Thursday, July 14, 2005

Assimilating Customization for OWA


Ah yes, back to theming and customization. What seems far too long ago, I made a post on how to Providing a unique look and feel to OWA. At the time, your users could choose from your newly created theme.

Well, I didn't realize this at the time (hence the follow up post), but you can force a default theme for your users. So if you spent the time to build a customized theme for a company, you can make sure they use it. Here's how:

  1. On SBS, click Start and then Run and type in Regedit.exe

  2. Navigate to \HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\ Services\MSExchangeWeb\OWA\Themes

  3. Under the Themes key, create a DWORD the value of DefaultTheme

  4. The DefaultTheme value should be the ID of the theme you want to make default.

Not only is this useful to get users to use the theme for your company, but it makes for GREAT April fools jokes. Back in 2003, Microsoft Exchange dogfood servers ran a "Hello Kitty" theme for day!! It was hilarious, and I guess you'll just have to trust me on that. :)

For more information on OWA themes, make sure to visit the Creating and Deploying OWA Themes Technet article.

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