can run Outlook with different settings. To do this, select the option and click the Start Outlook button. It is also possible to copy the startup line to the clipboard (Copy Command button) for later launch on the command line or to paste it into a shortcut.

Outlook startup options:

• none – start without parameters;
• Checkclient – requests the client name for the default mail, news, and contacts program;
• designer – Cancels the check if Outlook is the default mail client;
• finder – opens the advanced search window (instead of running Outlook);
• firstrun – starts the Outlook program with the parameters of the first launch;
• nocustomize – start Outlook program without loading the outcmd.dat file containing data about configured toolbars;
• noextensions – launch Outlook with disabled extensions. Extensions are displayed in the Add-in Manager;
• nopollmail – ? – is not used in Outlook 2007;
• nopreview – launches Outlook without a read area;
• profiles – Opens the Configuration selection dialog box regardless of the values in the Options dialog box of the Tools menu;
• remigratecategories – Run Outlook and execute the following commands for the default mailbox: Update the “Runtime” color checkboxes to the Office Outlook 2007 color categories, Update the calendar tags to the Office Outlook 2007 color categories, Add all categories used for non-email items to the main category list.
• This command is similar to the “Update to color categories” command in the properties dialog of each Outlook mailbox.
• rpcdiag – start Outlook and display the dialog box of the remote procedure call
• safe – Start Outlook without configuring the Microsoft Exchange Server (ECE) client extensions, read area or toolbar. Add-ons for COM model are disabled;
• safe:1 – running Outlook with the read area disabled;
• safe:2 – ? – is not used in Outlook 2007;
• safe:3 – running Outlook with Microsoft Exchange client (ECE) extensions disabled, but with them listed in the “Applications” list. Add-ons for COM model are disabled;
• safe:4 – running Outlook without downloading the outcmd.dat file containing the data about the configured toolbars;
• sniff – launches Outlook in the Inbox meeting invitation tracking mode and automatically adds them to the calendar;
• cleancategories – deletes the previously created names of previously configured categories. Restore default category names;
• checkclientrules – launches Outlook and deletes client rules;
• cleandmrecords – removes meeting invitation rejection entries by the supervisor or delegate from the log;
• cleanfinders – resets all search folders in a Microsoft Exchange mailbox (only for the first open profile);
• cleanfreebusy – removes availability information and recreates it. This option is only available if there is a connection to the Exchange Server computer;
• cleanips – ? – reprocess receival of new messages in Exchange Cached Mode (KB968773);
• cleanprofile – remove the wrong registry partitions and restore the default registry partitions if possible;
• cleanpst – ? – is not used in Outlook 2007;
• cleanreminders – removes reminders and recreates them;
• cleanroamedprefs – removes all previously migrated settings and replicates them from the local settings of the computer where the setting is being used. This includes the Reminder Movements, Busy Grid, Business Hours, Calendar Publishing and RSS Rules;
• cleanrules – starts Outlook and deletes client and server rules;
• cleanschedplus – removes all Schedule+ data from the server and replaces it with Outlook calendar data;
• cleanserverrules – launches Outlook and deletes server rules;
• cleansharing – removes all SharePoint, RSS and Internet Calendar subscriptions from the account settings and saves all previously downloaded content on your computer. This option is useful if one of these subscriptions cannot be removed in Office Outlook 2007;
• cleansniff – overrides the software lock that determines which computer (which is running Outlook at the same time) handles meetings. The lockout avoids sending repeated reminders. This option removes the lock on the computer on which it is applied, allowing Outlook to process meetings;
• cleansubscriptions – removes subscription messages and media properties;
• cleanviews – restore the default views. Delete all previously created custom views;
• resetfolders – restore missing folders at the default delivery point;

The “Clear MRU” tab

To speed up data entry, Outlook maintains lists of frequently used/entered items (Most Recently Used).

There are two types of lists. The first type is associated with the Outlook profile (Profile section), the second type is associated with the user (Outlook section).

This section allows you to clear both types of lists.

Unfortunately, I have not found an adequate translation of the names of these lists, so do so at your own risk.

The New Mail Alert tab

This tab controls the settings of the pop-up window, which alerts you to a new message. The default settings allow you to set the maximum duration of the warning display to 30 seconds. Here we can also set any duration up to a few days!

Also on this tab, you can control the transparency of the pop-up window.

We use the Set button to set the parameters.

Blocked Attachments tab” (New Mail Alert)

This tab contains a list of blocked file types.

To unlock the file, you should choose the corresponding type of file and press the Save button.

Changes take effect after rebooting Outlook.

Resetfoldernames – translates the default folder names (e.g. Inbox or Sent) into the current language of the Microsoft Office user interface. For example, if at the first connection to the mailbox the Russian interface was used, the folders with Russian names were used,

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