Outlook Room Finder Missing - Microsoft Office Room Finder from the Outlook client

If the Room Finder is not appearing in Outlook 2010, Outlook 2013 or Outlook 2016, make sure that the Microsoft Exchange Add-in is enabled under COM Add-Ins:

1. Click File > Options
2. Click Add-ins on the left
3. Click the Go… button next to Com Add-ins in the dropdown
4. Enable the checkbox for the Microsoft Exchange Ad-in and click OK

How to hide the Microsoft Office Room Finder from the Outlook client.

By default, when you open a new meeting form in Microsoft Outlook 2016, Microsoft Outlook 2013, or Microsoft Outlook 2010, the Office Room Finder panel is displayed on the right side of the Appointment screen and the Scheduling Assistant screen, as shown in the following screenshots.





By clicking the Room Finder control in the Options group of the Ribbon, you can hide the Office Room Finder.

However, the Office Room Finder remains hidden only if you hide it on the Appointment screen. If you try to hide it on the Scheduling Assistant screen, and then you switch to the Appointment screen and then back to the Scheduling Assistant screen, the  Office Room Finder is visible again.

Manually controlling the Room Finder

When you hide the Room Finder on the Appointment tab of a meeting form, the following data is written into the Windows registry.

Subkey: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\x.0\Outlook\Preferences
DWORD: RoomFinderShow
Value: 0 (If you subsequently display the Room Finder, this value is changed to 1)

Note In this subkey path, the x.0 placeholder represents your version of Office (16.0 = Office 2016, 15.0 = Office 2013, 14.0 = Office 2010).

If you hide the Room Finder on the Scheduling Assistant screen of a meeting form, this registry data is never used. 

Administering the Room Finder through Group Policy

There are two different policy values that affect the Room Finder. Which one you use depends on the level of control that you want to have over the Room Finder and the version of the "Microsoft Exchange Add-In" add-in that you have installed.

• RoomFinderShow

  The RoomFinderShow policy value is a DWORD value under the following registry paths (by Outlook version):
  
  
  
  Subkey: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\x.0\Outlook\Preferences
  
  NoteThe x.0 placeholder represents your version of Office (16.0 = Office 2016, 15.0 = Office 2013, 14.0 = Office 2010).
  If RoomFinderShow = 0 under these registry paths, the Room Finder behaves in the following manner when you start Outlook:
  
  
  • The Room Finder is not shown by default on the Appointment screen.
  • You can manually enable the Room Finder on the Appointment screen.
  • If you open a new meeting form after you enable the Room Finder in another meeting form, the Room Finder is not shown by default on the Appointment screen of the new meeting form.
  • If you manually enable and then disable the Room Finder on the Appointment screen, nothing is written to the registry.







• RoomFinderForceDisabled

  The RoomFinderForceDisabled policy value was introduced in an update to the "Microsoft Exchange Add-in" add-in. It is used by Outlook only after you install the update for your version of Outlook.
  
  
  Hotfix KB2880477 for Office 2013 July 8, 2014 (Outexum-x-none.msp)
  
  Hotfix KB2794760 for Outlook 2010 July 8, 2014 (Outexum-x-none.msp)
  
  After the update is installed, use the following registry data to completely disable the Room Finder. This gives you even greater control over the Room Finder than the RoomFinderShow policy.
  
  
  Subkey: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\x.0\Outlook\Preferences
  DWORD: RoomFinderForceDisabled
  Values: 1 = hide the Room Finder, 0 (or missing DWORD) = show the Room Finder
  
  Note In this subkey path, the x.0 placeholder represents your version of Office (16.0 = Office 2016, 15.0 = Office 2013, 14.0 = Office 2010).
  
  When you have the required update installed and you have set RoomFinderForceDisabled=1, Outlook will not display the Room Finder pane on either the Scheduling Assistant screen or the Appointment screen in a meeting form.

Another way to completely disable (hide) the Room Finder on the Scheduling Assistant and Appointmentscreens is to disable the "Microsoft Exchange Add-in" add-in. To do this, follow these steps.

Note We do not recommend that you disable the Microsoft Exchange Add-in because this also disables other features (such as "Protect before send" and "Voicemail integration").

1. On the File tab, click Options.
2. In the Outlook Options dialog box, click Add-Ins.
3. In the Add-ins section of the Outlook Options dialog box, click Go.
4. In the COM Add-Ins dialog box, clear the check box for Microsoft Exchange Add-in, and then click OK.

Loading the Microsoft Exchange Add-in is controlled by the following registry entry:

Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Office\Outlook\Addins\UmOutlookAddin.FormRegionAddin
DWORD: LoadBehavior
Values: 3 = add-in is loaded when Outlook starts, 2 = add-in is not loaded on startup (and may never load), 0 = add-in is disabled