You cannot redirect users of earlier versions of Outlook to download the Rights Management Add-on for Internet Explorer in an Outlook 2003 IRM-protected message

Consider the following scenario. You manage users who use different versions of Microsoft Outlook. Users of Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 may send e-mail messages that are protected by Information Rights Management (IRM). If a user tries to open an IRM-protected message in an earlier version of Outlook, the message is not opened. Additionally, the user receives the following message: In this scenario, you may want to redirect users to an intranet location to download the Rights Management Add-on for Microsoft Internet Explorer.

This problem may occur because the IRM message that a user of an earlier version of Outlook receives is not customizable in Outlook 2003 to redirect your internal users to an intranet location.

To customize the IRM message that is displayed to users of earlier versions of Outlook, apply hotfix 915491. Then, enable the hotfix to customize the message that you want to appear when these users experience this problem.

How to obtain the hotfix

This issue is fixed in the Outlook 2003 post-Service Pack 2 Hotfix Package that is dated March 15, 2006. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Warning Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly by using Registry Editor or by using another method. These problems might require that you reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that these problems can be solved. Modify the registry at your own risk.

To enable this hotfix, follow these steps:

1. Exit Outlook 2003.
2. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
3. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Common\DRM
4. After you select the subkey that is specified in step 3, point to New on the Edit menu, and then click String Value.
5. Type DownlevelText, and then press ENTER.
6. Right-click DownlevelText, and then click Modify.
7. In the Value data box, type the text of the IRM message that you want to be displayed to users who use earlier versions of Outlook. Then, click OK.
8. On the File menu, click Exit to exit Registry Editor.

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