outlook-automation

name	outlook-automation
description	Control Microsoft Outlook on Windows via COM automation. Use when the user wants to create meetings, send emails, search emails, read inbox, manage calendar events, or interact with Outlook in any way. Triggers on phrases like "create meeting", "send email", "search emails", "check inbox", "calendar", "schedule", "outlook".

Outlook Automation (Windows COM)

When to Use

• User wants to create, update, or delete calendar meetings/appointments
• User wants to send, read, search, or manage emails
• User wants to interact with Outlook contacts, folders, or tasks
• Any request involving Outlook data or actions on Windows

When Not to Use

• User is on macOS or Linux (COM is Windows-only)
• User wants cloud-only access without local Outlook installed (use Microsoft Graph API instead)
• Outlook is not installed on the machine

Prerequisites

• Windows with Microsoft Outlook installed and configured with an account
• PowerShell (available by default)

Core Concepts

Outlook COM exposes these key object types:

OlItemType Value	Type	Description
0	MailItem	Email messages
1	AppointmentItem	Calendar events / meetings
2	ContactItem	Contacts
3	TaskItem	Tasks
4	JournalItem	Journal entries
6	NoteItem	Notes

Folder Constants (OlDefaultFolders)

Value	Folder
3	olFolderDeletedItems
4	olFolderOutbox
5	olFolderSentMail
6	olFolderInbox
9	olFolderCalendar
10	olFolderContacts
13	olFolderDrafts
28	olFolderToDo

Meeting Status Constants (OlMeetingStatus)

Value	Status
0	olNonMeeting (appointment, no attendees)
1	olMeeting (meeting with attendees)
3	olMeetingReceived
5	olMeetingCanceled

---

Workflow

Initialization

Always start by creating the COM object:

$outlook = New-Object -ComObject Outlook.Application
$namespace = $outlook.GetNameSpace("MAPI")

Get the current user's email

$currentUser = $namespace.CurrentUser
$currentUserEmail = $namespace.Accounts.Item(1).SmtpAddress
Write-Host "Logged in as: $currentUserEmail"

---

Email Operations

Send an Email

$mail = $outlook.CreateItem(0)
$mail.Subject = "Subject here"
$mail.Body = "Plain text body here"
# For HTML body use: $mail.HTMLBody = "<h1>Hello</h1><p>HTML content</p>"
$mail.To = "[e-mail]"
# $mail.CC = "[e-mail]"
# $mail.BCC = "[e-mail]"

# Add attachment (optional):
# $mail.Attachments.Add("C:\path\to\file.pdf")

$mail.Send()
Write-Host "Email sent successfully"

Read Inbox Emails

$inbox = $namespace.GetDefaultFolder(6)
$messages = $inbox.Items
$messages.Sort("[ReceivedTime]", $true)  # Sort newest first

# Get last N emails
$count = [Math]::Min(10, $messages.Count)
for ($i = 1; $i -le $count; $i++) {
    $msg = $messages.Item($i)
    Write-Host "---"
    Write-Host "From: $($msg.SenderEmailAddress)"
    Write-Host "Subject: $($msg.Subject)"
    Write-Host "Received: $($msg.ReceivedTime)"
    Write-Host "Unread: $($msg.UnRead)"
}

Search Emails

Use the Restrict method with DASL or Jet query filters:

$inbox = $namespace.GetDefaultFolder(6)

# Search by subject (contains)
$filter = "@SQL=""urn:schemas:httpmail:subject"" LIKE '%search term%'"
$results = $inbox.Items.Restrict($filter)

# Search by sender
$filter = "@SQL=""urn:schemas:httpmail:fromemail"" = '[e-mail]'"
$results = $inbox.Items.Restrict($filter)

# Search by date range
$startDate = (Get-Date).AddDays(-7).ToString("MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm")
$filter = "[ReceivedTime] >= '$startDate'"
$results = $inbox.Items.Restrict($filter)

# Search unread only
$filter = "[UnRead] = True"
$results = $inbox.Items.Restrict($filter)

# Combine filters with AND/OR
$filter = "@SQL=""urn:schemas:httpmail:subject"" LIKE '%project%' AND ""urn:schemas:httpmail:hasattachment"" = 1"
$results = $inbox.Items.Restrict($filter)

foreach ($item in $results) {
    Write-Host "$($item.ReceivedTime) | $($item.SenderEmailAddress) | $($item.Subject)"
}
Write-Host "Found $($results.Count) matching emails"

Reply / Forward

$inbox = $namespace.GetDefaultFolder(6)
$email = $inbox.Items.GetFirst()

# Reply
$reply = $email.Reply()
$reply.Body = "Reply text`n" + $reply.Body
$reply.Send()

# Reply All
$replyAll = $email.ReplyAll()
$replyAll.Body = "Reply all text`n" + $replyAll.Body
$replyAll.Send()

# Forward
$fwd = $email.Forward()
$fwd.To = "[e-mail]"
$fwd.Body = "FYI`n" + $fwd.Body
$fwd.Send()

---

Calendar Operations

Create an Appointment (no attendees)

$appt = $outlook.CreateItem(1)
$appt.Subject = "My Appointment"
$appt.Body = "Description here"
$appt.Start = [DateTime]"2026-03-15 10:00"
$appt.Duration = 60  # minutes
$appt.Location = "Room 101"
$appt.ReminderSet = $true
$appt.ReminderMinutesBeforeStart = 15
$appt.Save()
Write-Host "Appointment created: $($appt.Subject) at $($appt.Start)"

Create a Meeting (with attendees)

$meeting = $outlook.CreateItem(1)
$meeting.MeetingStatus = 1  # olMeeting
$meeting.Subject = "Team Sync"
$meeting.Body = "Weekly sync meeting"
$meeting.Start = [DateTime]"2026-03-15 14:00"
$meeting.Duration = 30
$meeting.Location = "Conference Room A"

# Add required attendees
$meeting.Recipients.Add("[e-mail]")
$meeting.Recipients.Add("[e-mail]")

# Add optional attendee
$optionalAttendee = $meeting.Recipients.Add("[e-mail]")
$optionalAttendee.Type = 2  # olOptional (1=Required, 2=Optional, 3=Resource)

$meeting.Recipients.ResolveAll()

$meeting.Send()  # Use .Save() to save without sending invites
Write-Host "Meeting invitation sent: $($meeting.Subject)"

Create a Recurring Meeting

$meeting = $outlook.CreateItem(1)
$meeting.Subject = "Daily Standup"
$meeting.Start = [DateTime]"2026-03-16 09:00"
$meeting.Duration = 15

$recurrence = $meeting.GetRecurrencePattern()
$recurrence.RecurrenceType = 1  # 0=Daily, 1=Weekly, 2=Monthly, 3=MonthNth, 5=Yearly
$recurrence.Interval = 1
$recurrence.DayOfWeekMask = 62  # Mon-Fri (2+4+8+16+32)
$recurrence.PatternStartDate = [DateTime]"2026-03-16"
$recurrence.PatternEndDate = [DateTime]"2026-06-30"

$meeting.Save()
Write-Host "Recurring meeting created"

List Upcoming Calendar Events

$calendar = $namespace.GetDefaultFolder(9)
$items = $calendar.Items
$items.Sort("[Start]")
$items.IncludeRecurrences = $true

$startDate = (Get-Date).ToString("MM/dd/yyyy")
$endDate = (Get-Date).AddDays(7).ToString("MM/dd/yyyy")
$filter = "[Start] >= '$startDate' AND [Start] <= '$endDate'"
$upcoming = $items.Restrict($filter)

foreach ($event in $upcoming) {
    Write-Host "$($event.Start) - $($event.End) | $($event.Subject) | $($event.Location)"
}

Find and Modify a Meeting

$calendar = $namespace.GetDefaultFolder(9)
$filter = "@SQL=""urn:schemas:httpmail:subject"" = 'Team Sync'"
$found = $calendar.Items.Restrict($filter)

if ($found.Count -gt 0) {
    $meeting = $found.GetFirst()
    $meeting.Start = [DateTime]"2026-03-15 15:00"  # Reschedule
    $meeting.Duration = 45
    $meeting.Save()  # or $meeting.Send() to notify attendees
    Write-Host "Meeting updated"
}

Delete/Cancel a Meeting

$calendar = $namespace.GetDefaultFolder(9)
$filter = "[Subject] = 'Team Sync'"
$found = $calendar.Items.Restrict($filter)

if ($found.Count -gt 0) {
    $meeting = $found.GetFirst()
    $meeting.Delete()
    Write-Host "Meeting deleted"
}

---

Contact Operations

Create a Contact

$contact = $outlook.CreateItem(2)
$contact.FullName = "John Doe"
$contact.Email1Address = "[e-mail]"
$contact.BusinessTelephoneNumber = "[phone]"
$contact.CompanyName = "Contoso"
$contact.JobTitle = "Engineer"
$contact.Save()

Search Contacts

$contacts = $namespace.GetDefaultFolder(10)
$filter = "[FullName] = 'John Doe'"
$results = $contacts.Items.Restrict($filter)
foreach ($c in $results) {
    Write-Host "$($c.FullName) - $($c.Email1Address)"
}

---

Task Operations

Create a Task

$task = $outlook.CreateItem(3)
$task.Subject = "Review PR #42"
$task.Body = "Review and approve the pull request"
$task.DueDate = (Get-Date).AddDays(2)
$task.Importance = 2  # 0=Low, 1=Normal, 2=High
$task.Save()

---

Folder Operations

List All Folders

function List-OutlookFolders($folder, $indent = 0) {
    $prefix = " " * $indent
    Write-Host "$prefix$($folder.Name) ($($folder.Items.Count) items)"
    foreach ($subfolder in $folder.Folders) {
        List-OutlookFolders $subfolder ($indent + 2)
    }
}

$root = $namespace.Folders
foreach ($store in $root) {
    List-OutlookFolders $store
}

Move Email to Folder

$inbox = $namespace.GetDefaultFolder(6)
$targetFolder = $inbox.Folders.Item("Archive")  # subfolder of Inbox
$email = $inbox.Items.GetFirst()
$email.Move($targetFolder)

---

Tips and Error Handling

• Security prompts: Outlook may show security dialogs when accessing certain properties (like .Body of emails from external senders). This is by design.
• COM cleanup: After heavy COM usage, release objects:

  [System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::ReleaseComObject($outlook) | Out-Null
  

• Outlook must be running: The COM object connects to a running Outlook instance or starts one. Ensure Outlook is configured with an account.
• Date formats: Use the system's date format or explicit [DateTime] casting to avoid locale issues.
• Large mailboxes: Use .Restrict() filters instead of iterating all items for performance.
• Error handling pattern:

  try {
      $outlook = New-Object -ComObject Outlook.Application
      # ... operations ...
  } catch {
      Write-Error "Outlook COM error: $_"
  }