Disable Outlook cloud autodiscover

Disable Outlook cloud autodiscover in Outlook 2016 is a popular email client used by many businesses and individuals. One feature of Outlook 2016 is that it automatically searches for and connects to Office 365, a cloud-based service provided by Microsoft. This is known as the autodiscover process. Microsoft has an article on this.

However, some users may want to disable this feature and prevent Outlook 2016 from automatically connecting to Office 365. This can be done by creating a registry key on your computer.

Disable Outlook autodiscover

It is important to note that creating a registry key is a technical process and should be done with caution. It is recommended to backup your registry or consult an IT professional before making any changes. Additionally, disabling Office 365 autodiscover feature may cause unexpected errors or issues with Outlook 2016 or Office 365. Therefore, it is best to test the changes in a non-production environment before applying it to the production environment, especially if you push this with an automation tool.

To do this, open the Command Prompt on your computer and run the following command:

reg add HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\AutoDiscover /t REG_DWORD /v ExcludeExplicitO365Endpoint /d 1

This command creates a registry key that tells Outlook 2016 to exclude the Office 365 endpoint during the autodiscover process. This means that Outlook 2016 will not automatically connect to Office 365 and will instead use other methods to discover email server settings, such as checking DNS records.

It’s important to note that disabling the Office 365 autodiscover feature will not affect your ability to use Outlook 2016 or Office 365. You can still access your email and other Office 365 services, but you will need to manually configure your email server settings in Outlook 2016.

Conclusion

In conclusion, if you want to disable the Office 365 autodiscover feature in Outlook 2016, you can do so by creating a registry key on your computer. This will prevent Outlook 2016 from automatically connecting to Office 365 and will instead use other methods to discover email server settings.

Check the wansec blog for more details.