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Manage user access to add-ins for Outlook in Exchange

  • Article

Applies to: Exchange Server 2013

You can use the Exchange admin center (EAC) or Exchange PowerShell to manage user access to add-ins for Outlook.

  • Using the EAC, you can manage basic add-in access settings for your users at an organizational level. For example, you can configure whether an add-in is enabled or disabled for your users. You can also specify whether an add-in is required or optional for your users.

  • With the Exchange Management Shell, you can manage all the settings that you can with the EAC, as well as other settings. For example, you can limit availability to specific users in your organization.

For additional management tasks, see Add-ins for Outlook.

What do you need to know before you begin?

Tip

Having problems? Ask for help in the Exchange forums. Visit the forums at Exchange Server.

Specify whether an add-in is available, enabled, or disabled

Use the EAC to specify whether an add-in is available, enabled, or disabled

  1. In the EAC, navigate to Organization > Add-ins.

  2. In the list view, select the add-in that you want to change settings for, and then click Edit Edit icon..

  3. If you don't want your users to use the add-in, clear the Make this add-in available to users in your organization check box, and then click Save.

  4. If you want your users to be able to use the add-in, select Make this add-in available to users in your organization, and then select the option you want.

    • Optional, enabled by default: Use this setting if you want to allow your users to turn off the add-in.

    • Optional, disabled by default: Use this setting if you want to allow your users to turn on the add-in.

    • Mandatory, always enabled. Users can't disable this add-in: Use this setting if you don't want your users to turn off the add-in.

  5. Click Save.

Use the Shell to specify whether an add-in is available, enabled, or disabled

First, run the following command to find the display names and add-in IDs for all the add-ins for Outlook installed for your organization.

Get-App -OrganizationApp | Format-List DisplayName,AppId

The AppId value is a GUID that uniquely identifies the add-in (for example, fe93bfe1-7947-460a-a5e0-7a5906b51360). You use the AppId value to identify and change the settings of the add-in.

To disable and hide an add-in from all your users, replace <AppId> with the real AppId value and run the following command:

Set-App -Identity <AppId> -OrganizationApp -Enabled $false

To enable an add-in by default, but allow your users to turn it off, replace <AppId> with the real AppId value and run the following command:

Set-App -Identity <AppId> -OrganizationApp -Enabled $true -DefaultStateForUser Enabled

To disable an add-in by default, but allow your users to turn it on, replace <AppId> with the real AppId value and run the following command:

Set-App -Identity <AppId> -OrganizationApp -Enabled $true -DefaultStateForUser Disabled

If you want the add-in to be required for your users, replace <AppId> with the real AppId value and run the following command:

Set-App -Identity <AppId> -OrganizationApp -Enabled $true -DefaultStateForUser AlwaysEnabled

For detailed syntax and parameters, see Set-app.

How do you know this worked?

To verify that you've successfully configured an add-in, use either of the following steps:

  • In the EAC, navigate to Organization > Add-ins and review the values in the User Default and Provided To columns.

  • In the Shell, run the following command and verify the values of the DefaultStateForUser and Enabled properties:

    Get-App -OrganizationApp | Format-List DisplayName,AppId,Enabled,DefaultStateForUser

Use Exchange PowerShell to limit add-in availability to specific users

To limit the availability of an add-in to specific users, you can't use the EAC. You can only use the Exchange Management Shell.

This example limits the LinkedIn add-in with the hypothetical AppId value ac83a9d5-5af2-446f-956a-c583adc94d5e to the members of the distribution group named Marketing.

$a = Get-DistributionGroupMember Marketing

Set-App -Identity ac83a9d5-5af2-446f-956a-c583adc94d5e -OrganizationApp -ProvidedTo SpecificUsers -UserList $a.Identity -DefaultStateForUser Enabled

For detailed syntax and parameters, see Set-app.

How do you know this worked?

To verify that you've successfully limited add-in availability to specific users, run the following command in Exchange PowerShell and verify the value of the ProvidedTo and UserList properties:

Get-App -OrganizationApp | Format-List DisplayName,AppId,Enabled,DefaultStateForUser,ProvidedTo,UserList