MC264090: Outlook and Exchange for Business: Microsoft Outlook browser extension for Edge

This new release will enable some Windows 10 users, who are using Outlook on the web or Outlook for Windows, to see a clickable recommendation to visit the browser extension page for Outlook in Edge where they can choose to install the extension. This notification will be displayed in any Windows browser (i.e., Edge, Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, etc.) and in Outlook for Windows. This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID: 82036.

The Microsoft Outlook browser extension brings you the power of mail, calendar, contacts, and tasks using an icon in Microsoft Edge. Quickly access your Outlook work account or your Outlook.com or Hotmail account without switching to another tab or app. The extension will be available in the Chrome Store soon as well.

Affected Workloads

• Exchange Online
• Microsoft 365 Apps

Note

• If you do not want your users to see the recommendations for the new Microsoft Outlook Extension for Edge, you can opt out of these for your organization.
• The recommendations for the new Microsoft Outlook Extension for Edge will not be available to Microsoft 365 Government customers (GCC, High GCC, DoD) at this time.

Key points

• Timing: Targeted release (entire org.) will begin and complete rollout in late July.
• Standard release will begin and complete rollout in early August.
• Roll-out: tenant level
• Control type: Group Policy/Cloud Policy
• Action: review, assess, and take action to manage the recommendation as appropriate for your organization between now and July 30, 2021 if you don’t want the banner to be visible in your organization.

How this will affect your organization

Clicking on the mentioned recommendation will take the user to the Microsoft Outlook extension page in the Edge extension store.

• The recommendation will show up as a dismissible header banner, for Outlook on the web and Outlook for Windows, and will show at most three per user in each app.
• Future promotions for the extension could be displayed in other locations.

Here are examples of what the banner will look like for Windows 10 users in Outlook on the web and in Outlook for Windows.

Outlook on the web:

Outlook for Windows:

Your users will see recommendations to install the publicly available Microsoft Outlook Extension for Edge. Your users can dismiss the recommendation. They will see the recommendations at most two more times within a 60-day period before it is suppressed permanently.

Users can decide whether to install the Outlook extension.

The extension shows a user’s email, calendar, contacts, and tasks from an icon in Microsoft Edge without requiring that they open another browser tab. The extension is a “mini” version of Outlook on the web which operates as a one-click flyout from the browser header:

What you need to do to prepare

To opt-out of this recommendation and prevent the banner from appearing in your organization, please perform the below steps by July 30, 2021:

Using the Office Cloud Policy Service

You can configure the “Recommend the Microsoft Outlook Extension” policy to ‘Disabled’ using the Office Cloud Policy Service (OCPS).

Configuring the policy in OCPS will disable this functionality in both Outlook on the web or Outlook for Windows.

Click here for instructions on how to configure policies with OCPS.

Using Group Policy Management

In the future, the ADMX templates will be updated to include this new policy – “Recommend the Microsoft Outlook Extension”.

In the meantime, the following registry key can be configured which will disable this functionality in Outlook for Windows.

• Path: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Office\16.0\outlook\options
• Key: RecommendOutlookExtension
• Type: DWORD
• Value: 0 = Disabled, 1 = Enabled

Message ID: MC264090
Published: 23 June 2021
Updated: 01 July 2021
Effective: July 26, 2021
Action required by date: 30 July 2021