Jan 17 2023 09:16 AM - edited Jan 17 2023 12:59 PM
We want to silently (and fully) pre-install the PWA for "Outlook Online" and have it assume the role as the default protocol handler for all "mailto" links. We want the end-user to encounter absolutely no confirmation prompts related to this process. Their first encounter with a "mailto" link should be seamless and immediately direct them to the deeplink location for drafting a new mail message on "Outlook Online":
Here's what we've done so far:
We've tried using the "Register protocol handlers" GPO, but that only adds an entry under the "Handlers for email links" section of "Site permissions / Protocol handers". It doesn't eliminate this prompt. In fact the "Register protocol handlers" GPO doesn't seem to be related to pre-approving the use of PWAs as protocol handlers at all its just for "URLs".
As you can see, the entry under "Apps" only appears when the user accepts the prompt (shown above). We've done a deep-dive into GPO and Chromium settings and there doesn't seem to be a way to add any entries under the "Apps" category for installed PWAs:
Request: Please allow PWAs to be pre-approved for use as a protocol handler via GPO.
[{"protocol": "mailto","allowed_origins": ["https://outlook.office365.com"]}]
[{"protocol": "mailto","allowed_origins": ["*"]}]
In summary:
I hope others are helped by this write-up. We hope that Microsoft can take a look at these issues related to protocol handling and the pre-installation of PWAs in Edge. It would be fantastic if we could have users directly use the Outlook PWA without any prompting or issues related to the pre-installation of the app.
Thanks for your time!
Jan 17 2023 12:02 PM
@Daniel Smith Hello! Thanks for reaching out, appreciate the thoughtful and thorough explanation.
Regarding the first request about pre-install of the PWA, this question has come up previously and our developers have said the browser needs to run at least once if the WebAppInstallForceList policy is used to install apps because the policy regkey is only read once on browser launch.
For the second request about the protocol handlers, have you looked at the AutoLaunchProtocolsFromOrigins policy? I have not tested but the description looked like it might be helpful in your scenario.
-Kelly
Jan 17 2023 12:51 PM
Jan 23 2023 04:52 PM
@Daniel Smith Hey! I've passed your questions on to the team and will follow up if they share any insights or recommendations for your scenario. Thanks!
-Kelly
Jan 24 2023 08:46 AM
Mar 22 2023 09:32 AM
Hello, has there been any response from the engineers about this?
Apr 26 2024 08:23 AM
I'm trying to get this to work too. If Microsoft Wants the One Outlook to work they really need to make this easier/seamless for business customers.
May 04 2024 03:57 PM
May 05 2024 01:04 PM
I got this this to work by launching Chrome with command line options to launch outlook.office.com as an app (pwa) and then I had to do some registry entries to enable Chrome as the default browser and Chrome as the mailto: handler in Chrome. It's a workaround and Microsoft definitely needs to make it easier. It still doesn't work with MAPI requests to send mail and Microsoft needs to fix that for enterprise customers. (Example , mail from Excel is a MAPI request, not mailto: )