Policy Management

Admins can configure available features for mailbox accounts in their organization using Exchange PowerShell cmdlets and Cloud Policy. These features affect the configuration of any app where the organization mailbox is added. You can manage most features with Exchange PowerShell cmdlets. However, for newer Microsoft 365 features like Loop and in-product Feedback, as well as settings for Diagnostic Data and Connected Experiences, you should use Cloud Policy.

Accounts and policies

App-wide settings, including Theme, Text Size and Spacing, and Diagnostic Data and Connected Experiences are associated with the first account added in new Outlook. This account is called the primary account.

Users can change the primary account in Settings > Accounts > Email accounts > Manage for the account they want to designate as primary.

We’re rolling out a new policy, ChangeSettingsAccountEnabled in the OwaMailboxPolicy cmdlet that allows organizations to set the organization account as primary. For more information about this policy, see Set-OwaMailboxPolicy.

Important

While policies can be applied to any organization account in new Outlook, management of app-wide settings like Theme, Diagnostic Data, and Connected Experiences requires the designated account to be set as primary.

Features like Focused Inbox and Loop are specific to each account. If you disable these features, they turn off only for that account. However, in new Outlook, if any account has in-product feedback disabled, the feature becomes unavailable for all accounts.

Exchange policies

Policy management for mailboxes in the new Outlook for Windows follows the same set of Exchange PowerShell cmdlets as Outlook on the Web. To apply an Exchange cmdlet to configure an organization mailbox, you need to follow these steps documented here: Set-OwaMailboxPolicy.

OwaMailboxPolicy is used to manage various features and capabilities, including:

• Allowing Personal Accounts
  • The PersonalAccountsEnabled parameter specifies whether to allow users to add their personal accounts (for example, Outlook.com, Gmail, or Yahoo!) in the new Outlook for Windows. Check the syntax here.
• Allowing certain file types (attachments)
  • The AllowedFileTypes parameter specifies the attachment file types (file extensions) that can be saved locally or viewed from the new Outlook for Windows. Check the default values here.
• Google Drive Attachments Enabled
  • The AdditionalStorageProvidersAvailable parameter specifies whether to allow additional storage providers (for example, Box, Dropbox, Facebook, Google Drive, Egnyte, personal OneDrive) attachments in the new Outlook for Windows. Check the default values here.
• Interesting Calendars
  • The InterestingCalendarsEnabled parameter specifies whether interesting calendars are available in Outlook on the web. Check the parameters here.
• Location Suggestions
  • The PlacesEnabled parameter specifies whether to enable or disable Places in the new Outlook for Windows. Places lets users search, share, and map location details by using Bing.
• Weather in Calendar
  • The WeatherEnabled parameter specifies whether to enable or disable weather information in the calendar in new Outlook for Windows. Check the parameters here.
• Offline Configuration
  • The OfflineEnabledWin parameter specifies whether to allow the new Outlook for Windows to be used offline. Check the syntax here.

OrganizationConfig is another cmdlet for managing various features and capabilities, including:

• Focused Inbox
• MailTips
• Suggested Replies

For more information, see Set-OrganizationConfig.

Cloud policies

Some options that are relevant across other Microsoft 365 applications could be controlled via Cloud Policy in the Microsoft 365 Apps admin center. For more information, see Overview of Cloud Policy service for Microsoft 365.

Microsoft Loop

Loop components in Outlook are portable, editable pieces of content that stay in sync across all the places they’re shared.

For more information, see Manage Loop components in OneDrive and SharePoint.

Diagnostic Data and Connected Experiences

Organizations can control whether connected experiences or diagnostic data can be sent from the new Outlook for Windows. This capability is part of our commitment to giving you the information and controls over your privacy.

For more information, see Use policy settings to manage privacy controls for Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise.

In-product feedback

New Outlook provides in-product feedback that can be managed as part of Microsoft 365 wide settings for Feedback in Cloud Policy:

For more information, see Manage Microsoft feedback for your organization.

Disable toggle from classic Outlook for Windows

Some organizations could use a policy to block the toggle from appearing in the classic Outlook for Windows until they’re ready to migrate. For guidance on this policy, see Enable or disable access to the new Outlook for Windows.

While this policy hides the toggle within the application, it doesn’t block the mailbox from being added to the new Outlook for Windows. A separate Exchange policy can be used to block organization mailboxes from being added to new Outlook. For guidance on this policy, see Enable or disable access to the new Outlook for Windows.

Users can enable new Outlook via the toggle from the Mail and Calendar application that ship with Windows. To block new Outlook from these applications, organizations can block users from downloading and/or installing new Outlook using Intune or other management solutions.

Organizations can also block the user of Mail and Calendar with organization accounts via the “UniversalOutlookEnabled” parameter in CASMailbox: Set-CASMailbox.