Handling Unaccepted Outlook Meeting Requests in Calendar

What is fun about this job is when a client “stumps” the angel! Many have tried, and usually I get it figured out quickly, but today was another story. The scenario is as follows. A new client gets a meeting request for an event from a collegue or contact in his email box. Once the email was opened the meeting request would show up in his calendar  (EVEN if he didn’t yet “Decline,” “Accept,” or  make it “Tentative”) clogging up the view with tentative appointments.  This was a tough problem to solve,  as I hadn’t noticed this feature in Outlook, nor do I get meeting requests (I usually send them). I figured there had to be SOME answer out there.

Egghead Cafe (despite an interface that made finding the answer just as problematic) offered the solution, thanks to Sue Mosher, MVP.

The following steps worked perfectly!

1. In Outlook, go to Tools –> Options –> and the  E-mail Options tab
2. Look for a button labeled “Tracking Options”
3. Clear the check box for “Process requests and responses on arrival”

Problem solved. Sue Mosher is the author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003  
http://www.turtleflock.com/olconfig/index.htm 
 
and Microsoft Outlook Programming – Jumpstart for Administrators, Power Users, and Developers  
http://www.outlookcode.com/jumpstart.aspx