'End appointments and meetings early' feature now broken in Office Cloud Policy Service

[Joe Savage]

Originally the option to in Outlook to 'End appointments and meetings early' was a simple on/off option and was reflected in the registry with a DWORD 'endeventsearly' in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Options\Calendar

Now a recent update now allows users to select 'End early' or 'Start Late' and the DWORD has been replaced with String Value ShortenEvents that can have the value 'End_Early', 'Start_Late', or 'None'.

However the Office Cloud Policy Service still only shows the previous settings which applies only the DWORD which now has no effect.  Can you please update the Office Policy Service to reflect the new setting in Outlook so we can push this out to our users?

Thanks!

[#2]

What options do u have on the 2016 office? Is it called shorten meetings or end meeting... early?

[#3]

@Tuan-123 I now realise I am posting on an office cloud policy forum...  hence the responses above was about M365.  I may have to look for another forum 😞  however below is the local group policy that used work locally but stopped .

[#4]

There is a new office admx files u can download

The new version of office changed the name from ending meetings and appointment early to shorten meetings and appointments. Therefore the registry key has changed. If u wanna go with the local gpo then update the admx

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=49030

[#5]

Hey,

Pushed out settings from Intune and still not showing up. how to force office app sync in intune?

[#6]

Has anyone tried powershell with exchange online ?
Set-OrganizationConfig -ShortenEventScopeDefault 2 –DefaultMinutesToReduceLongEventsBy 5 –DefaultMinutesToReduceShortEventsBy 5

[#7]

I tried the script below without any success. I can see the registery key changes on the devices but does not reflect setting in outlook.
pushed out through intune as with option "Run this script using the logged on credentials" YES

if((Test-Path -LiteralPath "HKCU:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\options\Calendar") -ne $true) { New-Item "HKCU:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\options\Calendar" -force -ea SilentlyContinue };
New-ItemProperty -LiteralPath 'HKCU:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\options\Calendar' -Name 'ShortenEvents' -Value 'End_Early' -PropertyType String -Force -ea SilentlyContinue;
New-ItemProperty -LiteralPath 'HKCU:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\options\Calendar' -Name 'EndEarlyShort' -Value 5 -PropertyType DWord -Force -ea SilentlyContinue;
New-ItemProperty -LiteralPath 'HKCU:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\options\Calendar' -Name 'EndEarlyLong' -Value 10 -PropertyType DWord -Force -ea SilentlyContinue;

[#8]

Hi everyone,

as far I have seen, this thread did not include a solution for Office Cloud Policies. We are currently upgrading our MS365 Apps version from 2102 to 2108 in Semi annual Enterprise channel and therefore ran into the issue described here. Since MS has added the possibility to start meetings late in between these two versions, the cloud policy "End appointments and meetings early" stopped working in version 2108 SAEC. The new cloud policy which has to be configured is called "Shorten appointments and meetings" The values (minutes) which meetings end early or start late should stay valid In case you have defined it.
All values can be found under [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Cloud\Office\16.0\outlook\options\calendar]

[#9]

It worked for me this WAY!


The GPO settings are clearly broken in the latest versions of Outlook Clients and after 4 hours of tweaking through the registry settings, It is found that the following registry entries will enforce the "Short appointments and Meetings" setting in the Outlook client for the end users.

Add the following registry keys under the GPO settings

<GPOName>\User Configuration\Preferences\Windows Settings\Registry

Registry Setting 1:
PropertiesHive = HKEY_CURRENT_USER
Key path = Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Options\Calendar
Value name = ShortenEvents
Value type = REG_SZ
Value data = End_Early


Registry Setting 2:
PropertiesHive = HKEY_CURRENT_USER
Key path = Software\Microsoft\Office\Outlook\Settings\Data
Value name = global_shorten_event_scope
Value type = REG_SZ
Value data = {"name":"shorten_event_scope","itemClass":"RoamingSetting","id":"","scope":"global","parentSetting":"","secondaryKey":"","status":"SYNCEDTOSERVICE","type":"String","timestamp":0,"metadata":"","value":"End_Early","isFirstSync":"false","source":"UserOverride"}

[#10]

@Joe Savage 

Just an update, we are now successfully able to configure this setting via GPO with the latest ADMX files and M365 App version 2203.

Regards,

Matthew Stevenson

[#11]

@Matthew_Stevenson thank you for that. I will schedule some time to day to give this a try.

[#12]

@BarryBuchanan @Matthew_Stevenson thanks for that, I'll wait for intune to update. Just wondering if you are using "Shorten appointments and meetings" or "end appointments and meetings early" and btw what is the difference ?

[#13]

We are using "Shorten appointments and meetings". I believe this is the new GPO that works with the latest M365 clients. The "End appointments and meetings early" GPO stopped working back in 2021 after a M365 client update.

[#14]

@Matthew_Stevenson 

I downloaded the latest admx files and I am using the shorten appointments and meeting and it worked on my Outlook - Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise.

However, it doesn't look like it is working for Outlook - Microsoft 365 Apps for Business.  The setting is not being set but the policy is being applied.

[#15]

I used powershell command Set-OrganizationConfig to make changes org-wise:

Set-OrganizationConfig -ShortenEventScopeDefault EndEarly -DefaultMinutesToReduceShortEventsBy 10 -DefaultMinutesToReduceLongEventsBy 15

It seems OK: users in Outlook get minutes changed and End Early, except one minor thing box "Shorten appointments and meetings" is not enabled 🙂

and users have to check it manually.  Is there any powershell command property to check it org-wise?

[#16]

@MindaugasG-IL You would use the ShortenEventScopeDefault switch for that. See https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/exchange/set-organizationconfig?view=exchange-ps

[#17]

I did as wrote in my message:
Set-OrganizationConfig -ShortenEventScopeDefault EndEarly -DefaultMinutesToReduceShortEventsBy 10 -DefaultMinutesToReduceLongEventsBy 15

but Outlook do not set checkbox for "Shorten appointments and meetings".

[#18]

@MindaugasG-IL 

im using endpoint manager and still not working - i gave up for now

[#19]

@rbj42 from the screenshot you have the ShortenEvents key but not the EndEarlyLong or EndEarlyShort keys

[#20]

I have the opposite issue: the setting works for New Teams Meeting but not New Appointment. Frustrating.

[#21]

So is this working for anyone ? The policy in Intune creates this registry key HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\office\16.0\outlook\options\calendar\ shortenevents (End_Early) but none of my outlook clients have the option ticked in calendar settings