Configuration guide: Outlook - Stability and Compliance
For many companies, Microsoft Outlook has become an essential tool for communication and collaboration between employees and third parties. It is imperative, therefore, that IT teams are able to monitor the status of this application across the organization in terms of performance, stability, adoption, and network connectivity.
Prerequisites
To get started with this library pack, please ensure all related content is installed and configured appropriately. This page guides which content is included and how to configure it.
Please keep in mind this is just a guide and represents suggested configurations. You can customize and edit content as you see fit based on your specific environment.
Included content and dependencies
| Type | Name | Description | Dependencies |
|---|---|---|---|
Outlook - Stability and compliance | Provides visibility over key performance, adoption, and compliance data points from the Outlook landscape | ||
Get Outlook Storage Info | Obtains the number of PST and OST files a user has connected to Outlook, and their overall size. | Required to populate specific dashboard widgets. | |
Get Outlook Plugins | Retrieves the installed Microsoft Office Outlook COM Add-ins sorted by status and name. | Required to populate specific dashboard widgets. | |
Get Outlook add-in diagnostics | Provides a deeper view into Outlook add-in performance and Outlook stability | Required to populate specific dashboard widgets. | |
Set Outlook Plugins | Enables or disables each Microsoft Office Outlook COM add-in specified in the parameters. | ||
Repair Outlook OST problems | Repairs Outlook problems with OST file by deleting it and restarting Outlook. | ||
Restart Outlook - Invoke | Notifies the user that Outlook needs to restart to apply changes. | Required to include self-help with the "Repair Outlook OST problems" remote action. | |
Set Outlook plugins - Invoke | Notifies the user that Outlook must be closed. | Required to include a notification with the "Set Outlook plugins" remote action. |
Configuring Outlook - Stability and ComplianceTo use this library pack effectively, the content must be installed and configured appropriately
The content must be installed and configured appropriately to effectively use this library pack. Below are some suggested steps to properly install and configure the content before use.
Step 1) Install library pack content
Go to the Nexthink Library and install all required content.
Step 2) Configure remote action(s)
Navigate to the manage remote action administration page to review and edit your remote actions.
We recommend the following configurations for these remote actions:
| Name | Trigger | Schedule query | Parameters to edit |
|---|---|---|---|
Get Outlook plugins | Scheduled, weekly | ||
Get Outlook storage info | Scheduled, weekly | ||
Get Outlook add-in diagnostics | Scheduled, weekly |
| |
Set Outlook plugins | Manual, can be triggered on multiple devices |
| |
Repair Outlook OST problems | Manual, can be triggered on multiple devices |
|
Get Outlook add-in diagnostics configuration
For some organizations, the presence and function of specific Outlook add-ins is critical for effective employee productivity, whether it is to control access to a specific resource, or allow the signing of specific content.
To effectively track the operation of these business critical add-ins a new remote action has been provided as part of this pack, “Get Outlook add-in diagnostics” that can monitor up to seven pre-defined add-ins to provide the following information:
The add-in version
The time taken to start
The number of add-in crashes within the last 24 hours
Whether the add-in is disabled
If disabled, a description of why the add-in was disabled
To configure this remote action, please follow these steps.
Run the remote action “Get Outlook plug-ins” on all relevant Windows devices and use the output to identify the add-ins that you would like to track on those devices
Edit the remote action “Get Outlook add-in diagnostics”
For each of the seven add-in parameters, enter the add-in name that you want to track.\
Schedule the remote action to run on all required Windows devices daily
Step 3) Edit campaigns
Navigate to the manage campaigns administration page to review and edit your campaigns.
For each installed campaign, please ensure to:
Customize the sender name and image.
Review and adjust questions.
Publish the campaign when you are ready to use it.
We recommend the following configurations for these campaigns:
| Name | Trigger | Priority |
|---|---|---|
Restart Outlook - Invoke | Remote action | Not urgent |
Set Outlook plugins - Invoke | Remote action | Not urgent |
Usage
To know more about how this dashboard should be used, please refer to the Usage Guide:
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