Disable existing Microsoft Outlook signatures using a Group Policy (GPO)

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You can easily remove Outlook signatures from individual users. However, to disable the signature for all the users you need to follow the below steps.

Steps to disable Microsoft Outlook signatures using a GPO

1. Select Start > Administrative Tools > Group Policy Management to launch the Group Policy Management Console.

2. The Office Administration Template should be downloaded and extracted according to the Microsoft Outlook version that is being used in your company.
Note: You need to download an Administration Template for each version of Outlook if your company uses more than one Outlook version. The download link for the Administration Template is given at the bottom of this page.

3. In the required domain, create a new GPO.

4. For each Microsoft Outlook version being utilized in your environment, enable the necessary setting(s).:
Outlook 2013 and 2016

Create a new Group Policy (GPO)

To add a new GPO to the domain:

1. Choose the appropriate domain, click the 'Action' menu, and select 'Create a GPO in this domain, and Link it here...'. Alternatively, you can right-click on the domain and select 'Create a GPO in this domain, and Link it here...'

2. Enter the new Group Policy Object (GPO) name in the New GPO window and click 'OK'.

3. Right-click on the new GPO and click 'Edit'

4. Expand 'User Configuration > Policies > Administrative Templates' and select 'Administrative Templates'

5. Choose 'Action > Add / Remove Templates...'

6. Select 'Add', and navigate where the Microsoft Outlook templates were extracted during GPO creation:

Note: Copy outlkxx.admx and outlkxx.adml to the required language folders (C:WindowsPolicyDefinitions and C:WindowsPolicyDefinitionsen-US, respectively).

Here xx is 15 for Outlook 2013 and 16 for Outlook 2016.

7. Select Close.

8. Navigate to the necessary setting(s) for each Microsoft Outlook version being used in your environment, and enable them:

- For Microsoft Outlook 2013 and 2016

Microsoft Outlook 2013 and 2016

To enable settings for Microsoft Outlook 2013 and 2016:

1. Navigate to 'Microsoft Outlook 2013 (or Microsoft Outlook 2016)> Outlook Options > Mail Format'.

2. On the right-hand side, enable the 'Do not allow signatures for e-mail messages' setting to disable the signatures in Microsoft Outlook 2013 (or Microsoft Outlook 2016):

Note: This will disable the signature options and prevent the adding of Outlook signatures. However, the existing signature file will remain in the client computers which needs to be deleted manually.

Links to download Office Administration Template

Links to download the appropriate version(s) of the Office Administration Template for the Microsoft Outlook versions