![Diane Poremsky [Outlook MVP]](http://www.outlook-tips.net/images/2014/MVP_BlueOnly.png)
We get a lot of questions about the Location dialog that comes up the first time you enter a phone number in contacts. This is the Windows Phone & Modem dialog and you need to enter your telephone area code and save it before you can enter phone numbers for contacts. Yes, even if you don't have a modem or call contacts from Outlook, you will still need to enter an area code.
If you need to edit the setting later or create multiple dialing locations, go to Windows Control Panel, Phone and Modem. From there you can Edit the current dialing settings or click New and add another dialing location.
Tip: Normally, you should select the country you live in and enter your telephone area code. This allows Outlook to properly format the number and add the country code to it. If you don't want Outlook to format the number, choose International Freephone from the Country/region menu. This is normally used for 800 numbers and does not reformat the phone numbers. However, if you click the buttons (Business, Home, Mobile etc) it will add 800 to the number.
Published August 22, 2011. Last updated on May 5, 2017.
Then I guess I won't be using skype. Why is it that we the customer have to make notes of everything we have to change, configure and sometimes even accept to use a product that belongs to us. Bill Gates and his followers can burn in hell!
The problem with microsoft and Google and the rest of those robber barons is that they are not satisfied with owning everybody but owning their personal info as well. I hate em all but then again doesn't everyone? Keep it private. Don't put it on the internet. ANYWHERE!
OR you can do what Microsoft SHOULD have done, and just disable the telephony service, because 99% of people use phones, and not their computers, to call people anyway.
Go to start and type “services.msc”.
Hit Enter.
Go down to “Telephony” and double click.
Disable it, click apply, and click close.
Presto… no more annoying popups about information you don’t want to enter.
EDIT: sorry it took 3 iterations of this to get the phone/computer explanation legible.
We used to recommend this as a way to stop outlook from formatting the phone numbers, although there are better ways to handle it. Plus, if you use Skype, you'll need to leave telephony enabled.
More number formatting