Sharing my Safe Senders list in Outlook 2003

[joe002]

I have one computer with multiple logins (accounts) and use Outlook 2003 for
my email. I use the same outlook.pst file with all of the users. I’ve had
this configuration for years and it works great for me.

Now I want to use the Safe Senders and Blocked Senders list for all of the
uses on my computer. Unfortunately, it appears that each user has their own
Safe Sender and Blocked Sender list. I want to share each list for each user,
but can’t figure out how to do it.

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]]

I have one computer with multiple logins (accounts) and use Outlook 2003 for
my email. I use the same outlook.pst file with all of the users. I’ve had
this configuration for years and it works great for me.

Now I want to use the Safe Senders and Blocked Senders list for all of the
uses on my computer. Unfortunately, it appears that each user has their own
Safe Sender and Blocked Sender list. I want to share each list for each
user,
but can’t figure out how to do it.

You are correct. Each person has his or her own Safe Sender list. The only
way to share yours is to export it, give or send it to others, and have them
import it. You'll need to do this every time you change it.

 

[joe002]

Thanks for the response - I was afraid of that. Yeah, I thought of the export
import thing too, but it isn’t very practical when each user may
independently update their list.

Too bad there isn’t just a simple path to point to the lists like there is
for many of the other files.

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]]

Too bad there isn’t just a simple path to point to the lists like there is
for many of the other files.

Even if there were, you couldn't share it. Outlook doesn't allow sharing of
its files.

 

[joe002]

:

Even if there were, you couldn't share it. Outlook doesn't allow sharing of
its files.

I do successfully “share†the outlook.pst file. I put it in a shared folder
on my computer and anyone that logs in can open Outlook and send/receive
email. The only thing you can’t do is have Outlook open on two desktops at
one time, but we don’t really find that a problem with our use of the
computer. I was just hoping the list would work the same way.

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]]

I do successfully “share†the outlook.pst file. I put it in a shared folder
on my computer and anyone that logs in can open Outlook and send/receive
email. The only thing you can’t do is have Outlook open on two desktops at
one time

Then you're not sharing the file. You're accessing it serially. "Sharing"
means "simultaneously".

 

[joe002]

Then you're not sharing the file. You're accessing it serially. "Sharing"
means "simultaneously".

OK. I’m not interested in simultaneous file access, just sharing the same
file between different users on the same computer. In any case, it appears
that since each user has their own list, a single list can’t be used by all
users on my computer - which would be a useful feature to me. Thanks.

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]]

OK. I’m not interested in simultaneous file access, just sharing the same
file between different users on the same computer. In any case, it appears
that since each user has their own list, a single list can’t be used by all
users on my computer - which would be a useful feature to me. Thanks.

PSTs are not Windows user-specific. The Nickname Cache is mail
profile-specific. That's how it works and you can't change it. At best, you
can transfer the name cache between profiles, but there's a probablility that
won't work.

 

[joe002]

Well, success - mostly. Disclaimer: the process below requires you to update
the registry, requires some knowledge of Outlook 2003 Junk E-Mail filtering,
and requires you to perform other procedures that can be done in more than
one way. I’m making no claim that this is the optimal - only that it works
well for my computer/setup.

I found a way to synchronize the Safe Senders List for all users on my
computer using a single file. I created a JunkMailSafeSendersFile.txt file in
the same shared folder where I keep my outlook.pst file, and exported a Safe
Senders list from one of my users into it. This file is used by Outlook to
synchronize the Safe Senders list for all user my computer.

Outlook has a way to read the file every time it starts and will use it to
update the users Safe Senders list. It takes the entries in the
JunkMailSafeSendersFile.txt and adds the new ones to the users current
entries. While you aren’t technically sharing the specified file, you get the
same affect as sharing it. To make this work you have to makes some entries
in your registry.

The Group Policy Editor makes adding the registry changes easier than typing
them all in by hand, and ensures all users have the same setting. Before
using the GPE you need to get the OUTLK11.ADM file which is located in the
Office 2003 Resource Kit (ORK.EXE). I would suggest getting the free download
directly from Microsoft.

Once you’ve run ORK.EXE you can open the Group Policy Editor and go to Local
Computer Policy/User Configuration/Administrative Templates. Right click on
it and add OUTLK11ADM. Next go Local Computer Policy/User
Configuration/Administrative Templates/Microsoft Office Outlook 2003/Tools |
Options/Preferences/Junk E-mail. In "Specify path to Safe Senders list" add
the path to your JunkMailSafeSendersFile.txt file. I also made "Trust E-mail
from Contacts" the default, and "Junk E-Mail protection level" to "Trusted
List Only". You’ve now setup most of the registry entries for all users, but
you have to add one more manually. For each user go to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Options\Mail
and add (REG_DWORD) JunkMailImportLists as 1. This is the entry that tells
Outlook to read the Safe Senders list every time it’s started.

At this point you are all setup. When Outlook starts, it reads the
JunkMailSafeSendersFile.txt and adds the new entries to the users Safe
Senders List. To initially synchronize all users’ lists you need to go to
each user, start Outlook, and “Export to File…†each users list. When you’re
done the JunkMailSafeSendersFile.txt file will have all entries from each
user. As a user adds a new entry to their Safe Senders list they need to
export the list back to JunkMailSafeSendersFile.txt which will basically
update the list for everyone. Deleting an entry from the list is a little
more difficult. You need to log in to each user, start Outlook, delete the
entry, and export the list. You have to do this for all users because an
entry isn’t deleted until it’s deleted from all lists.

To summarize, you can create a Safe Senders List that is read by Outlook
every time it starts and is used by Outlook to update and synchronize the
users Safe Senders List automatically. To add an entry to the list the user
must update their personal list then Export the list so all users will get
the change. To delete an entry from the list you have to go to each user and
delete the entry from their list and export the list.