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When attempting to render webpages via the Outlook folder pane using the Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Microsoft Outlook add-in (Outlook client), the view pane remains blank and “Waiting for a page to be retrieved from a CRM server…” displays. The pane never loads the corresponding webpage.

The Dynamics 365 for Outlook add-in relies on customized roaming home pages in order to render webpages within Outlook. The October 2017 Microsoft Outlook security update disables roaming home pages in Outlook to address a significant vulnerability with the application, and as such, inadvertently causes the add-in to fail.

More information on why this issue is occuring can be found at the following article from Outlook:

Outlook Home Page feature is missing in folder properties

All versions of the Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Microsoft Outlook add-in family are affected by this issue. This includes Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 for Microsoft Office Outlook, Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2015 for Microsoft Office Outlook, and Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 for Microsoft Office Outlook.

This also affects all versions of the Dynamics 365/ CRM organization that the add-in is connecting to.

The Outlook Security update versioning information is found below:

Security Update for Microsoft Outlook 2010 (KB4011089) 32-Bit Edition
Security Update for Microsoft Outlook 2010 (KB4011089) 64-Bit Edition
Security Update for Microsoft Outlook 2010 (KB4011196) 32-Bit Edition
Security Update for Microsoft Outlook 2010 (KB4011196) 64-Bit Edition
Security Update for Microsoft Outlook 2013 (KB4011178) 32-Bit Edition
Security Update for Microsoft Outlook 2013 (KB4011178) 64-Bit Edition
Security Update for Microsoft Outlook 2016 (KB4011162) 32-Bit Edition
Security Update for Microsoft Outlook 2016 (KB4011162) 64-Bit Edition

Any future cumulative Outlook updates will contain these Security Updates and will cause this issue to occur, such as the following updates:

Update for Microsoft Outlook 2013 (KB4011252) 32-Bit Edition
Update for Microsoft Outlook 2013 (KB4011252) 64-Bit Edition
Update for Microsoft Outlook 2016 (KB4011240) 32-Bit Edition
Update for Microsoft Outlook 2016 (KB4011240) 64-Bit Edition

Due to this security update resolving multiple significant vulnerabilities within the Microsoft Outlook application, it must remain installed. In order to re-enable roaming home pages as a workaround while a permanent resolution is developed, a registry key must be added to the local client machines running the Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Outlook application. This key must be installed either through direct registry edit or via Group Policy in your organization.

The following registry key is dependent on the version of Microsoft Outlook installed:

Microsoft Outlook 2016:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Security] “EnableRoamingFolderHomepages”=dword:00000002

Microsoft Outlook 2013:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Outlook\Security] “EnableRoamingFolderHomepages”=dword:00000002

Microsoft Outlook 2010:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Outlook\Security] “EnableRoamingFolderHomepages”=dword:00000002

Once this registry key is added to the local client, Microsoft Outlook must be restarted and the add-in will be able to render webpages without issue.