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Outlook 2010 and OCT: setting Junk E-mail Protection doesn't work

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Problem
Outlook Junk E-mail Protection goes randomly to 'No Protection' or 'Low' for a new e-mail profile although this setting has been configured to 'No Proctection' with OCT.

Explanation
We have Outlook 2010 deployment (.msp) made with OCT. 'Junk E-mail protection level' has been set to 'No Protection'.
After Outlook 2010 has been deployed on top of previously installed Office 2010 we can see the this registry value:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\[Wow6432Node\]Microsoft\Office\14.0\User Settings\{some-random-guid}\Create\software\microsoft\office\14.0\outlook\options\mail
junkmailprotection = 0x7fffffff (2147483647) REG_DWORD

([Wow6432Node\] is "Wow6432Node\" for x64 systems and "" for x86 systems. {some-random-guid} seems to be quite random.)
On a side note the value is a bit odd, because the value 2147483647 is 'Trusted Lists Only'. File outlk14.opax has correct value 4294967295 (0xffffffff) for 'No Protection'.

When a user launches Outlook for the first time Outlook creates and configures his mail profile and he gets that same value under his registry hive:
HKU\{USER-SID}\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Outlook\options\mail
junkmailprotection = 0x7fffffff (2147483647) REG_DWORD
but we have discovered that in user's mail profile the 'Junk E-mail Protection' can be either 'No Protection' or 'Low'. We can find the real setting for this in
HKU\{USER-SID}\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles\Outlook\{some-another-random-guid}\
0003041b = ff ff ff ff (REG_BINARY) for 'No Protection' or
0003041b = 06 00 00 00 (REG_BINARY) for 'Low'.
For that {some-another-random-guid} the common value 0a0d020000000000c000000000000046 doesn't work if the setting '0003041b' is already in place under another key.

'Low' is dangerous value because if Outlook moves over 30 days old legitimate e-mails silently to a junk folder those e-mails will be deleted quite soon. (Outlook's junk mail filter's goodness is another story - we just really want to turn it always and completely off.)

Debugging done so far:
Using Process Monitor I can see that OUTLOOK.EXE actually never queries for registry value
HKU\{USER-SID}\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Outlook\options\mail\junkmailprotection
Outlook does, however, query for
HKU\{USER-SID}\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Outlook\options\mail\junkmailprotection
so with Group Policy and amd(x) templates 'Junk E-mail protection level' policy setting works and Outlook grays out the selection for the user. GPO adds the following correct registry value and Outlook obeys it:
HKU\{USER-SID}\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Outlook\options\mail
junkmailprotection = 0xffffffff (4294967295) REG_DWORD

Should the Junk E-mail work when Outlook is configured with OCT? Setting this using GPO is satisfactory solution but we would really like to have the correct setting in the deployment package.


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Mikko Järvinen
Computing Centre
University of Turku
Finland



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