Office 2013 Group Policy User Settings Recommendations

The following table lists a number of user settings across each of the Office 2013 applications that I recommend you take a look at. This is just a small subset of the total number of settings, but includes some of the most important ones.

The status of each setting will vary dependant on the environment. Use at your own risk.

PRODUCT
PATH
SETTING
RECOMMENDED VALUES

Microsoft Access 2013
Miscellaneous
Disable the Office Start Screen for Access
Enabled | Not Configured

Microsoft Excel 2013
Excel Options – Save
Default file format
Enabled, Excel Workbook (*.xlsx)

Microsoft Excel 2013
Miscellaneous
Disable the Office Start Screen for Excel
Enabled | Not Configured

Microsoft Office 2013
Global Options – Customize
Allow roaming of all user customizations
Enabled

Microsoft Office 2013
Privacy – Trust Center
Disable Opt-in Wizard on first run
Enabled

Microsoft Office 2013
Privacy – Trust Center
Enable Customer Experirnce Improvement Program
Disabled | Not Configured

Microsoft Office 2013
Privacy – Trust Center
Automatically receive small updates to improve reliability
Disabled | Not Configured

Microsoft Office 2013
Privacy – Trust Center
Send Office Feedback
Disabled | Not Configured

Microsoft Office 2013
Privacy – Trust Center
Allow including screenshot with Office Feedback
Disabled | Not Configured

Microsoft Office 2013
Subscription Activation
Do not show ‘Manage Account’ link for subscription licenses
Enabled | Not Configured

Microsoft Office 2013
Subscription Activation
Automatically activate Office with federated organization credentials
Disabled | Not Configured

Microsoft Office 2013
Services
Disable Roaming Office User Settings
Enabled | Not Configured

Microsoft Office 2013
Services – Fax
Disable Internet Fax feature
Enabled

Microsoft Office 2013
Downloading Framework Components
Hide missing component download links
Enabled

Microsoft Office 2013
Microsoft Office Picture Manager
Disable File Types association dialog box on first launch
Enabled

Microsoft Office 2013
Miscellaneous
Show SkyDrive Sign In
Disabled | Not Configured

Microsoft Office 2013
Miscellaneous
Block signing into Office
Enabled | Not Configured

Microsoft Office 2013
Miscellaneous
Disable the Office Start screen for all Office applications
Enabled | Not Configured

Microsoft Office 2013
Miscellaneous
Disable Office Backgrounds
Enabled | Not Configured

Microsoft Office 2013
Miscellaneous
Suppress recommended settings dialog
Enabled

Microsoft Office 2013
First Run
Disable First Run Movie
Enabled | Not Configured

Microsoft Office 2013
First Run
Disable First Run on application boot
Enabled | Not Configured

Microsoft OneNote 2013
OneNote Options – Other
Add OneNote icon to the notification area
Disabled | Not Configured

Microsoft Outlook 2013
Outlook Social Connector
Turn off Outlook Social Connector
Enabled | Not Configured

Microsoft Outlook 2013
Outlook Social Connector
Do not show social network info-bars
Enabled | Not Configured

Microsoft Outlook 2013
Outlook Options – Preferences – Calendar Options – Office.com Sharing Service
Prevent publishing to Office.com
Enabled | Not Configured

Microsoft Outlook 2013
Outlook Options – Other – AutoArchive
AutoArchive Settings
Disabled

Microsoft PowerPoint 2013
PowerPoint Options – Save
Default file format
Enabled, PowerPoint Presentation (*.pptx)

Microsoft PowerPoint 2013
Miscellaneous
Disable the Office Start Screen for PowerPoint
Enabled | Not Configured

Microsoft Project 2013
Miscellaneous
Disable the Office Start Screen for Project
Enabled | Not Configured

Microsoft Publisher 2013
Miscellaneous
Disable the Office Start Screen for Publisher
Enabled | Not Configured

Microsoft Visio 2013
Visio Options – Save – Save Documents
Save Visio files as
Enabled, Visio Document

Microsoft Visio 2013
Visio Options – Advanced – General Options
Put all settings in Windows registry
Enabled

Microsoft Word 2013
Word Options – Save
Default file format
Enabled, Word Document (*.docx)

Microsoft Word 2013
Miscellaneous
Disable the Office Start Screen for Word
Enabled | Not Configured

Outlook slow after migrating to Exchange 2013

Outlook can be slow in Online modus sometimes when you move mailboxes to Exchange 2013. I seems that Windows 7 with Outlook 2007/2010 & 2013 sometimes have some issues.

Before applying this TCP Ack solution, the below conditions must be met:

– OWA connection and mail browsing is very fine, whereas an Outlook online mode (i.e. not cached mode) connectivity is quite sluggish when mailboxes are on Exchange 2013…

– If OWA is slow as well, then the issue may be a general network slowness issue – check the network latency using Ping

– On Outlook Connection Status dialog box (CTRL+Right Click the Outlook icon on the Windows notifications part of the taskbar), Avg. Proc. time is fine, below 50~60ms, and Avg. Resp. time is over 110ms.

More information about the TcpAckFrequency registry key:

Quoting from http://support2.microsoft.com/kb/328890

– TcpAckFrequency is a registry entry that determines the number of TCP acknowledgments (ACKs) that will be outstanding before the delayed ACK timer is ignored.

– TCP uses delayed acknowledgments to reduce the number of packets that are sent on the media (Wifi, Wire,…)

– As data is received by TCP on a particular connection, it sends an acknowledgment back only if one of the following conditions is true:

  • No acknowledgment was sent for the previous segment received.
  • A segment is received, but no other segment arrives within 200 milliseconds for that connection.

Typically, an acknowledgment is sent for every other TCP segment that is received on a connection unless the delayed ACK timer (200 milliseconds) expires.

– You can adjust the delayed ACK timer by editing the following registry entry.

Subkey:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces\<Interface GUID>

Entry:

TcpAckFrequency

Value Type: REG_DWORD, number
Valid Range: 0-255
Default: 2
Description: Specifies the number of ACKs that will be outstanding before the delayed ACK timer is ignored. Microsoft does not recommend changing the default value without careful study of the environment.

TcpAckFrequency.ps1
$strGUIDS=[array](Get-WmiObject win32_networkadapter -filter “netconnectionstatus = 2” | select -expand GUID)
foreach ($strGUID in $strGUIDS) {New-ItemProperty -path HKLM:\System\CurrentControlSet\services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces\$strGUID -propertytype DWORD -name TcpAckFrequency -value 1}

Updated

KB2888049 Update is available that improves the network performance of Internet Explorer 11 in Windows

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