Set Outlook stationery via Powershell

Question

I want to set Outlook stationery to a particular template on all the machines on my network using Powershell (through a login script).

Can someone point me in the right direction?

Thanks,

Ben

Answer 1

The good news is that the setting is in the registry, per-user. You just need to have your PowerShell script create/update the value.

The key is: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Common\MailSettings and the Value is NewTheme. The data is where it gets a little tricky.

The format of the data is "theme XYZ" where X/Y/Z is either 0 (for off) or 1 (for on). This page gives the details:

The format of the Name string is "theme nnn" where theme and nnn are defined as follows:

theme – The name of the folder that contains the data for the requested theme. (The default location for theme data folders is C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Themes11.) You must use the folder name for the theme rather than the display name that appears in the Theme dialog box.

nnn – A three-digit string that indicates which theme formatting options to activate (1 to activate, 0 to deactivate). The digits correspond to the VividColors, ActiveGraphics, and BackgroundImage check boxes in the Theme dialog box. If this string is omitted, the default value for nnn is "011" (Active Graphics and Background Image are activated).

From playing around with it, Outlook seems to use "011" for the setting. Also note that the file path for the available themes is Themes11 for Outlook 2003 and Themes12 for Outlook 2007.