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Resource Coordinators: Enabling and Disabling the Offline Address Book

If you are a resource coordinator, it is strongly recommended that you disable Outlook's ability to download the Offline Address Book by using the steps outlined in the Disable the Offline Address Book section. Doing so will allow you to see resources in the GAL within a few minutes of creating them using the Resource Coordinator Tools. Otherwise, Outlook stores a "cached" copy of the address book, which is updated daily. Steps to re-enable the Offline Address Book are also provided.

Disable the Offline Address Book - Updated Aug. 1 2008 for Windows Vista

  1. Close Outlook.
  2. Download the Disable/Enable Offline Address Book Scripts (ZIP)
  3. From Windows Explorer, open (by double-clicking) the OutlookOABDownloadScripts.zip file from the location where it was downloaded.
  4. Run (by double-clicking) the OutlookDisableOABDownload.vbs script. Note - in Windows Vista, right-click on the script and select "Run As Administrator" (your local IT support person may need to provide administrative credentials at this step).
  5. If it runs successfully, you should see the following confirmation message:

    Modify Members

    At this point, Outlook will no longer automatically download the offline address book. However, if you click the "Send/Receive" button within Outlook, by default it will reset your offline address book setting - in effect it re-enables the offline address book. To prevent this from happening, complete the following steps.
  6. Open Outlook
  7. Go to "Tools" > "Send/Receive" > "Send/Receive Settings" > "Define Send/Receive Groups"
  8. Highlight the group "All Accounts" and click "Edit"
  9. In Outlook 2007, check the "Include the selected account in this group" checkbox
  10. Uncheck the "Download offline address book" checkbox
  11. Click "OK"
  12. Click "Close"

Enable the Offline Address Book

  1. Close Outlook.
  2. Download the Disable/Enable Offline Address Book Scripts (ZIP)
  3. From Windows Explorer, open (by double-clicking) the OutlookOABDownloadScripts.zip file from the location where it was downloaded.
  4. Run (by double-clicking) the OutlookDisableOABDownload.vbs script. Note - in Windows Vista, right-click on the script and select "Run As Administrator" (your local IT support person may need to provide administrative credentials at this step).
  5. If it runs successfully, you should see the following confirmation message:

    Modify Members 

Manually Change Offline Address Book Settings

You can manually edit your Registry and configure the following key to DISABLE the Offline Address Book (note that you will need to create the "Cached Mode" Registry key if it is not already present):

Outlook 2007
  • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\Cached Mode
  • Parameter: DownloadOAB
  • Type: REG_DWORD
  • Value: 0
Outlook 2003
  • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Cached Mode
  • Parameter: DownloadOAB
  • Type: REG_DWORD
  • Value: 0
Note that a value of 1 will ENABLE the Offline Address Book

Once the Registry is configured correctly, you must delete all *.OAB files from your profile for the change to take effect. These files are located at the following paths:

  • XP: "c:\Documents and Settings\%UserName%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook"
  • Vista: "c:\Users\%UserName%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\"

For more information, please see the Microsoft TechNet article titled Administering the offline address book in Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007.