Configure Calendar time scale to 15 minutes in Outlook (via Group Policy)

Question

Outlook by default allows users to book meetings in 30 minute increments; this can be manually changed to allow 15 minute increments (Change the calendar time scale).

I need to deploy/control this across my organisation (ideally via group policy). I have checked Microsoft's group policy administration template but could not find anything suitable to perform this.

Any ideas on how this can be deployed/controlled?

Answer 1

Here is a script that you can tune.... It need to be run with the current user, outlook must be closed, and does not work for new teams or skype meetings.

*tested on outlook 2016

<#
2=10 minutes
3=15 minutes
4=30 minutes
0=5 minutes
5=60 minutes
1=6 minutes
#>

   $minutes = 3

if (!(Get-Process OUTLOOK -WarningAction SilentlyContinue))
{
     #Set outlook calendar time scale default
     Add-type -assembly “Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook” | out-null
     $olFolders = “Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.OlDefaultFolders” -as [type]
     $outlook = new-object -comobject outlook.application
     $namespace = $outlook.GetNameSpace(“MAPI”)
     $Calendar = [Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.OlDefaultFolders]::olFolderCalendar
     $folder = $namespace.getDefaultFolder($Calendar)

     while ($folder.CurrentView.DayWeekTimeScale -ne $minutes)
     {
        $folder.CurrentView.DayWeekTimeScale = $minutes 
     
     }
     Write-Host "Set to" $folder.CurrentView.DayWeekTimeScale
     $folder.CurrentView.Save()
     $outlook.Quit()


     #Set new meeting outlook range to 15 min
     Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Options\Calendar" -Name "EndEventsEarly" -Value 1
     Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Options\Calendar" -Name "EndEarlyShort" -Value 15
  
 }
else
{
    Write-Host "Outlook is open! The setting wasn’t set....." -ForegroundColor red
}