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MS Outlook Warning : A Program is trying to send an email message on your behalf.

Allow Access Message

Sometimes when using Influence and trying to send an email journal, you may get a warning message displayed stating:

A program is trying to access e-mail address information stored in Outlook. If this is unexpected, click Deny and verify your antivirus software is up-to-date.

<Or>

A program is trying to perform an action that may result in an e-mail message being sent on your behalf. If this is unexpected, click Deny and verify your antivirus software is up-to-date.

e.g.

A program is trying to send an e-mail message on your behalf. If this is unexpected, click Deny and verify your antivirus software is up-to-date.
This annoying wait dialog should not come up under normal circumstances.

To Fix the issue, you need to change the settings in MS Outlook, or speak to your IT support provider so that they can change these settings for you - it is not something that we (Influence) are in control of.

You can use Google to search for MS Outlook - Programmmatic Access which should provide several useful articles describing the problem. Either follow the advice of the article, or ask your IT support provider to do so.

In essence the instructions are
- Go into MS Outlook and find the programmatic access menu
- Change the settings in MS Outlook so that it will not warn about programmatic access *unless* your Anti-virus software is out-of-date

- Ensure your anti-virus software is up-to-date.

 

Below is an example extract from one of the many articles on the web, describing the issue.

Trust Center Settings

Since Outlook 2007, no security prompts will be shown when you have a virus scanner installed which reports its status to Windows and reports its status as “Valid”.

  • Outlook 2007
    Tools-> Trust Center…-> Programmatic Access
  • Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2013
    File-> Options-> Trust Center-> Trust Center Settings…-> Programmatic Access

Programmatic Access Security - greyed out - Warn me about suspicious activity when my antivirus software is inactive or out of date (recommended) - Always warn me about suspcious activity - Never warn me about suspicious activity (not recommended)
In this configuration, you shouldn’t get any security prompts. The greyed out settings can only be changed when you start Outlook with administrative privileges.

The greyed out settings above determine whether or not a prompt is being shown. The default setting is: Warn me about suspicious activity when my antivirus software is inactive or out-of-date (recommended)

This means that a security prompt is only triggered when your antivirus status is reported as “Invalid”.

The other 2 options either always show or never show security prompts regardless of the antivirus status.

As the settings are greyed out, you can only change them when you start Outlook with administrator privileges. You can do this from the context menu that you get when you hold the SHIFT button while right clicking on the Outlook shortcut button in Taskbar while Outlook is closed. For other methods and detailed instructions with screenshots see:

 

 

Outlook gives that warning message when an add-in or application wants to send an email or access Outlook data in an unexpected or insecure way.

Two other variants which you may encounter are

A program is trying to access e-mail address information stored in Outlook. If this is unexpected, click Deny and verify your antivirus software is up-to-date.

and

A program is trying to perform an action that may result in an e-mail message being sent on your behalf. If this is unexpected, click Deny and verify your antivirus software is up-to-date.

Nowadays, getting any of these prompt actually shouldn’t be much of an issue anymore as most add-ins and applications have been updated to prevent triggering these security prompts. Besides, by default, Outlook is configured to not show these alerts when your virus scanner is up-to-date.

If you still get one of the prompts you can undertake several actions to prevent them from popping up again.

A program is trying to send an e-mail message on your behalf. If this is unexpected, click Deny and verify your antivirus software is up-to-date.
This annoying wait dialog should not come up under normal circumstances.

Check for updates of the add-in or application

Initially, it is up to the add-in developer to properly integrate his/her solution with Outlook and prevent the security prompts from happening.

If you are working with an older version of the software, check with the vendor or developer of the product to get the latest version.

As the add-in developer, you can work with Redemption, developed by fellow Outlook MVP Dmitry Streblechenko, which makes it easier to program your solution without triggering such prompts (and makes it easier to program against Outlook in general as well).

Trust Center Settings

Since Outlook 2007, no security prompts will be shown when you have a virus scanner installed which reports its status to Windows and reports its status as “Valid”.

  • Outlook 2007
    Tools-> Trust Center…-> Programmatic Access
  • Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2013
    File-> Options-> Trust Center-> Trust Center Settings…-> Programmatic Access

Programmatic Access Security - greyed out - Warn me about suspicious activity when my antivirus software is inactive or out of date (recommended) - Always warn me about suspcious activity - Never warn me about suspicious activity (not recommended)
In this configuration, you shouldn’t get any security prompts. The greyed out settings can only be changed when you start Outlook with administrative privileges.

The greyed out settings above determine whether or not a prompt is being shown. The default setting is: Warn me about suspicious activity when my antivirus software is inactive or out-of-date (recommended)

This means that a security prompt is only triggered when your antivirus status is reported as “Invalid”.

The other 2 options either always show or never show security prompts regardless of the antivirus status.

As the settings are greyed out, you can only change them when you start Outlook with administrator privileges. You can do this from the context menu that you get when you hold the SHIFT button while right clicking on the Outlook shortcut button in Taskbar while Outlook is closed. For other methods and detailed instructions with screenshots see:

Outlook gives that warning message when an add-in or application wants to send an email or access Outlook data in an unexpected or insecure way.

Two other variants which you may encounter are

A program is trying to access e-mail address information stored in Outlook. If this is unexpected, click Deny and verify your antivirus software is up-to-date.

and

A program is trying to perform an action that may result in an e-mail message being sent on your behalf. If this is unexpected, click Deny and verify your antivirus software is up-to-date.

Nowadays, getting any of these prompt actually shouldn’t be much of an issue anymore as most add-ins and applications have been updated to prevent triggering these security prompts. Besides, by default, Outlook is configured to not show these alerts when your virus scanner is up-to-date.

If you still get one of the prompts you can undertake several actions to prevent them from popping up again.

A program is trying to send an e-mail message on your behalf. If this is unexpected, click Deny and verify your antivirus software is up-to-date.
This annoying wait dialog should not come up under normal circumstances.

Check for updates of the add-in or application

Initially, it is up to the add-in developer to properly integrate his/her solution with Outlook and prevent the security prompts from happening.

If you are working with an older version of the software, check with the vendor or developer of the product to get the latest version.

As the add-in developer, you can work with Redemption, developed by fellow Outlook MVP Dmitry Streblechenko, which makes it easier to program your solution without triggering such prompts (and makes it easier to program against Outlook in general as well).

Trust Center Settings

Since Outlook 2007, no security prompts will be shown when you have a virus scanner installed which reports its status to Windows and reports its status as “Valid”.

  • Outlook 2007
    Tools-> Trust Center…-> Programmatic Access
  • Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2013
    File-> Options-> Trust Center-> Trust Center Settings…-> Programmatic Access

Programmatic Access Security - greyed out - Warn me about suspicious activity when my antivirus software is inactive or out of date (recommended) - Always warn me about suspcious activity - Never warn me about suspicious activity (not recommended)
In this configuration, you shouldn’t get any security prompts. The greyed out settings can only be changed when you start Outlook with administrative privileges.

The greyed out settings above determine whether or not a prompt is being shown. The default setting is: Warn me about suspicious activity when my antivirus software is inactive or out-of-date (recommended)

This means that a security prompt is only triggered when your antivirus status is reported as “Invalid”.

The other 2 options either always show or never show security prompts regardless of the antivirus status.

As the settings are greyed out, you can only change them when you start Outlook with administrator privileges. You can do this from the context menu that you get when you hold the SHIFT button while right clicking on the Outlook shortcut button in Taskbar while Outlook is closed. For other methods and detailed instructions with screenshots see:

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  1. Graeme Orchard

  2. Posted
  3. Updated

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