Hi,

I've got an Exchange Server 2013 Lab, and I'd like disable "Change Photo" in Outlook Web App;

Like image down:

Hi,
You can remove the ability to configure Photos with a setting on the Owavirtualdirectory.

Example:

Set-OwaVirtualDirectory -id "owa (Default Web Site)" -SetPhotoEnabled $False

...but if you only want to restrict some users from adding a Photo, use OwaMailboxPolicies instead.

Thanks Martina,

I did it and got success.

• Edited by Tarcísio Presoto Thursday, December 06, 2012 1:01 PM

Thanks Martina,

I did it and got success.

• Edited by Tarcísio Presoto Thursday, December 06, 2012 1:01 PM

Thanks Martina,

I did it and got success.

• Edited by Tarcísio Presoto Thursday, December 06, 2012 1:01 PM

Thanks Martina,

I did it and got success.

I just noticed that this option only removes the link to the "Change Photo" page but does not disable the page itself. So users still get redirected to this page when clicking the "Change" button in Outlook 2013 or use the "Edit or remove picture" button in Lync 2013. I can't seem to find a policy to disable those buttons.

/edit: I've edited the css file to hide all elements on the page as a work-around.
Open C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V15\ClientAccess\ecp\15.0.712.22\themes\options\main_default.css and add the following line to the bottom of the page:

#ResultPanePlaceHolder_Photo_contentContainer_ctl01_profilePhotoFilename { visibility:hidden; }

Big chance a CU or SP will break this.

Modify the default owa mailbox policy.

Get-OWAMailboxPolicy | set-owamailboxpolicy -setphotoenabled:$false

Then, apply the mailbox policy for the user or all users.

Set-CASMailbox user -OWAMailboxPolicy Default or

Get-CASMailbox -ResultSize Unlimited | Set-CASMailbox -OWAMailboxPolicy Default

I just noticed that this option only removes the link to the "Change Photo" page but does not disable the page itself. So users still get redirected to this page when clicking the "Change" button in Outlook 2013 or use the "Edit or remove picture" button in Lync 2013. I can't seem to find a policy to disable those buttons.

/edit: I've edited the css file to hide all elements on the page as a work-around.
Open C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V15\ClientAccess\ecp\15.0.712.22\themes\options\main_default.css and add the following line to the bottom of the page:

#ResultPanePlaceHolder_Photo_contentContainer_ctl01_profilePhotoFilename { visibility:hidden; }

Big chance a CU or SP will break this.

• Edited by BramVdp Friday, July 19, 2013 12:57 PM added workaround

I just noticed that this option only removes the link to the "Change Photo" page but does not disable the page itself. So users still get redirected to this page when clicking the "Change" button in Outlook 2013 or use the "Edit or remove picture" button in Lync 2013. I can't seem to find a policy to disable those buttons.

/edit: I've edited the css file to hide all elements on the page as a work-around.
Open C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V15\ClientAccess\ecp\15.0.712.22\themes\options\main_default.css and add the following line to the bottom of the page:

#ResultPanePlaceHolder_Photo_contentContainer_ctl01_profilePhotoFilename { visibility:hidden; }

Big chance a CU or SP will break this.

• Edited by BramVdp Friday, July 19, 2013 12:57 PM added workaround

I just noticed that this option only removes the link to the "Change Photo" page but does not disable the page itself. So users still get redirected to this page when clicking the "Change" button in Outlook 2013 or use the "Edit or remove picture" button in Lync 2013. I can't seem to find a policy to disable those buttons.

/edit: I've edited the css file to hide all elements on the page as a work-around.
Open C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V15\ClientAccess\ecp\15.0.712.22\themes\options\main_default.css and add the following line to the bottom of the page:

#ResultPanePlaceHolder_Photo_contentContainer_ctl01_profilePhotoFilename { visibility:hidden; }

Big chance a CU or SP will break this.

• Edited by BramVdp Friday, July 19, 2013 12:57 PM added workaround

Rajith good policy mailbox 

after comand apply

remove-UserPhoto jgutierrez  (alias mailbox)

• Proposed as answer by Jorge Elias Gutierrez Monday, August 05, 2013 10:40 PM

Rajith good policy mailbox 

after comand apply

remove-UserPhoto jgutierrez  (alias mailbox)

• Proposed as answer by Jorge Elias Gutierrez Monday, August 05, 2013 10:40 PM

Rajith good policy mailbox 

after comand apply

remove-UserPhoto jgutierrez  (alias mailbox)

• Proposed as answer by Jorge Elias Gutierrez Monday, August 05, 2013 10:40 PM

Hello Rajith,

I have few questions regarding Photo feature in Exchange 2013.  We are running Exchange 2013 SP1

I would like to disable it so user can not upload photo using this feature.  I tried your provided solution of changing OWAMailboxPolicy and it worked but the problem is that we need to apply it to all the users and I understand that we can apply it to all users as you mentioned above but when we create new users we need to keep adding them to OWAMailboxPolicy "Default" policy.

1) I was always under impression if under Exchange 2013 user properties if Outlook web app Policy is "Blank" then it means that it is using "Default" policy but looks like in this case it is not true.  Is this correct?

2) I also tried to disable it on OWAvirtual directory by running the following command but still it is not enabled on all the users.  Could it be bug that disabling on virtual directory is not taking effect.

Get-OwaVirtualDirectory -Server <CASServer) | Set-OwaVirtualDirectory -SetPhotoEnabled $False

3) If we put photos and it would appear in GAL would it be a part of OAB as well?  That would increase the OAB size drastically 

Please advise.

Raman,

1) That seems to be the issue in our environment as well. The "Default" OWAMailboxPolicy is not assigned to any user's mailbox in our organization. I ran Get-OwaMailboxPolicy and the IsDefault property is set to False. When I assigned the "Default" policy to a specific users mailbox I was unable to sign into instant messaging in OWA. From my understanding the OWAMailboxPolicy should only be used for one-off situations, not for the entire organization.

2) Because you are making changes to IIS using this command you need to recycle the OWA application pool (MSExchangeOWAAppPool). Once we did this in our environment users were unable to edit photos in OWA. Unfortunately, this still didn't disable the page that users get directed to from the Lync 2013 client or the Skype for Business client. We are still trying to figure out a way to prevent users from changing their photo from these applications.

3) Not sure on this.

• Edited by hhancock 16 hours 55 minutes ago

Raman,

1) That seems to be the issue in our environment as well. The "Default" OWAMailboxPolicy is not assigned to any user's mailbox in our organization. I ran Get-OwaMailboxPolicy and the IsDefault property is set to False. When I assigned the "Default" policy to a specific users mailbox I was unable to sign into instant messaging in OWA. From my understanding the OWAMailboxPolicy should only be used for one-off situations, not for the entire organization.

2) Because you are making changes to IIS using this command you need to recycle the OWA application pool (MSExchangeOWAAppPool). Once we did this in our environment users were unable to edit photos in OWA. Unfortunately, this still didn't disable the page that users get directed to from the Lync 2013 client or the Skype for Business client. We are still trying to figure out a way to prevent users from changing their photo from these applications.

3) Not sure on this.

• Edited by hhancock Thursday, April 16, 2015 2:33 PM

Raman,

1) That seems to be the issue in our environment as well. The "Default" OWAMailboxPolicy is not assigned to any user's mailbox in our organization. I ran Get-OwaMailboxPolicy and the IsDefault property is set to False. When I assigned the "Default" policy to a specific users mailbox I was unable to sign into instant messaging in OWA. From my understanding the OWAMailboxPolicy should only be used for one-off situations, not for the entire organization.

2) Because you are making changes to IIS using this command you need to recycle the OWA application pool (MSExchangeOWAAppPool). Once we did this in our environment users were unable to edit photos in OWA. Unfortunately, this still didn't disable the page that users get directed to from the Lync 2013 client or the Skype for Business client. We are still trying to figure out a way to prevent users from changing their photo from these applications.

3) Not sure on this.

• Edited by hhancock Thursday, April 16, 2015 2:33 PM

Thanks hhancock.

After reading a little bit more into this, it looks like the "Default" OwaMailboxPolicy is actually set the "Default" even though it's not assigned. According to Technet, "The name of the default Outlook Web App mailbox policy is Default."

We are still having issues with getting the Default policy to work properly. I created a new OwaMailboxPolicy called "Corporate" and applied it to only my mailbox and it seems to work as intended. I am able to use instant messaging and I am unable to edit my photo (just as intended). The problem is I don't want to assign this new policy to every user in our organization. Because this should be an organization-wide policy, it makes sense to use the "Default" one. Unfortunately, I have not been able to get it to work. The only differences that I can see in the policies are the following properties:

AllowOfflineOn
PlacesEnabled
PredictedActionsEnabled
UserDiagnosticEnabled
WacOMEXEnabled
ReportJunkEmailEnabled

None of these properties seem to be related to instant messaging...