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Nexthink Library

Outlook – Remote Actions

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Outlook – Remote Actions

Latest Version: 3.0.0.0
|
Updated on April 15, 2024
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Description

This pack provides Remote Actions that fix several Microsoft Office Outlook related issues by:

  • Clearing corrupted auto-complete caches.
  • Repairing invalid OST files and forcing Microsoft Office Outlook to work online on devices.
  • Manages plugins to enforce company policies.
  • Gathers information about the currently connected PST and OST files, including their overall size.

Versions

  • 3.0.0.0 - 15 Apr 2024 - Added 'Get Outlook add in diagnostics' Remote Action
  • 2.3.4.0 - 27 Oct 2023 - Updated OS requirements
  • 2.3.3.4 - 22 Jul 2022 - Fixed versioning bug
  • 2.3.3.3 - Improved documentation and added warning message in "Get Outlook Storage Info" Remote Action
  • 2.3.3.2 - 19 Apr 2021 - Renaming pack to "Outlook - Remote Actions"
  • 2.3.3.1 - Updating description and renaming the library pack from "Microsoft Outlook" to "Outlook - Management"
  • 2.3.3.0 - Updated "Clear Outlook AutoComplete Cache" and "Repair Outlook OST Problem" Remote Actions description
  • 2.3.2.0 - Updated "Get Outlook Plugins" Remote Action improving the detection function for MS Office installation and version
  • 2.3.1.0 - Fixed "Get Outlook Plugin Crash Details" Remote Action
  • 2.3.0.0 - Updated "Get Outlook Plugin Crash Details" Remote Action
  • 2.2.0.0 - Updated "Get Outlook Storage Info" Remote Action
  • 2.1.0.0 - Updated "Get Outlook Storage Info" Remote Action
  • 2.0.1.0 - Parameter renamed in Get Outlook Storage Info Remote Action
  • 2.0.0.0 - Added "Get Outlook Storage Info" Remote Action
  • 1.0.0.0 - Initial release

Required Products

Nexthink Act
Nexthink Engage

Platforms

Windows 7 and newer
Microsoft Outlook 2013 onwards

Compatibility

V6.14 and later

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Clear Outlook AutoComplete Cache

Script Description

Clears the AutoComplete cache so user can avoid out-of-date suggestions as a result of a migration process or similar.

Warning: This Remote Action permanently deletes Microsoft Outlook cache from all targeted devices.

Execution context and suggested scheduling

Run the script as 'interactive user'. The script should be executed manually.

A timeout of 120 seconds is recommended.

Parameters

Label Description
Campaign Id ID of the campaign to notify user that Outlook must be restarted. If it's an empty ID, the campaign won't be called

Outputs

None.

Get Outlook Plugins

Script Description

Retrieves the installed Microsoft Office Outlook COM Add-ins sorted by status and name.

Execution context and suggested scheduling

Run the script as 'interactive user'. The script should be executed manually.

A timeout of 120 seconds is recommended.

Parameters

None.

Outputs

Label Type Description
Outlook Plugins Count Int Number of Microsoft Outlook Add-ins
Outlook Plugins Info StringList List of Microsoft Outlook Add-ins sorted by status and name. It displays the name, version and status of each Add-in

Get Outlook Plugin Crash Details

Script Description

This Remote Action can be used to retrieve details of Microsoft Outlook crashes - this includes faulting outlook executable crashes, and also crashes caused by Outlook plugins.

The most recently detected crash (if any are available) is displayed in the output.

The information is gathered by the Remote Action inspecting the Application Event Log for event ID's 1000 (application crashes) filtered to Microsoft Outlook.

Execution context and suggested scheduling

Run the script as 'local system'. The script should be executed manually.

A timeout of 120 seconds is recommended.

Parameters

Label Description
Crash Event Age In Days Number of days since crash event was created to include in scope. Provide 0 to search entire log

Outputs

Label Type Description
Last Crashed Plugin Date DateTime Date of last logged crash of a Microsoft Outlook plugin
Last Crashed Plugin Name String Name of last logged crash of a Microsoft Outlook plugin
Maximum Crash Count Plugin Name String Name of a Microsoft Outlook plugin that crashed most frequently
Crashed Plugin List StringList A list of all logged Microsoft Outlook plugin crashes with its total count, sorted by most recent date

Get Outlook Storage Info

Script Description

Obtains the number of PST and OST files a user has connected to Outlook, and their overall size.

Execution context and suggested scheduling

Run the script as 'interactive user'. The script should be executed manually.

A timeout of 120 seconds is recommended.

Parameters

Label Description
OST size threshold Size in GB of the OST file to check. OST files exceeded the value are reported

Outputs

Label Type Description
PST Overall Size Size Total amount of size the PST files that the current user has connected to Outlook
Number of PST Files Int Number of PST files current user has connected to Outlook
Number of PST Files in Network Int Number of PST files current user has connected to Outlook on a network folder
PST Files in Network List StringList List of PST files current user has connected to Outlook on a network folder
PST Files In Network Overall Size Size Total amount of size of the PST files located in Network folder
OST Overall Size Size Total amount of size the OST files are taking in the machine. The Outlook Application size calculation may differ from the real file size
Number of OST Files Int Number of OST files current user has connected to Outlook
OST Threshold Exceeded Bool If an OST file on the device exceeds the threshold input this value is set to True
OST Threshold Exceeded Paths String List of file paths showing the OST files which have breached the threshold input value

Further Information

This Remote Action uses COM objects and sometimes they do not work as expected under certain configurations.

This may cause Outlook to be executed and displayed to the user even if it was not running before.

Before running this Remote Action in a large group of devices, try it on a test environment to check if Outlook is never visible to the user during the whole process.

Test Scenarios

NoPSTConnected
Test Case User does not have any PST files connected to Outlook
Environment Windows 7 x64 (ES) / Windows 10 x64 (EN)
Results Success - PSTOverallSize was 0B
MultiplePSTFiles
Test Case User has more than one PST file connected to Outlook
Environment Windows 7 x64 (ES) / Windows 10 x64 (EN)
Results Success - PSTOverallSize was the sum of all connected PST file sizes.
PasswordProtectedPST
Test Case User has a password-protected PST file connected to Outlook
Environment Windows 7 x64 (ES) / Windows 10 x64 (EN)
Results Failure - Password-protected PST files are not supported. Hence, the script was not able to retrieve accurate data and failed.
NetworkPSTFiles
Test Case User has one or more PST files in a Network location connected to Outlook
Environment Windows 7 x64 (ES) / Windows 10 x64 (EN)
Results Success - Count, paths and size of the PST files in a network location are shown correctly

Repair Outlook OST Problem

Script Description

Repairs Outlook problems with OST files by deleting the OST files and restarting Outlook. Runs a campaign to close applications blocking OST files (Eg. Outlook and Teams). The script is designed for Windows and Outlook 2010 onwards.

Warning: This Remote Action starts the simultaneous download of Microsoft Outlook emails on all targeted devices. Please ensure that the available network capacity is appropriate for the number of targeted devices.

Execution context and suggested scheduling

Run the script as 'interactive user'. The script should be executed manually.

A timeout of 120 seconds is recommended.

Parameters

Label Description
Campaign Id ID of the campaign to notify user that Outlook and Teams must be closed

Outputs

None.

Set Outlook online

Script Description

Checks if Outlook is working offline, and sets it to online if it is not already.

Execution context and suggested scheduling

Run the script as 'interactive user'. The script should be executed manually.

A timeout of 120 seconds is recommended.

Parameters

Label Description
Campaign Id ID of the campaign to notify user that Outlook must be restarted. If it's an empty ID, the campaign won't be called

Outputs

None.

Further Information

Outlook must be restarted after this action for the changes to take effect.

Set Outlook Plugins

Script Description

Enables or disables each Microsoft Office Outlook COM add-in specified in the parameters. The names of the available add-ins can be found by running the 'Get Outlook Plugins' Remote Action.Campaign can be skipped by providing an empty ID as input CampaignId.

Execution context and suggested scheduling

Run the script as 'local system'. The script should be executed manually.

A timeout of 720 seconds is recommended.

Parameters

Label Description
Campaign Id ID of the campaign to notify user that Outlook must be closed. Provide an empty ID to enable execution without campaign
Action Enable or disable the desired add-ins. Accepted values are 'enable' and 'disable'
Plugin Names Comma-separated list of words to be matched with the addins. For example, 'skype' or 'microsoft'

Outputs

Label Type Description
Outlook Plugins Configured StringList List status of all Microsoft Outlook add-ins provided in input argument 'PluginName'

Further Information

Add-in names do not have to be exact, for example 'skype'. The script is designed only for devices which do not use GPO setting to manage Microsoft Outlook plugins.

Get Outlook Online

Script Description

Checks if Outlook, part of Microsoft Office product, is working online.

Execution context and suggested scheduling

Run the script as 'interactive user'. The script should be executed manually.

A timeout of 120 seconds is recommended.

Parameters

None.

Outputs

Label Type Description
Is Online Bool Microsoft Outlook is working online (yes/no)

Get Outlook add in diagnostics

Script Description

This Remote Action helps to give organizations a deeper view into Outlook add-in performance and Outlook stability, to make it easy to understand where Outlook add-ins are experiencing poor startup performance or stability problems, which are causing add-ins to be set to disabled.

Execution context and suggested scheduling

Run the script as 'interactive user'. The script should be executed manually.

A timeout of 120 seconds is recommended.

Parameters

Label Description
add in name 1 Name of the Outlook add-in to analyze
add in name 2 Name of the Outlook add-in to analyze
add in name 3 Name of the Outlook add-in to analyze
add in name 4 Name of the Outlook add-in to analyze
add in name 5 Name of the Outlook add-in to analyze
add in name 6 Name of the Outlook add-in to analyze
add in name 7 Name of the Outlook add-in to analyze

Outputs

Label Type Description
outlook version String Version of Outlook
number outlook crashes last 24 hours Int Number of crashes detected for Outlook in the last 24 hours
add in name 1 String Name of Outlook add-in
add in version 1 String Version of Outlook add-in
add in time to start 1 Millisecond Time taken for Outlook add-in to start
add in number crashes last 24 hours 1 Int Number of crashes detected for Outlook add-in in the last 24 hours (based on Outlook application event log ID 59)
add in disabled 1 Bool Add-in is disabled True or False
add in disable reason 1 String The description of why the add-in was disabled
add in name 2 String Name of Outlook add-in
add in version 2 String Version of Outlook add-in
add in time to start 2 Millisecond Time taken for Outlook add-in to start
add in number crashes last 24 hours 2 Int Number of crashes detected for Outlook add-in in the last 24 hours (based on Outlook application event log ID 59)
add in disabled 2 Bool Add-in is disabled True or False
add in disable reason 2 String The description of why the add-in was disabled
add in name 3 String Name of Outlook add-in
add in version 3 String Version of Outlook add-in
add in time to start 3 Millisecond Time taken for Outlook add-in to start
add in number crashes last 24 hours 3 Int Number of crashes detected for Outlook add-in in the last 24 hours (based on Outlook application event log ID 59)
add in disabled 3 Bool Add-in is disabled True or False
add in disable reason 3 String The description of why the add-in was disabled
add in name 4 String Name of Outlook add-in
add in version 4 String Version of Outlook add-in
add in time to start 4 Millisecond Time taken for Outlook add-in to start
add in number crashes last 24 hours 4 Int Number of crashes detected for Outlook add-in in the last 24 hours (based on Outlook application event log ID 59)
add in disabled 4 Bool Add-in is disabled True or False
add in disable reason 4 String The description of why the add-in was disabled
add in name 5 String Name of Outlook add-in
add in version 5 String Version of Outlook add-in
add in time to start 5 Millisecond Time taken for Outlook add-in to start
add in number crashes last 24 hours 5 Int Number of crashes detected for Outlook add-in in the last 24 hours (based on Outlook application event log ID 59)
add in disabled 5 Bool Add-in is disabled True or False
add in disable reason 5 String The description of why the add-in was disabled
add in name 6 String Name of Outlook add-in
add in version 6 String Version of Outlook add-in
add in time to start 6 Millisecond Time taken for Outlook add-in to start
add in number crashes last 24 hours 6 Int Number of crashes detected for Outlook add-in in the last 24 hours (based on Outlook application event log ID 59)
add in disabled 6 Bool Add-in is disabled True or False
add in disable reason 6 String The description of why the add-in was disabled
add in name 7 String Name of Outlook add-in
add in version 7 String Version of Outlook add-in
add in time to start 7 Millisecond Time taken for Outlook add-in to start
add in number crashes last 24 hours 7 Int Number of crashes detected for Outlook add-in in the last 24 hours (based on Outlook application event log ID 59)
add in disabled 7 Bool Add-in is disabled True or False
add in disable reason 7 String The description of why the add-in was disabled
all outlook add ins enabled Bool If the Remote Action detects that one or more Outlook add-ins on the device are disabled this output is set to True

Further Information

This Remote Action is gives a company-wide view on failing add-ins which have been set to disabled-mode, and slow-to-launch add-in's, which helps companies to quickly see where problematic add-ins exist. This can then provide the first step in troubleshooting the problem and having conversations with vendors, where you can provide hard facts into the status across your endpoint estate.
Please note the following specifications when using this Remote Action:

The Remote Action only supports COM object based add-ins.
The Remote Action only works and is able to collect date when Microsoft Outlook is running
The output 'number_outlook_crashes_last_24_hours' is based on the detection of Windows application event log ID 1000
The output 'add_in_time_to_start' is based on the Windows application event log ID 45
The add-in version is based on the registry information, and depending on the add-in design, in some cases the information may not be available, in this instance we report '-'
The outputs 'outlook_version', 'add_in_name', 'add_in_version' and 'add_in_disabled' and based on COM objects.