Securing Outlook

[svvampy]

Family members whose PCs I support use Outlook and it's preview pane.

Does anyone know of any way to stop the preview pane opening links, creating cookies, running scripts etc.

I use Mozilla which has options to disable html procesing in the preview pane, is there some equivalent for Outlook?

Or any other way to secure Outlook -- I thought that only allowing it access to the e-mail server would probably be good, any pointers on how I'd accomplish this?

Thanks.

Note: Stopping the use of Outlook is not feasible in this context, nor is disabling the preview pane. Who wants to wait for a new window to pop up for a two line e-mail, then have to close it and so on.

[thingy]

iirc, the only way to change these settings in Outlook also changes them in Internet Explorer. Outlook 2003 (which I don't believe has been fully released yet though I could be wrong) finally changes this (fucking took them long enough).

Other than that it's just the settings changed in Outlook alone by MS Patches.

[RASPUTIN]

Note: Stopping the use of Outlook is not feasible in this context, nor is disabling the preview pane. Who wants to wait for a new window to pop up for a two line e-mail, then have to close it and so on.

Not a real issue is you use shortcut keys. The escape closes a windows and enter opens them. The arrow keys/pgup/pgdn are the fastest way to browse through them, *shrug* works for some.


Hmm maybe reeducate them and explain the risks. You should look over your security arrangements. At home I have removed the preview pane and do a few other nasties to it. Wifey was pissed off initially but soon got used to it.

Anyway here are the options I use at home.

Get ride of the preview pane.

Goto Tools, Options.

General: Only box ticked is go directly to inbox.

Read: Everything unticked.

Send: everything ticked except "send messages immediately"

Security: In the virus protection restricted sites zone is ticked as well as Warn me when... and do not open attachements.

For you with the restrictions you have set only the read section will be of limited use. I highly recommend to set it up as suggested as you are leaving yourself wide open.

The main reason I can suggest for you to argue with them to turn off the preview panel is if you see an email from someone you know you delete it without hesitation. By having the preview panel up you risk inadvertently clicking on the message and having a little nasty get on your machine. A bit of training/time and they will get used to it and it wont be a problem. Most good virues get in as soon as outlook downloads them but at least it will stop bodgy ones.

You can also argue that you shouldn't use outlook anyway but hey I use it because I am used to it and like it. I also have a completely patched system with symantec antivirus/firewall running, popup killer and another proggy which I forget which stops all know stuff like gator etc getting on the computer. to give my pc as much of a chance of staying alive using ms products.