Disable signature edit buttons in outlook

[neufuse Veteran]

Is there anyway to disable these buttons in outlook via GPO or writing an add-on code like in VSTO / Outlook object model? We don't want to disble the entire form like all the group policies I've seen, we want the user to be able to select their new and reply signatures, but the actual available signatures will be generated for the user via scripts that will pull info from the LDAP provider.

Anyone ever do this before or know what the ID's are for these buttons to disable them via GPO? I found ID's to disable items on the stationery page but not this page...

I'm talking about the highlighted buttons in this picture

[Haggis Veteran]

looking at this

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/exchangesvrclientslegacy/thread/4619e306-c7d8-42d1-bb10-65060d6254dc

You cant as they are stored client side

you can disable all signatures

[neufuse Veteran]

  On 15/05/2013 at 12:22, Haggis said:

looking at this

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/exchangesvrclientslegacy/thread/4619e306-c7d8-42d1-bb10-65060d6254dc

You cant as they are stored client side

you can disable all signatures

the response from the MSFT person isn't even correct, you can disable more then just all signatures, we've already done it we just can't get to the point we just disable those buttons, and the fact the signatures are stored locally is a non-issue as we regenerate these files at every start of outlook via our add-on we wrote..

[sc302 Veteran]

If you are using exchange 2007 or above, you can put in signatures based on a transport rule and completely disable signatures on the client side. In 2007 I setup one of my coworkers signatures stating that his manager caught him playing with his spaceball dolls again...this would only be sent out when replying to a certain user.

[neufuse Veteran]

  On 17/05/2013 at 13:59, sc302 said:

If you are using exchange 2007 or above, you can put in signatures based on a transport rule and completely disable signatures on the client side. In 2007 I setup one of my coworkers signatures stating that his manager caught him playing with his spaceball dolls again...this would only be sent out when replying to a certain user.

we went down that route until some departments had special signatures for certain situations... and they didn't want them put in in other situations, the rules we came up with didn't fit into the transport hub rules system... we ended up writing out own program to do this at the client level and managed through AD who gets the application ran on them.. we just made it so every time outlook starts it replaces any edits they made with the standard sig at this point

[sc302 Veteran]

the rules can be made to be changed when using certain phrases, or being sent to certain people/domains.

If you are at a standard sig point, then you could just apply that across the board. You can have different sigs for different depts. Not sure what the difference between this and having a application ran on certain users who get the application ran on them.

[neufuse Veteran]

  On 17/05/2013 at 17:21, sc302 said:

the rules can be made to be changed when using certain phrases, or being sent to certain people/domains.

If you are at a standard sig point, then you could just apply that across the board. You can have different sigs for different depts. Not sure what the difference between this and having a application ran on certain users who get the application ran on them.

a huge difference, some departments have multiple signatures depending on what client they are working with, they need to select the signature that relates to that client.. the format is standardized, but disclaimers and other information in the signature changes based on what client gets the email or what info is in the email... something that isn't easily made into a set of rules without an external information

the hub transport layer can't look at the email figure out the client then compare it to a very big list of clients and figure out what type of documents are going via e-mail then tie the correct signature to it in an easy fashion

plus we had users complain the signature was always at the bottom of the message when it was sent via the hub transport layer, when they complain to the CEO we are told do it another way so add those two reasons together and you get why its being done this way

[sc302 Veteran]

The hub transport can figure out who by mail address or by a what the message header contains or by what the subject line contains. You can set it up by member of distribution list or by individual user.

If you are saying that they need to select their sigs based on what they are doing...what they are doing should have identifiable text either in the body or in the subject which could be used to have the transport change the sig

Here is an example of a by mail address. I just created this and tested against my gmail account...it works just fine.

[neufuse Veteran]

  On 17/05/2013 at 19:02, sc302 said:

The hub transport can figure out who by mail address or by a what the message header contains or by what the subject line contains. You can set it up by member of distribution list or by individual user.

If you are saying that they need to select their sigs based on what they are doing...what they are doing should have identifiable text either in the body or in the subject which could be used to have the transport change the sig

Here is an example of a by mail address. I just created this and tested against my gmail account...it works just fine.

we know about all that, it still doesn't fit what users and the CEO want therefore it is not an acceptable it... trust me, hub transport rules do not work for our situation we've already spent a lot of time looking into it and trying to find ways to make it work, it in the end does not work for our situation