6.10 Set 'Make Outlook the default program for E- mail, Contacts, and Calendar' to 'Enabled'

Information

This policy setting controls whether Outlook is the default program for e-mail, contacts,
and calendar services. If you enable this policy setting, the 'Make Outlook the default
program for E-mail, Contacts, and Calendar' check box on the General tab of the Office
Center is selected and users cannot change it. If you disable this policy setting, users cannot
make Outlook the default program for these services. If you do not configure this policy
setting, Outlook is made the default program for e-mail, contacts, and calendar services
when it is installed, although users can designate other programs as the default programs
for these services. The recommended state for this setting is- Enabled.

*Rationale*

By default, Outlook 2010 is made the default program for E-mail, contacts, and calendar
services when it is installed, although users can designate other programs as the default
programs for these services. If another application is used to provide these services and
your organization does not ensure the security of that application, it could be exploited to
gain access to sensitive information or launch other malicious attacks. If your organization
has policies that govern the use of personal information management software, allowing
users to change the default configuration could enable them to violate such policies.

Solution

To implement the recommended configuration state, set the following Group Policy setting
to Enabled.

User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Microsoft Outlook 2010\Outlook
Options\Other\Make Outlook the default program for E-mail, Contacts, and Calendar

Impact-In most environments that use the Microsoft Office system, Outlook is often already the
default program for e-mail, contacts, and calendaring for most users. Therefore, enabling
this setting is unlikely to cause usability issues.

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/files/530

Item Details

Category: CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT

References: 800-53|CM-6b.

Plugin: Windows

Control ID: 82b5c7bd19c76ce5e7762d2f5fa8d6f2dc90f1328a1b4e569212fe7fee2e9239