In Outlook 2003, S/MIME preference settings are treated as policy settings unexpectedly

Consider the following scenario:

• You use an S/MIME certificate to sign and encrypt the e-mail messages in Outlook 2003.
• You set the registry to display the options for the "Encrypt contents and attachments for outgoing meetings" and "Add digital signature to outgoing messages" preference settings.
  
  To do this, you set the DWORD values of the AlwaysSign and AlwaysEncrypt registry entries under the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Security registry subkey to 1.

In this scenario, the options for the "Encrypt contents and attachments for outgoing meetings" and "Add digital signature to outgoing messages" preference settings are displayed in the Message Options dialog box as expected. However, these two options are disabled, and you cannot change the settings. Additionally, the Digitally Sign Message and Encrypt toolbar buttons are disabled.

Important This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
To display these two options and make the settings user-configurable in the Message Options dialog box, follow these steps:

1. Remove the AlwaysSign and AlwaysEncrypt registry entries from the registry.
2. Install the Outlook 2003 hotfix package that is dated February 24, 2009. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
   965495  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/965495/ ) Description of the Outlook 2003 hotfix package (Outlook.msp): February 24, 2009
3. Set the DWORD values of the InitSign and InitEncrypt registry entries to 1. For example, if you want to set the DWORD value of the InitSign registry entry to 1, follow these steps:
   1. Start Registry Editor.
      • In Windows Vista, click Start
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        , type regedit in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.
        
        
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        If you are prompted for an administrator password or for confirmation, type the password, or provide confirmation.
      • In Windows XP, click Start, click Run, type regedit in the Open box, and then click OK.
   2. Locate and then select the following registry subkey:
      HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Security
   3. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
   4. Type InitSign, and then press ENTER.
   5. Right-click InitSign, and then click Modify.
   6. In the Value data box, type 1, and then click OK.
   7. On the File menu, click Exit to exit Registry Editor.
   Note You can use these same steps to set the DWORD value of the InitSign registry entry to 1.

Note After you follow these steps and then make the changes to these settings in the Outlook user interface, the DWORD values of the InitSign and InitEncrypt registry entries will be set to 2. After that, Outlook 2003 will read the preference settings from corresponding profile properties instead of from the registry.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.