The importance and the sensitivity of e-mail messages can be changed after you set a policy in Outlook 2007

You use a policy to set the importance and the sensitivity of e-mail messages in Microsoft Office Outlook 2007. However, when you compose an e-mail message, the Importance field and the Sensitivity field in the Message Options dialog box can be changed.

Note To view the Message Options dialog box, click the arrow in the lower-right corner of the Options group on the Message tab of the Ribbon.

To resolve this problem, follow these steps.

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:

1. Apply hotfix 957909. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
   957909  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/957909/ ) Description of the Outlook 2007 post-Service Pack 1 hotfix package: September 24, 2008
2. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
3. Click the following subkey:
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\Preferences
4. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
5. Type DisableSensitivity, and then press ENTER.
6. On the Edit menu, click Modify.
7. Type 1, and then click OK.
8. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
9. Type DisableImportance, and then press ENTER.
10. On the Edit menu, click Modify.
11. Type 1, and then click OK.
12. Exit Registry Editor.
    

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