Overview

Customers may experience an issue with the Kerio Offline Connector (KOFF) blocking modern authentication (Simplified Account Creation Wizard) in MS Office 365 and MS Office 2021/2019/2016. This problem prevents the simultaneous use of Office 365 and Gmail accounts, for example.

When setting up a new account for O365 or Gmail in a KOFF profile, customers are presented with the Legacy Account Creation Wizard, rather than the modern authentication method, which affects the use of Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) or OAuth, and presents legacy windows for IMAP/SMTP authorization for Google, which will not be functional in 2023.

Solution

Starting with Kerio Connect 10.0.3, the Outlook Modern Authentication interface is also compatible with KOFF. Therefore, you should proceed with Upgrading Kerio Outlook Connector in order to deploy the fix en-mass.

However, if for any reason you are on an older version of Kerio Connect and do not want to upgrade (although we highly recommend you do), you can follow the below steps in order to disable/enable the wizard, based on your use case:

1. On the machine where you want to toggle the wizard, access the Registry Editor (Start > search for regedit)
2. If you want to enable the Simplified Account Creation Wizard (Modern Authentication), navigate to the below registry keys and add the indicated values below:
   

   ### Enables Simple Wizard ###
   [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\setup]
   "DisableOffice365SimplifiedAccountCreation"=dword:00000000
   [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\setup]
   "DisableOffice365SimplifiedAccountCreation"=dword:00000000

   • Please note that in this configuration, you may not be able to configure your Kerio Connect account via KOFF, and you may need to revert to Syncing Outlook with Kerio Connect Using EAS Protocol
3. If you want to enable the Legacy Wizard (by default supported with version of KOFF older than 10.0.3), navigate to the below registry keys and add the indicated values below:

   ### Enables Legacy Wizard ### 
   [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\setup] 
   "DisableOffice365SimplifiedAccountCreation"=dword:00000001 
   [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\setup] 
   "DisableOffice365SimplifiedAccountCreation"=dword:00000001

Summary

This article provides a solution for the issue of KOFF blocking modern authentication in Office Outlook, and preventing the simultaneous use of Office 365 or Gmail accounts alongside a KOFF account in a single Outlook profile. The solution involves upgrading to Kerio Connect 10.0.3 or newer, or if that is not possible, adjusting the Windows registry keys to accommodate the usage.

FAQ

1. Can I use MFA or OAuth with KOFF?
   No, KOFF does not currently support MFA or OAuth for Gmail or O365 accounts. However, you can use App Passwords as a workaround to avoid Gmail going through the modern authentication.
2. Can I use Office 365 and Gmail accounts simultaneously with KOFF?
   Yes, starting with version 10.0.3. However, we do not recommend this, and you should rather create separate Outlook profiles for KOFF and another profile for O365 or Gmail to use these accounts simultaneously.