Deploy a prf-file via a (Group Policy) logon script
The OCT or ORK also allows you to export the Outlook mail profile as a prf-file. This prf-file can then be distributed to your users via a logon script. As logon scripts work on user instead of computer level, it will allow you to more easily deploy different mail profiles to different sets (Organizational Units) of users. Outlook offers 2 built-in mechanisms for this.
/importprf startup switch
One method is to import prf-files via the /importprf command line switch. The downside of this command line is that it will also directly launch Outlook and will execute at each logon and could therefore possibly also modify end-user alterations to the mail profile.
ImportPRF Registry value
The ImportPRF Registry value has the benefit that it can be set without needing to open Outlook. The first time that Outlook is launched, Outlook will look at this value and if it is set, it will use the specified prf-file to configure Outlook.
Key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\<version>\Outlook\Setup
Value name: ImportPRF
Value type: REG_SZ
Value: path to prf-file
For this Registry value to work, the FirstRun and First-Run value may not exist in the Setup key.
Deployment script
While setting the key for the fist time isn’t hard to do, once the FirstRun or First-Run values have been set, updating the mail profile without ending up applying it each time the user logs on is a bit more complicated. To prevent this, you can use ...