Outlook notifications not working in VDI

[rwulffenstein]

Hello, 

The Outlook notifications are not working on our VDI desktop  We are using a Windows 2019 image for our Instant Clone desktops in Horizon; it is my understanding they have never worked. 

If I login to a VDI desktop and look at Notifications and Actions under Settings, the options are set to OFF and grayed out.  Under Get notifications from these senders, there are no senders listed there. At the top of that window, it says "Some settings are hidden or managed by your organization."

How do we change that? And how do we fix this?

Rachel

[FelixYan]

Hi Rwulffenstein,

This is Outlook related question and it is not clear whether it is impacted by Horizon VDI. Suggest you talk with your IT administrator first and reach MS for the question if necessary.

[KenArcher]

Are you using the VMware OS Optimization Tool as part of the build process for your parent image. Some of the default policies in that tool disable toast notifications by default and you need to modify the template to enable the notifications.

We had the same issue and had to change these policies in OSOT.

Group policy - Turn off toast notifications had to be set to a DWORD value of 0

Windows Settings - Get notifications from apps and other senders had to be set to a DWORD value of 0

[rwulffenstein]

Yes, we are using the Optimization tool on the image. 

I took a look at the settings today and discovered the Disable Notifications was enabled.

 

After clicking Optimize to see the settings already configured, I clicked on Common Options and then clicked Notification. Disable notifications WAS selected so I removed the checkmark. So now theoretically notifications should be enabled, correct?

So then I looked at the items under Notifications in the Optimize window and see a few options that appear to be set and not able to be changed. I have attached a screenshot for reference.

I am looking at the items with the green check marks:
1) What does the green checkmark mean?
2) Can these options be disabled?

I am specifically looking at "Turn off notifications from apps and other senders - HKCU Registry" item. Is there a way to enable this option in the Optimization tool?

[KenArcher]

The green check means the current value equals the expected value, as defined by the template.

You can edit the template using the My Templates tab at the top of the screen. You'll need to locate the value in the template you are using and then decide how to proceed. First and foremost, back up your template files before you edit anything. Then you have the option of removing the step entirely. You can also edit the value to explicitly be what you want it to be. Personally, I change the name of the template with an organization identifier appended to the beginning of the name string and then change the expected data to the value I want it to be. This makes identifying custom changes to the template easier should a new version of OSOT drop and I want to compare my current template with a newly released template.

Before changing your template you may want to apply the registry values using a group policy to test that you have the right keys. Group Policies will overrule the OSOT template changes and are far easier to back out if you get unexpected results. Once you know you have the right keys you can then migrate the changes from the group policy to the OSOT template, so future builds have the customization, and back the policy out of the GPO so it's only applied in one location.

[jhol5]

During the Optimization processes, we leave notifications enabled and run a script afterward to ensure that the group policies aren't there locally.

PowerShell:

# Add HKEY_Users as a PS Drive
New-PSDrive -PSProvider Registry -Name HKU -Root HKEY_USERS
# Add the default user's registry hive so it is viewable/browsable by PowerShell
Start-Process -FilePath 'CMD.EXE' -ArgumentList '/C REG.EXE LOAD HKU\AllUsers C:\Users\Default\NTUSER.DAT' -Wait -WindowStyle Hidden | Out-Null

# Remove notification group policies from current user
Remove-ItemProperty 'HKCU:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer' -Name 'TaskbarNoNotification' -Force
Remove-ItemProperty 'HKCU:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\PushNotifications' -Name 'ToastEnabled' -Force
Remove-ItemProperty 'HKCU:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\PushNotifications' -Name 'NoToastApplicationNotification' -Force
# Remove notification group policies from local machine
Remove-ItemProperty 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer' -Name 'TaskbarNoNotification' -Force
Remove-ItemProperty 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\PushNotifications' -Name 'ToastEnabled' -Force
Remove-ItemProperty 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\PushNotifications' -Name 'NoToastApplicationNotification' -Force
Remove-ItemProperty 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer' -Name 'DisableNotificationCenter' -Force
# Remove notification group policies from default user
Remove-ItemProperty 'HKU:\AllUsers\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer' -Name 'TaskbarNoNotification' -Force
Remove-ItemProperty 'HKU:\AllUsers\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\PushNotifications' -Name 'ToastEnabled' -Force
Remove-ItemProperty 'HKU:\AllUsers\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\PushNotifications' -Name 'NoToastApplicationNotification' -Force

# Remove default user's registry hive
Start-Process -FilePath 'CMD.EXE' -ArgumentList '/C REG.EXE UNLOAD HKU\AllUsers C:\Users\Default\NTUSER.DAT' -Wait -WindowStyle Hidden | Out-Null
# Remove HKU_Users from PowerShell
Remove-PSDrive -Name HKU