How do I localize outlook 2013 weather bar city using GPO?

Hi, is there a way to localize the outlook 2013 weather bar city using GPO?  I notice there is a weather bar url available under the options section on the administrative template for outlook 2013, but not sure how to use it or even where to get the URLs.  Suggestions?

thanks!

-sul.

April 26th, 2013 4:26pm

In Group Policy, you can find the settings under User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Microsoft Outlook 2013\Outlook Options\Preferences\Calendar Options. The OCT settings are in corresponding locations on the Modify user settings page of the OCT. The settings that you can configure for this feature in Group Policy and the OCT can be done as given in the article http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff631135.aspx

Hope this helps.

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April 27th, 2013 1:25am

thanks, but I am actually already familiar with the articles referenced above and the locations.

Perhaps if someone can just tell me how to change the city to, lets say Boston, MA, from something other than the default.  What actual values must I use for such an example?  I am really not interested in OCT; just GPO.

Looking forward to any suggestion.

thanks!

-sul.

April 27th, 2013 3:26am

Hi Sul,

I've managed to get weather for our business location in 2013 by setting a custom weather service url.  The default weather service location is http://weather.service.msn.com/data.aspx.  if you add ?weasearchstr=boston-ma&src=outlook you should recieve the weather for Boston.

The policy setting is in:

User Policy > Admin Templates > Microsoft Office 2013 > Outlook Options > Preferences > Calendar Options > Weather Service URL

Enable the policy and set the url to:

http://weather.service.msn.com/data.aspx?weasearchstr=boston-ma&src=outlook

Hope this helps, working so far for us.

Cheers,

Simon

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August 21st, 2013 1:05pm

Hi Simon, thank you for the precise instructions!  Unfortunately, in my case, after applying the GPO the weather bar does not change automatically to the the city in the URL.  The Weather Bar is stuck on the original city location and it just says says: Requesting...

Perhaps if your or someone can verify this behavior by closing outlook, disabling the GPO, run gpupdate, re-launch outlook and in outlook calendar, manually choose a DIFFERENT city via Add Location on the Weather bar (e.g.: Redmond, WA).  Close Outlook. Re-enable the GPO and run a gpupdate. Re-open outlook and see what happens. 

-sul.



  • Edited by Sul Wednesday, August 21, 2013 3:30 PM typo
August 21st, 2013 3:29pm

Hi,

I'm trying the above suggestion provided by Simon but it doesn't work as I expect. Well, location can be defined in parameter weasearchstr - no problems here. But I also need to use Celsius for temperature and this part doesn't work. 

If you open this link in a browser, you'll see that the XML file contains the correct degree type - Celsius in my case http://weather.service.msn.com/data.aspx?weadegreetype=C&weasearchstr=boston-ma&src=outlook

However, in Outlook it still shows Fahrenheit. I'm sure my Group policy is applied correctly. 

Any ideas what can be wrong and how to fix it? 


  • Edited by maxinsky Wednesday, October 16, 2013 12:19 PM
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October 16th, 2013 12:17pm

To change temperature units:

Outlook File tab

Then Options

Then Calendar ...and then go to Weather where you can change the units

November 20th, 2013 9:56pm

I hope this is not a late response, but will post it to make sure everyone else that runs in the same problem

After almost a year , the same problem exists. I have opened a ticket with Premier Support to find that the problem is a known issue and you can not change it from Celsius to Fahrenheit with GPO's it needs to be change locally from the File Menu .

User Policy > Admin Templates > Microsoft Office 2013 > Outlook Options > Preferences > Calendar Options > Weather Service URL

  • Enable the policy and set the url to:

http://weather.service.msn.com/data.aspx?weasearchstr=calgary&weadegreetype=C&src=outlook

This will still show the weather in Fahrenheit !!

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August 11th, 2014 8:36pm

Can anyone tell me if the Celcius via GP issue been resolved?

Thank you

January 26th, 2015 10:30pm

Wondering if this is still outstanding... I have tried various ways and all have failed... I live in Australia and would like to set the degree to C but this does not work in the Weather URL GPO. Should the weadegreetype not be included in the weatherURL, but in a different registry key?
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June 26th, 2015 1:17am

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