Disable Mail app via GPO

dinci5 · 11 Apr 2017

Hello,

In our environment we have the problem that the default association for the mailto: protocol is not consistently set to open Outlook.

So many users who click a mailto: link will be presented with the Mail app instead of Outlook.
Then they end up logging in their Office 365 account in the Mail app.

I can't seem to find the GPO to disable the Mail app completely.
I now ended up changing my default SCCM deployment to uninstall the Mail app but we still have about 1k devices with the app still installed.

Also, I'm pretty sure if we later this year start the upgrade to the latest W10 build the app will probably be installed again.

So, does anybody know how to disable this freaking thing via GPO?

Thank you

dalchina · 11 Apr 2017

Hi, you've probably checked this setting:

Disable Mail app via GPO-snap-2017-04-11-09.11.29.jpg

- it used to be one people missed.

And you can run through the settings there to see if there are any remaining associated with Mail e.g. .eml

Also try this:

Disable Mail app via GPO-snap-2017-04-11-09.18.54.jpg

I don't know if the following helps in your situation:
Turn On or Off Email for Account in Windows 10 Mail app - Windows 10 Browsers Email Tutorials

dinci5 · 11 Apr 2017

It's not a problem to change it manually.
I didn't miss that option :)

The problem is that we need to do it on 1k devices and for us the best thing would be if could disable the Mail app completely via GPO.

dalchina · 11 Apr 2017

Just wondering if that would solve it? If you have something changing the default association or mail program back to Mail, and Mail were disabled by GPO. wouldn't that simply result in the relevant message, Mail being blocked, sthg like

Disable Mail app via GPO-snap-2017-04-11-09.45.36.jpg

Perhaps, if you can't work out why the default is reverting to Mail, you might consider changing the permissions for the relevant registry keys.. a bit drastic though!

People using an old version of Winzip found their defaults reset on restart. There was one other program that had that effect as I recall.

Another thought was that settings were being synced.

You might consider trying something like this:
http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/wi...-associations/

dinci5 · 11 Apr 2017

You have a point there. That's definitely something I'll need to pay attention to.

I'm honestly not sure what registry keys I need to change to force the association for the mailto: protocol.

In the regisry key "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Clients\Mail" nothing changes when I change the default association for Email.

It's probably written into an XML file... I'll check out if I find anything in there.

dalchina · 11 Apr 2017

If you want to find out what changes in the registry after a particular action, try regshot (free),
Scans the registry before, then after the change, then gives a comparison listing whatever's been added/deleted/changed.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Classes\AppXdyw2j75xqd0y008p4bvtxhnxp3py2t2g
is for Mail
- so presumably take the idea from
http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/wi...-associations/
using that.