Disable Outlook network connectivity balloon with Group Policy

As an administrator you might want to give users smoother Outlook experience by disabling messages like “Connection to Microsoft Exchange has been lost…”

and “Connection to Microsoft Exchange has been restored”

To disable this message you should right-click Outlook tray icon and uncheck “Show Network Connectivity Changes”

After closing Outlook, the following registry key is created:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Outlook\Display Types\Balloons]
"NetConn"=dword:00000000

To do it to all users, it’s easier to create a new Group Policy and assign it to all users. Group policy preferences is the right thing to do plain registry changes. Locate User Configuration\Preferences\Windows Settings\Registry and create a new registry item there.

If you want administrators to be notified about Exchange Server connection information, then you should apply this policy only to normal users. After Group Policy is in effect (you can speed it up with gpupdate /force on client machine), then Outlook needs to restarted to see the check box change.