Details
This policy setting controls whether Outlook subscribes to the Common Feed List, which is
made available to multiple RSS clients. The Common Feed List is a hierarchical set of RSS
Feeds to which clients such as Outlook, the Feeds list in Internet Explorer 7, and the Feed
Headlines Sidebar gadget in Windows Vista can subscribe. If you enable this policy setting,
Outlook automatically subscribes to RSS Feeds added in Internet Explorer, and Outlook RSS
Feeds are synchronized with the Common Feed List so they are available in Internet
Explorer. Be aware that third-party applications besides Internet Explorer can add RSS
Feeds to the Common Feed List, and if you enable this setting Outlook automatically
subscribes to those RSS Feeds as well. If you disable or do not configure this policy setting,
Outlook maintains its own list of RSS Feeds and does not automatically subscribe to RSS
Feeds that are added to the Common Feed List. The recommended state for this setting is-
Disabled.
*Rationale*
The Common Feed list is a hierarchical set of RSS feeds to which clients such as Outlook
2010, the Feeds list in Internet Explorer 7, and the Feed Headlines Sidebar gadget in
Windows Vista can subscribe. If Outlook subscribes to a very large feed list, performance
and availability can be affected, especially if Outlook is configured to download full RSS
message bodies or if the feed list is not AutoArchived regularly. By default, Outlook
maintains its own list of feeds and does not automatically subscribe to RSS feeds that are
added to the Common Feed List.
Solution
To implement the recommended configuration state, set the following Group Policy setting
to Disabled.
User ConfigurationAdministrative TemplatesMicrosoft Outlook 2010Account
SettingsRSS FeedsSynchronize Outlook RSS Feeds with Common Feed List
Impact-Disabling this setting can cause disruptions for users who are accustomed to accessing the
Common Feed List in Outlook. Users will still have access to the Common Feed List through
Internet Explorer 7 and other client programs. Disabling this setting does not prevent users
from maintaining a separate RSS Feeds subscriptions list in Outlook 2010.
Supportive Information
The following resource is also helpful.
This security hardening control applies to the following category of controls within NIST 800-53: Configuration Management.This control applies to the following type of system Windows.