OL2000: How to Prevent Changes to the Outlook Bar (222396)

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Organizations sometimes may want to prevent individual users from making changes to program or system settings. Using the Microsoft Office 2000 Custom Installation Wizard, you can deploy a custom set of Outlook Bar shortcuts for users in an organization, but there is no direct way to prevent users from modifying those shortcuts after Outlook has been deployed.

You can use the following Visual Basic for Appications code as a basis for creating a solution, typically in the form of an Outlook COM Add-in, that will limit the user's ability to make changes to the Outlook Bar.

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NOTE: If you are already using Visual Basic for Applications code in Outlook, quit Outlook and rename the VbaProject.otm file to start off with a new project.

To limit the user's ability to make changes to the Outlook Bar, follow these steps:

1. On the Tools menu, point to Macro, and then click Visual Basic Editor.
2. In the Project Explorer pane, expand Project1 to show entries below it, and then expand Microsoft Outlook Objects to show entries below that. Double-click the ThisOutlookSession module to open the code window.
3. Add the following Visual Basic for Applications code to the ThisOutlookSession module:

   Dim WithEvents oPane As OutlookBarPane
   Dim WithEvents oGroups As OutlookBarGroups
   Dim WithEvents oShortcuts As OutlookBarShortcuts
   
   Private Sub Application_Startup()
      Set oPane = ActiveExplorer.Panes(1)
      Set oGroups = oPane.Contents.Groups
      Set oShortcuts = oPane.CurrentGroup.Shortcuts
   End Sub
   
   Private Sub oGroups_BeforeGroupAdd(Cancel As Boolean)
      MsgBox "Sorry, you cannot add a group to the Outlook Bar."
      Cancel = True
   End Sub
   
   Private Sub oGroups_BeforeGroupRemove _
         (ByVal Group As OutlookBarGroup, Cancel As Boolean)
      MsgBox "Sorry, you cannot remove a group from the Outlook Bar."
      Cancel = True
   End Sub
   
   Private Sub oPanes_BeforeGroupSwitch _
         (ByVal ToGroup As OutlookBarGroup, Cancel As Boolean)
      Set oShortcuts = ToGroup.Shortcuts
   End Sub
   
   Private Sub oShortcuts_BeforeShortcutAdd(Cancel As Boolean)
      MsgBox "Sorry, you cannot add a shortcut to the Outlook Bar."
      Cancel = True
   End Sub
   
   Private Sub oShortcuts_BeforeShortcutRemove _
         (ByVal Shortcut As OutlookBarShortcut, Cancel As Boolean)
      MsgBox "Sorry, you cannot delete a shortcut from the Outlook Bar."
      Cancel = True
   End Sub
   					

4. Restart Outlook.

With the this code running while the user is working in Outlook, the user will not be able to make changes to the Outlook bar. However, the user will still be able to rename shortcuts and groups on the Outlook Bar; there is no way to disable the renaming of the shortcuts or groups.