Setting Up Outlook 2003 Cached Exchange Mode Accounts

When Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 is configured for Cached Exchange Mode, the user enjoys a better online and offline messaging experience because a copy of the user’s mailbox is stored on the local computer. The guidelines and procedures in this section will help make the process of configuring Outlook for Cached Exchange Mode go more smoothly.

Note

This feature can only be configured for Microsoft Exchange Server e-mail accounts. While Cached Exchange Mode is supported on Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 and later, users will have the best supported experience using Cached Exchange Mode with Exchange Server 2003 or later.

When an Outlook account is configured to use Cached Exchange Mode, Outlook works from a local copy of a user’s Exchange mailbox stored in an Offline Folder file (OST file) on the user’s computer, along with the Offline Address Book (OAB). The cached mailbox and OAB are updated periodically from the Exchange server.

When a user starts Outlook for the first time with Cached Exchange Mode configured, Outlook creates a local copy of the user’s mailbox by creating an OST file (unless one already exists), synchronizing the OST with the user’s mailbox on the Exchange server, and creating an OAB. (If a user is already configured for offline use with an OST and an OAB, Outlook can typically download just the new information from the server, not the whole mailbox and OAB.)

How Cached Exchange Mode can help improve the Outlook user experience

The primary benefits of using Cached Exchange Mode are the following:

• Shielding the user from troublesome network and server connection issues

• Facilitating switching back and forth from online to offline for mobile users

By caching the user’s mailbox and the OAB locally, Outlook no longer depends on on-going network connectivity for access to user information. In addition, users’ mailboxes are kept up to date, so if a user disconnects from the network—for example, by removing a laptop from a docking station—the latest information is automatically available offline.

In addition to improving the user experience by using local copies of mailboxes, Cached Exchange Mode optimizes the type and amount of data sent over a connection with the server. For example, if On Slow Connections Download Headers Only is configured, Outlook will automatically change the type and amount of data sent over the connection.

Note

Outlook determines a user’s connection speed by checking the network adapter speed on the user’s computer, as supplied by the operating system. Reported network adapter speeds of 128 KB or lower are defined as slow connections. There may be circumstances when the network adapter speed does not accurately reflect data throughput for users. More information about adjusting the behavior of Outlook in these scenarios is provided in this chapter in the section “Managing Outlook behavior for perceived slow connections.”

By offering different levels of optimization, Outlook can adapt to changing connection environments, such as disconnecting from a corporate local area network (LAN), going offline, and then reestablishing a connection to the server via a slower dial-up connection. As your Exchange server connection type changes—LAN, wireless, cellular, General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), offline—transitions are seamless and never require changing settings or restarting Outlook.

For example, a user may have a laptop computer at work with a connection—by means of a network cable—to a corporate LAN. In this scenario, the user has access to headers and full items, including attachments. He also has quick access and updates to the computer running Exchange Server. If he disconnects his laptop from the LAN, Outlook switches to Trying to connect mode. He can continue to work uninterrupted with his data in Outlook. If he has wireless access, Outlook can reestablish a connection to the server and then switch back to Connected mode. If the user later connects to the Exchange server by using dial-up access, Outlook recognizes that the connection is slow and automatically optimizes for that connection by downloading only headers and not updating the Offline Address Book. In addition, Outlook 2003 includes new optimizations to reduce the amount of data sent over the connection. Users do not need to change any settings or restart Outlook during this scenario.

Outlook features that can reduce the effectiveness of Cached Exchange Mode

Some Outlook features reduce the effectiveness of Cached Exchange Mode because they require network access or bypass Cached Exchange Mode functionality and cause bad behavior. The primary benefit of using Cached Exchange Mode is being shielded from network and server connection issues. Features that rely on network access can cause delays in Outlook responsiveness that users would not otherwise experience when using Cached Exchange Mode.

The following features rely on network access and can therefore cause delays in Outlook unless users have fast connections to Exchange data:

• Delegate access

• Opening another user’s calendar or folder

• Using a public folder that has not been cached

In addition, some aspects of certain Outlook features also require network access to retrieve necessary information—such as looking up free/busy information—which can cause a delayed response even when users have fast connections to Exchange data. The delays can occur unpredictably, rather than only when the feature is accessed by the user.

It is recommended that you disable or do not implement the following features—or combination of features—if you deploy Cached Exchange Mode:

• Instant Messaging integration If users right-click on the Person Names Smart Tag in an e-mail message header, Outlook checks for free/busy status for that person. You can disable Instant Messaging integration by using Group Policy. For more information, see “Configuring User Interface Options in Outlook 2003” later in this chapter.

• The “toast” alert feature together with digital signatures on e-mail messages To verify a digital signature, Outlook must check a network server. By default, Outlook displays a “toast” message that contains a portion of an e-mail message when new messages arrive in a user’s Inbox. If the user clicks on the toast message to open a signed e-mail message, Outlook checks (using network access) for a valid signature on the message.

• Multiple Address Book containers Typically, the Address Book contains the Global Address List (GAL) and user Contacts folders. Some organizations configure subsets of the GAL, which are displayed in the Address Book. These subset address books can also be included in the list that defines the search order for address books. If subset address books are included in the search order list, Outlook might need to access the network to check these address books each time a name is resolved in an e-mail message a user is composing.

• Custom properties on the General tab in Properties dialog box for users When you double-click a user name (for example, on the To line of an e-mail message), the Properties dialog box appears by default. This dialog box can be configured to include custom properties unique to an organization—such as a user’s cost center. If you add properties to this dialog box, however, it is recommended that you not add them to the General tab. Outlook must make a remote procedure call (RPC) to the server to retrieve custom properties; because the General tab is shown by default when the Properties dialog box is accessed, an RPC would be performed each time the user accessed the Properties dialog box. As a result, a user running Outlook in Cached Exchange Mode might experience noticeable delays when accessing this dialog box. To help avoid such delays, you should create a new tab on the Properties dialog for custom properties, or include custom properties on the Phone/Notes tab.

Another way in which the benefits of using Cached Exchange Mode can be reduced is by installing certain Outlook add-ins. Some add-ins can bypass the expected functionality of Headers Mode (Download Headers Only) in Cached Exchange Mode by accessing Outlook data by using the object model. For example, if you use Microsoft ActiveSync technology to synchronize a handheld computer, full Outlook items will be downloaded, not just headers, even over a slow connection. In addition, the update process will be slower than if you downloaded the items in Outlook because one-off applications use a less efficient type of synchronization.

Synchronization, disk space, and performance considerations

There are a number of issues to be aware of when you are configuring and deploying Cached Exchange Mode. The way the feature works in Outlook to maintain an up-to-date local copy of a user’s Exchange mailbox and other information can affect or interact with other Outlook features and behavior. In some scenarios, you might choose to take steps to improve how Cached Exchange Mode works together with—or in parallel with—other Outlook features, for your whole organization or for a certain group of users (for example, users who travel frequently).

Send/Receive synchronization considerations

Cached Exchange Mode works independently from existing Outlook Send/Receive actions to synchronize users’ OST and OAB files with Exchange Server data. Send/Receive settings still—by default—update users’ Outlook data in the same manner that Send/Receive works in older versions of Outlook. Users who are accustomed to synchronizing Outlook data by pressing F9 or clicking Send/Receive may not realize that manual synchronization is not necessary to keep Outlook data current with Cached Exchange Mode. In fact, if a number of users repeatedly execute unnecessary Send/Receive requests to Exchange Server, Exchange Server and network performance may be affected.

To minimize additional network traffic and server usage, you might want to inform users that manual Send/Receive actions are unnecessary in Cached Exchange Mode. This might be especially helpful for certain groups of Outlook users—for example, users who typically used Outlook in offline mode with earlier Outlook versions and used Send/Receive to synchronize their data regularly or just before disconnecting from the network. This type of data synchronization now occurs automatically with Cached Exchange Mode.

Another option to manage the issue of unnecessary Send/Receive activity is to disable the Send/Receive option for users. However, this might be unadvisable in some scenarios when disabling the feature creates problems for users—such as when you upgrade current Outlook users with POP accounts and existing customized Send/Receive groups to Outlook 2003. In this situation, disabling Send/Receive removes the capability to download POP e-mail messages.

Offline Address Book (OAB) considerations

In addition to using a local copy of the user’s mailbox, Cached Exchange Mode also allows Outlook to access the local Offline Address Book for needed user information instead of requesting the data from Exchange Server. Local access to user data greatly reduces the need for Outlook to make remote procedure calls (RPCs) to Exchange Server, shielding the user from much of the network access required in Exchange online mode or in previous versions of Outlook.

To be shielded from as many unnecessary server calls as possible, users should have the Full Details OAB available on their computers. Once users have a reasonably current OAB downloaded to (or installed on) their computers, only incremental updates to the OAB are needed to continue to help protect users from otherwise unnecessary server calls to retrieve user data. Outlook in Cached Exchange Mode synchronizes the user’s OAB with updates from the Exchange Server copy of the OAB every 24 hours. You can help to control how often users download OAB updates by limiting how often you update the Exchange Server copy of the OAB. If there is no new data to synchronize when Outlook checks, the user’s OAB is not updated.

Note

Although users with a No Details OAB can use Outlook with Cached Exchange Mode, it is recommended to ensure that users have a Full Details OAB installed on their computers. In addition, it is recommended that users use the Unicode OAB. The ANSI OAB files do not include certain properties that are included in the Unicode OAB files. Outlook must make server calls to retrieve any required user properties that are not available in the local OAB, which can result in significant network access time when users do not have a Full Details OAB in Unicode format.

Offline File Folders (OSTs) considerations

When deploying Cached Exchange Mode for Outlook, be aware that users’ OST files can increase in size by 50 percent to 80 percent over the size of the mailbox reported in Exchange Server. The format Outlook uses to store data locally for Cached Exchange Mode is less efficient than the server data file format, resulting in more disk space used when mailboxes are downloaded to provide a local copy for Cached Exchange Mode.

When Cached Exchange Mode first creates a local copy of a user’s mailbox, the user’s current OST file—if one exists—is simply updated. When users have relatively small mailboxes (for example, less than 500 megabytes (MB) of Exchange Server data), this works fine. However, for users with larger mailboxes, you should ensure that users have Unicode-formatted OST files—the new file format in Outlook 2003—before deploying Cached Exchange Mode. Unicode OST files can store up to 20 gigabytes (GB) of data, instead of the limit of 2 GB on non-Unicode (ANSI) Outlook files.

By creating Unicode OST files, you can help avoid error messages for users that result when Outlook runs out of OST file space when attempting to create a local copy of the user’s mailbox for Cached Exchange Mode. Outlook with Cached Exchange Mode also works better when there is plenty of free space in the user’s OST file—for example, when only 5 percent to 10 percent of a 20 GB OST file is used.

Also be sure that users’ OST files are located in a folder with sufficient disk space to accommodate users’ mailboxes. For example, if users’ hard drives are partitioned to use a smaller drive for system programs (the system drive is the default location for the folder that contains the OST file), you should specify a folder on another drive with more disk space as the location of users’ OST files. For more information about deploying OST files in a location other than the default location, see the section in this chapter “Cached Exchange Mode deployment settings.”

Managing performance issues

There are many factors that influence a user’s perception of Cached Exchange Mode performance, including how much hard disk space and how fast a CPU the user has on his computer, and what level of performance the user is accustomed to when using Outlook. For example, offline users might experience Cached Exchange Mode as providing a better user experience, while users who formerly accessed Exchange in online mode might perceive Outlook performance as having decreased (depending on other factors as well).

One factor that can contribute to reduced performance is a large OST file. If the user’s OST file grows too large (for example, larger than 1 GB), Outlook with Cached Exchange Mode performance degrades. To improve response time in Outlook, users should either reduce the size of their mailbox (for example, by archiving older files) or turn off Cached Exchange Mode. To help prevent the problem of overly large OST files, you can set a limit on the mailbox size in Exchange Server. You might also choose to turn off synchronizing users’ Public Folder Favorites if you previously enabled the option in your deployment of Cached Exchange Mode.

Public Folder Favorites considerations

Cached Exchange Mode can be configured to download and synchronize the public folders included in users’ Favorites folders for Outlook Public Folders. By default, Public Folder Favorites are not synchronized. However, if your organization uses public folders extensively, you may want to turn on this option. You can configure an option to download Public Folder Favorites in the Custom Installation Wizard when you customize your Cached Exchange Mode deployment.

However, if users’ Public Folder Favorites folders include large public folders, their OST files can become large also, which can adversely affect Outlook performance in Cached Exchange Mode. Before you configure Cached Exchange Mode to turn on this option, ensure that users are selective about the public folders that are included in their Public Folder Favorites, and also ensure that users’ OST files are large enough—and are in folders with enough disk space—to accommodate the additional storage requirements for the public folder downloads.

Managing Outlook behavior for perceived slow connections

Outlook is configured to automatically determine a user’s connection speed by checking the network adapter speed on the user’s computer, as supplied by the operating system. If the reported network adapter speed is 128 KB or lower, the connection is defined as a slow connection.

When Outlook detects a slow connection to a user’s Exchange server, Outlook reduces the amount of less-critical information that is synchronized with the Exchange server to help users have a better experience. On slow connections, Outlook automatically makes the following changes to synchronization behavior:

• Switches to downloading headers only.

• Does not automatically download the Offline Address Book or OAB updates.

• Downloads the body of an item and any associated attachments only when requested by the user.

Outlook will, however, continue to automatically synchronize with personal digital assistants (PDAs) and some client-side rules may run.

Note

Synchronizing PDAs while using Cached Exchange Mode is not recommended. When you synchronize a handheld computer—for example, by using ActiveSync—full items will be downloaded in Outlook and the synchronization process used is less efficient than with regular Outlook synchronization to users’ computers.

This more efficient mode of synchronization is designed for Outlook users with dial-up connections or cellular wireless with GPRS connections to minimize network traffic when there is a slow or expensive connection.

However, there may be circumstances when the network adapter speed does not accurately reflect data throughput for users. For example, suppose a user’s computer is on a local area network for fast access to local file servers. The network adapter speed is reported as “fast” because the user is connected to a local area network (LAN). However, the user’s access to other locations on an organization’s network—including the Exchange server—might use a slow link, such as an ISDN connection. For a scenario like this—where users’ actual data throughput is slow although their network adapters report a fast connection—you might want to configure an option to change or lock down the behavior of Outlook—for example, by disabling automatic switching to downloading only headers and configuring Outlook to download only headers. Similarly, there might be connections that Outlook has determined are “slow” in which users actually have high data throughput. In this scenario, you might also turn off automatic switching to downloading only headers.

The setting you configure to change the behavior of Outlook for reported connection speed is the On slow connections, download only headers check box. You can configure this option in the Custom Installation Wizard or lock down the option by using Group Policy. For more information about customizing this setting, along with other settings for Cached Exchange Mode deployment, see the section “Cached Exchange Mode deployment settings” later in this chapter.

Staging a Cached Exchange Mode deployment

If you plan to upgrade a large group of users to Outlook 2003 with Cached Exchange Mode enabled, you should stage the rollout over time so that your organization’s Exchange servers can manage the requirements of creating or updating users’ OST files.

Caution

If most users are updated to use Cached Exchange Mode at once and then start Outlook around the same time (for example, on a Monday morning after a weekend upgrade), the Exchange servers will experience significant performance problems. Under some circumstances, the performance issues in this scenario can be mitigated—for example, if most of the users in your organization have relatively current OST files. But in general, staging deployment of Cached Exchange Mode over a period of time is recommended.

The following scenarios include examples of how you could deploy Cached Exchange Mode to avoid a large initial performance impact on the Exchange servers and—in some cases—minimize the time users spend waiting for the initial synchronization:

• Retain Outlook OST files while deploying Cached Exchange Mode.

  Since existing OST files are merely updated with the latest mailbox information when Outlook with Cached Exchange Mode starts for the first time, retaining these files when you deploy Cached Exchange Mode can help reduce the load on your organization’s Exchange servers. Users who already have OST files will have less to synchronize with the server. This scenario works best when most users already have OST files that have been synchronized with Exchange Server relatively recently.

  To retain OST files while deploying Outlook with Cached Exchange Mode, do not specify a new Exchange server when customizing Outlook profile information in the Custom Installation Wizard. Or alternatively, when you customize Outlook profiles, clear the Replace existing accounts check box.

  (If you specify an Exchange server when you configure and deploy Outlook, Outlook replaces the Exchange service provider in the MAPI profile, which removes the profile’s entry for existing OST files.)

• Provide “seed” OST files to remote users, and then deploy Cached Exchange Mode after users have installed the OST files you provide.

  If most users in your organization do not currently have OST files, you can deploy Outlook 2003 with Cached Exchange Mode disabled. Then before the date on which you plan to deploy Cached Exchange Mode, you provide “seed” OST files to each user with a snapshot of the user’s mailbox—for example, by providing or mailing to the user a CD that contains the file, along with installation instructions. You may also want to provide a recent version of your organization’s Office Address Book (OAB) with Full Details. When users confirm that they have installed the files, then configure and deploy Cached Exchange Mode.

  When you update your Outlook deployment to use Cached Exchange Mode later—for example, by distributing a configuration maintenance file created using the Custom Installation Wizard—the Exchange server will update users’ existing OST files and there will be much less data to synchronize than would be the case if a new OST and OAB were created for each user.

  Creating individual CDs for each user’s OST file can be time consuming, so this procedure might be most useful for select groups of remote users who would otherwise spend a lot of time waiting for the initial mailbox and OAB synchronization, perhaps at high cost depending on their remote connection scenario.

• Deploy Outlook 2003 with Cached Exchange Mode to groups of users at a time.

  By upgrading groups of users to Cached Exchange Mode over a period of time, you can balance the workload on your Exchange servers and the local area network. The network traffic and server-intensive work of populating OST files with users’ mailbox items and downloading the OAB is mitigated by rolling out the new feature in stages. The way that you create and deploy to groups of users depends on your organization’s usual deployment methods. For example, you might create groups of users in Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS), to which you would deploy—to each group, over a period of time—an SMS package that updates Outlook to use Cached Exchange Mode. To balance the load as much as possible, choose groups of users whose accounts are spread across groups of Exchange servers.

Cached Exchange Mode deployment settings

To deploy Outlook 2003 with Cached Exchange Mode, you enable the option in the Custom Installation Wizard, and then choose from several options for Cached Exchange Mode download settings (for example, Download only headers). After you configure the desired options, you save the settings with other configurations in the transform that you use to deploy Office or Outlook 2003 to your users.

If users in your organization do not already have OST files, you might choose to configure a default OST file location for Cached Exchange Mode (and offline use). If you do not specify a different OST location, Outlook will automatically create an OST in the default location when users start Outlook in Cached Exchange Mode.

To configure Cached Exchange Mode settings in the Custom Installation Wizard

1. In the Custom Installation Wizard, on the Outlook: Specify Exchange Settings page, click Configure an Exchange Server connection.

   Note that you must choose Modify Profile or New Profile on the Outlook: Customize Default Profile page in order to configure Exchange Server settings in the wizard.

2. To specify a new location for users’ OST files, click More Settings, and then click Enable offline use. Enter a folder path in the Directory path to store the Offline Address Book files box, and then click OK.

3. To specify default download behavior for Cached Exchange Mode, on the Outlook: Specify Exchange Settings page, click Configure Cached Exchange Mode.

4. Select the Use Cached Exchange Mode check box to turn on Cached Exchange Mode for users. If you do not select the check box, Cached Exchange Mode will be disabled for users by default.

5. If you selected to turn on Cached Exchange Mode in step 3, choose a default download option:

   • Download only headers Users see header information and the beginning of the message or item body (a 256 KB plain-text buffer of information). Full items are downloaded only when users click the InfoBar to request a full-item download.

   • Download headers followed by the full item All headers are downloaded first, and then full items are downloaded. The download order might not be chronological. Outlook downloads headers and then full items in the folder the user is currently accessing, and then downloads headers (followed by full items) in folders the user has recently viewed.

   • Download full items Full items are downloaded. The download order may not be chronological. Outlook downloads full items in the folder the user is currently accessing, and then downloads full items in folders the user has recently viewed.

6. To turn off Headers Only mode, clear the On slow connections, download only headers check box.

   Downloading only headers is the default behavior when users are on slow connections. However, there are scenarios in which Outlook perceives that users are on slow connections when users’ data throughput is fast, or vice versa. In these situations, you may want to set or clear this option.

7. Choose to have Public Folder Favorites downloaded as part of Cached Exchange Mode synchronizations to users’ OST files.

   By default, Public Folder Favorites are not downloaded. Downloading Public Folder Favorites might cause users’ OST files—if they use non-Unicode OSTs—to grow past the 2 GB size limit, resulting in errors when Outlook synchronizes. Also, synchronizing Public Folder Favorites causes extra network traffic that might be unwelcome for users on slow connections.

Note

If you specify a new Exchange server under Configure an Exchange Server connection, a new OST file will be created automatically for your users.

Deploying Cached Exchange Mode for users with existing OST files

If your organization includes users who already have OST files, there are several issues to consider when you deploy Cached Exchange Mode to these users:

• Users with large Exchange mailboxes If users with existing OST files have large Exchange mailboxes, they may experience errors when Outlook attempts to synchronize their mailboxes to their OST files. To help prevent this, you can first set a policy requiring new Outlook files to be Unicode-formatted, since Outlook Unicode files do not have the 2 GB size limit that Outlook ANSI files do. Then, when Outlook is deployed with Cached Exchange Mode, Outlook will create a new Unicode OST file for users that currently have ANSI OST files. Users’ existing OST (and OAB) files are not removed.

• Users without a Full Details Offline Address Book (OAB) For users who have not downloaded a Full Details Offline Address Book (OAB), a Full Details OAB will be downloaded when Cached Exchange Mode synchronizes for the first time. Existing OAB files—including files for a No Details OAB—are not removed. Depending on several factors—including the version of Exchange Server you are using, your Exchange server Unicode settings, and the Outlook client Unicode settings—the new OAB files might be Unicode. If Unicode OAB files are created, and users have ANSI OAB files (with Full Details or No Details), the ANSI OAB files are not removed.

If your Exchange Server version and settings support Unicode, you can require that new Outlook files be Unicode.

To specify Unicode for new Outlook files

1. In Group Policy, load the Outlook 2003 template (Outlk11.adm).

2. Under User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Microsoft Office Outlook 2003\Miscellaneous, double-click Preferred PST Mode (Unicode/ANSI).

3. Select Enabled to enable configuring the policy.

4. In the drop-down list under Choose a default format for new PSTs, select Enforce Unicode PST, and then click OK.

Using policy to enforce Cached Exchange Mode settings

By using Group Policy, You can help prevent users from enabling Cached Exchange Mode in Outlook, or enforce download options for Cached Exchange Mode—for example, you can specify that users cannot set Download Only Headers.

If you prefer to specify default settings for Cached Exchange Mode instead of locking down the options, use the Custom Installation Wizard and specify settings on the Change Office User Settings page. The Cached Exchange Mode settings are in the same location in the Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 tree on this page as they are in the Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 tree in Group Policy.

To lock down Cached Exchange Mode options in Group Policy

1. In Group Policy, load the Outlook 2003 template (Outlk11.adm).

2. To require Cached Exchange Mode for users, under User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Microsoft Office Outlook 2003\Cached Exchange Mode, double-click Disable Cached Exchange Mode on new profiles.

3. Click the Enabled radio button to enable configuring the policy.

4. Clear the Check to disable Cached Exchange Mode on new profiles check box.

5. Click OK.

6. To specify that new user profiles will use Cached Exchange Mode and to select the download mode for new user profiles, double-click Cached Exchange Mode (File | Cached Exchange Mode).

7. Click the Enabled radio button to enable configuring download options for Cached Exchange Mode in new Outlook user profiles.

8. In the Select Cached Exchange Mode for new profiles drop-down list, select a download option. For example, select Download Full Items.

9. Click OK.

10. To disallow setting the option to Download Full Items for existing user profiles with Cached Exchange Mode configured, double-click Disallow Download Full Items (File | Cached Exchange Mode).

    Or you can enforce other download settings by using one of the following policies instead:

    • Disallow Download Headers then Full Items (File | Cached Exchange Mode)

    • Disallow Download Headers (File | Cached Exchange Mode)

11. Click the Enabled radio button to enable configuring the policy.

12. Select the check box in the policy.

13. Click OK.

Note

Outlook is configured to optimize timing for synchronization with Exchange servers. However, there may be circumstances when you need to modify the default synchronization values.

For example, you can specify the default times between synchronizations with the Exchange servers when data changes on an Exchange server—in which case those changes will be downloaded—or when data changes on the client computer—in which case those changes will be uploaded. You can configure these options as defaults by using the Change Office User Settings page in the Custom Installation Wizard or lock down the settings by using Group Policy. These synchronization settings are available under the same location as the other Cached Exchange Mode settings (for example, in Group Policy, go to User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Microsoft Office Outlook 2003\Cached Exchange Mode).