Can I write a Microsoft Exchange plugin to avoid installing many Outlook add-ons?

Question

What, if any, extensions can be run on Microsoft Exchange that then become visible to Outlook users?

Basically I'm wondering how to integrate at the Exchange layer, avoiding the task of having to install a plug-in or whatever for each Outlook user.

Answer 1

It really depends upon what you are trying to do. If you are writing an Outlook add in that needs to run on the client PC and directly interface with Outlook at run time, you need to install on that PC. It needs to be there weather the Exchange server is able to be connected to or not.

If you can make your application do its magic completely at the server side, then yes it is possible. There are many ways to implement add-ins on the Exchange server side.

Maybe look into packaging your add-in as a MSI file that is a required application and have the Windows server auto install it if it is not there.