Photos are still downloaded after you enable the “Do not download photos from Active Directory” policy for Outlook 2010

You enable the Do not download photos from Active Directory policy for Microsoft Outlook 2010. However, photos for users in your organization are still downloaded by the Outlook Social Connector, and the photos are displayed in the People Pane.

The Do not download photos from Active Directory policy is shown in the following illustration.



The following illustration shows the People Pane that displays the photo for a user in the global address list (GAL).

This problem occurs because the registry value for the Do not download photos from Active Directory policy in the Outlk14.adm and Outlk14.admx Group Policy templates is incorrect. These templates configure the DWORD value of DownloadPhotosFromAD registry entry under the following registry subkey on an Outlook 2010 client:


However, the correct DWORD value to control the download of photos from Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) is named DownloadDetailsFromAD.

To resolve this problem, modify the Group Policy template that you are using to administer Outlook 2010. To do this, follow these steps.

Note You have to remove the Group Policy template for Outlook 2010 from the Local Group Policy Editor before you make this change. This means that you have to reconfigure all the Outlook 2010 policy settings that you previously configured before you remove the template from the Local Group Policy Editor.

1. Open the Group Policy template (Outlk14.adm or Outlk14.admx) in a text editor such as Notepad.
2. Search for the following text.
   Note There are two instances of DownloadPhotosFromAD in the Group Policy templates. Make sure that you locate the exact text that is provided in this step and not the text for the other and correct instance of DownloadPhotosFromAD. For more information about the correct instance, see the "More details about the second instance of DownloadPhotosFromAD setting in the Group Policy templates" section.
   
   
   • Outlk14.adm
     POLICY !!L_DoNotDownloadPhotosFromActiveDirectory
     
     KEYNAME "software\policies\microsoft\office\outlook\socialconnector"
     EXPLAIN !!L_DoNotDownloadPhotosFromActiveDirectoryExplain
     VALUENAME "DownloadPhotosFromAD"
     VALUEON NUMERIC 0
     VALUEOFF NUMERIC 1
     
     END POLICY
     
     DownloadPhotosFromAD
   • Outlk14.admx
     <policy name="L_DoNotDownloadPhotosFromActiveDirectory" class="User" displayName="$(string.L_DoNotDownloadPhotosFromActiveDirectory)" explainText="$(string.L_DoNotDownloadPhotosFromActiveDirectoryExplain)" key="software\policies\microsoft\office\outlook\socialconnector" valueName="downloadphotosfromad">
     <parentCategory ref="L_OutlookSocialConnector" />
     <supportedOn ref="windows:SUPPORTED_WindowsVista" />
     <enabledValue>
     
     <decimal value="0" />
     
     </enabledValue>
     <disabledValue>
     
     <decimal value="1" />
     
     </disabledValue>
     </policy>
3. In this text, locate “DownloadPhotosFromAD” (Outlk14.adm) or “downloadphotosfromad” (Outlk14.admx), and make the following change.
   Collapse this tableExpand this table

   	Outlk14.adm	Outlk14.admx
   Original text	“DownloadPhotosFromAD”	“downloadphotosfromad”
   New text	“DownloadDetailsFromAD”	“downloaddetailsfromad”

4. Save your template file, and add the modified file back into the Local Group Policy Editor.

More information about the DownloadDetailsFromAD policy setting.

The DownloadDetailsFromAD policy setting controls more than just the display of photos from AD DS in the People Pane. This policy setting also controls the display of the contact’s title and company name. If you enable this policy setting, DownloadDetailsFromAD=0, AD DS contact details (photo, title, and company) are not downloaded. If you disable this policy setting, or you do not configure this policy setting, contact details are downloaded and displayed in the People Pane. 

Note When DownloadDetailsFromAD=0, the information that is displayed in the People Pane depends on whether you are using a cached or online mode profile and the location of the contact information. 

• Cached mode
  When you are in cached mode, and DownloadDetailsFromAD=0, you can see contact details (photo, company name, or title) if the details come from the following sources:
  • Offline Address Book (OAB)
  • Contacts folder in your mailbox
  • Social Connector Network contact
  If the contact details are stored only in AD DS, such as a photo, the People Pane does not display those details. For example, the following illustration shows that the contact's photo is available only in AD DS, but the contact's company name (Wingtiptoys) and title (Tester) are available from the OAB.
  
  
  Collapse this imageExpand this image

  
  
  
• Online mode
  When you are in online mode, and DownloadDetailsFromAD=0, you can see contact details (photo, company name, or title) if the details come from the following sources:
  • Contacts folder in your mailbox
  • Social Connector Network contact
  
  If the contact details are stored only in AD DS, the People Pane does not display the contact details. If the contact details are available in the local Contacts folder, the details are displayed in the People Pane. The source of the contact details is confirmed if you put the pointer over the contact photo for Holly Holt. In this example, the company name and title for Holly Holt are not displayed.
  
  
  Collapse this imageExpand this image

  
  
  
  In this same following illustration, the contact details for Guido Pica are available in the local Contacts folder. Therefore, the details are displayed in the People Pane. In this example, the source of the contact details is confirmed if you put your pointer over the contact photo for Guido Pica. 
  
  
  Collapse this imageExpand this image

  

For more information about how to manage the Outlook Social Connector by using Group Policy, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:


More details about the second instance of DownloadPhotosFromAD setting in the Group Policy templates

As mentioned earlier in this article, the Group Policy templates for Outlook 2010 contain two instances of the DownloadPhotosFromAD value. The following instances are correct and should not be modified:

• Outlk14.adm
  POLICY !!L_DoNotDownloadPhotosFromTheActiveDirectory
  KEYNAME "software\policies\microsoft\office\14.0\outlook\contact"
  EXPLAIN !!L_DoNotDownloadPhotosFromTheActiveDirectoryExplain
  VALUENAME "DownloadPhotosFromAD"
  VALUEON NUMERIC 0
  VALUEOFF NUMERIC 1
  END POLICY
• Outlk14.admx
  <policy name="L_DoNotDownloadPhotosFromTheActiveDirectory" class="User" displayName="$(string.L_DoNotDownloadPhotosFromTheActiveDirectory)" explainText="$(string.L_DoNotDownloadPhotosFromTheActiveDirectoryExplain)" key="software\policies\microsoft\office\14.0\outlook\contact" valueName="downloadphotosfromad">
  
  <parentCategory ref="L_Other" />
  <supportedOn ref="windows:SUPPORTED_WindowsVista" />
  <enabledValue>
  <decimal value="0" />
  </enabledValue>
  <disabledValue>
  <decimal value="1" />
  </disabledValue>
  
  </policy>

Note The registry path for this instance of DownloadPhotosFromAD in the Group Policy templates differs from the registry path for the incorrect instance that must be replaced with DownloadDetailsFromAD.
The setting for this correct instance of DownloadPhotosFromAD is found in Other node under Outlook Options in the Local Group Policy Editor, as shown in the following illustration.



After you enable this correct instance of the Do not download photos from the Active Directory policy, the policy stops the display of your photo in the Info section of the File tab in Outlook 2010. This is shown in the following illustration.



If you enable this instance of the Do not download photos from the Active Directory policy, you might also consider removing the Change link that is located under this photo. If you disable the display of photos in the Info section of the File tab, it does not make sense to provide a link to let users change their photos. To remove the Change link, enable the Hide photo link policy. This policy is available under the Other node in the policy tree, as shown in the following illustration.



After you enable the Hide photo link policy, the Change link is removed from under the photo or from under the silhouette image in the Info section of the File tab, as shown in the following illustration.

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