*** UPDATE 2024.06.10 @ 07:05 A.M. -- Possible Solution For Future Reference ***

After reinstalling outlook on the example workstation and doing a repair of the GW 8 client, I created a test user (jmmovez) and gave her both an exchange and GW box like I would any other user and did some testing.  My testing thus far revealed a very specific order of operations that looks to be repeatable.  I took the following actions in this exact order:

Note: failure to take these steps in the exact order listed below will more likely than not result in a broken GW 8 security dialog with missing tabs.  as such, please take these steps exactly as outlined below.  text that can be changed will be in Bold Courier New font, names of windows, buttons, or other controls will be in bold, and text to be entered exactly or not changed will be in Courier New font (no bold).

1.  On first login to Novell and Windows AD, sign in to the GW client (Notify should be one of the first things to launch at startup so sign in there), and load the GW client up if even for just a few seconds then close out of it and Notify.  The purpose of this is to allow GW and the Windows Messaging System (WMS) it initialize first before Exchange and Outlook can initialize.

2.  Hit up Control Panel > Mail and notice there are no profiles yet, click Add and create one called Novell GroupWise

3.  When the wizard comes up, it's going to try and do the exchange profile first, check the box at the bottom of the screen for a manual setup and choose Next

4.  On the type of account screen choose "Other" then "Novell GroupWise" and click Next

5.  It should pickup the GW settings as ngwnameserver on port 1677 and the account name being the same as the eDirectory name.  Click Check Names and if everything gets a cool-looking underline beneath it, click Next.  CAUTION: Check to see if the account name shows your name as listed in eDirectory and that it is spelled correctly including hyphenated last names.  If it is, go to step 6, if it's wrong contact the I.T. help desk.

6.  At the congratulations screen, click Finish

7.  At the Mail control panel, select Novell GroupWise then Properties.

8.  At the Mail Setup - Novell GroupWise dialog under E-mail Accounts, choose the E-mail Accounts button.

9.  At the Account Settings dialog, choose the Address Books tab then choose Add.

10.  In the wizard that appears, choose the Additional Address Books option then Next.

11.  On the address book type screen, choose "Novell Personal Address Book" then Next.

12.  You'll get a message saying that the new account will not take effect until you quit and re-open Outlook, choose OK and then Finish.

13.  Repeat steps 10-12 to add the Novell GroupWise Address Book and then close the Account Settings dialog and the Mail Setup dialog.

14.  At the Mail control panel, choose Add and give the Exchange profile a name like "Exchange (Outlook)" and click OK.

15.  Track through the wizard letting the auto-configuration do its thing and when it's done, click Finish.

16.  At the Mail control panel choose the option labeled "Prompt for a profile" under the "When starting Microsoft Office Outlook, Use This Profile" section

17.  Click OK.

18.  Launch GroupWise and choose Tools > Options > Security and notice how there is no error and both the Notify and Proxy Access tabs actually show up.

19. (Mandatory (Outlook)): When you run outlook, there will be a dialog that comes up asking which profile to use, be sure to always use the one you created for Exchange (called "Exchange (Outlook)" in these steps) and choose OK.  This is required else Outlook will try to write to your GroupWise account and that's not the objective.

As of the time of this writing that seems to be the solution, but if anyone else has a better solution that is faster and doesn't need as precise an order of operations that can lead to end-user error, I'll take it.  I'll put this as a suggested answer and give it a few days to see if anyone else can chime in with something better then if no one can come up with a better solution, I'll mark it as the answer.

It is sad to mention that it will not help for future references because GroupWise clients have changed their behavior. Address book activities have been rewritten completely and do not relay on mapi ...

Well…

it might not work for “future” clients that don’t rely on MAPI for address book related activities; but it will work for future reference if anyone goes searching up that error in relation to  clients that do rely on MAPI.  The number of people this will be relevant to  is shrinking by the day (unless you’re me looking for how to fix it at some point in the future  (after a  rebuild of the environment due to a bad configuration) or someone who is either 1) picking up after someone else left  an org that still uses a MAPI-GW System thus taking the Knowledge with them, 2) who is curious of older technologies, or 3) has some other oddly-specific reason for running this level of “ancient” “cursed” software.)

I wonder what the last version of GW was to run under eDir  8.8 and server 2003?

GroupWise 12 was the last version to depend on eDir,  and I believed it worked on WinServer 2003 even if not officially supported YMMV.  

Newer versions (14+) will work with eDir, just not be dependent on it or even use ConsoleOne.

Leaving trails for the restorers to follow is a time-honoured tradition in other areas, IT is just slow to understand the appeal, but it has started.