Outlook Safe Mode Switch Add-ins Turned Off

I have known for a while that Outlook has a number of switches. At work we use 2003, a pretty ancient version but these switches have existed even going back Outlook '97!

One of the most common ones was "/cleanviews", I remember Outlook commonly going crazy and having to run that switch.

Anyway, at work we use an add-in with Outlook that is problematic. I wanted to investigate disabling it altogether. I already knew that "safe mode" was a way of running a bare bones Outlook.

It goes like this:

outlook.exe /safe

But what I did not know is that there are various safe modes you can run. For example, this command:

outlook.exe /safe:3

will disable add-ins but leave the rest of the Outlook client the way it was. It won't mess with pre-defined views and other customizations.

Sadly, this command did not do what I needed it to do. I think our group policy overided it or something and so we could not disable the add-in that way.

Instead, I had to run "outlook.exe /safe" instead.

I also created a batch file to automate it and give the users an icon to click on.