PRF Name and Initials

[sb1920alk]

Can someone tell me exactly how to enter the user's name and initials in a
prf so they won't be prompted for them at the end of the profile creation?
I've read the MS whitepaper and searched, but I can't seem to figure it out.

Thanks,

 

[Roady [MVP]]

You mean that dialog upon first starting an Office application?
That is not part of the prf-file but an Office configuration.

You can generate a reg-file and import it if you want;
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common\UserInfo

 

[sb1920alk]

Thanks for the idea, but it didn't work. If you import the settings before
Outlook starts for the first time, it simply resets whatever you imported to
0's and asks again.

Any other ideas?

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Even when you set the FirstRunDialog to False?

For Outlook 2007 it is located here;
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook

 

[sb1920alk]

I'm not sure what you mean. I'm setting two registry keys: ImportPRF to the
path and FirstRun to 0.

 

[Roady [MVP]]

FirstRunDialog is another registry key.

Just curious; why do you want to prevent this dialog from showing? It's a
pretty obvious dialog and it will allow the end-user to correct and possible
mistakes. Especially people with a last name prefix might need to modify the
generated value.

 

[sb1920alk]

I don't see that key. I'm currently looking at Office 2003 if that makes a
difference. I plan to do the same for 2007 later, but I have more users on
2003 at the moment.

Nobody corrects it. They all just click right through it. It defaults to
their username for the name and the first letter of their username for their
initials. It would be better in my situation to automate it even if it where
only correct 95% of the time. We don't use roaming profiles and the bulk of
the staff do not have assigned seats, so this would help.

 

[sb1920alk]

Also, I tried several other keys and I'm not able to get it to skip this box
(not sure which key did the trick yet...will have to narrow it down), but it
will set the name and initials values to 00 even if I pre-set them ahead of
time. Where are these used? Is there any down-side to having them zeroed out?

 

[Warpius]

Hi,

Did anyone of you solved this ? I have the same issue. I have set up an vdi
solution where the user gets a new fresh XP installation every time they
logon with the outlook profile created automatically with the .prf file but
then when user starts outlook they get prompted about their username and
initials. Not so nice when you have to do this every day or several times a
day..

We only have outlook 2000 and it's not an option for the moment to upgrade.

Is it possible to disable or prepopulate the username/userinitials in
outlook 2000 by gpo/vbscript or any other way ?

Thanks.