Desktop search does not think Outlook is installed in version 2.6.5 but finds and then will not

I recently installed windows desktop search on my XP SP1 machine running Exchange 2003 in cached mode connecting to an Exchange 2003 server. Windows desktop search won't let me select Outlook because it doesn't think I have it installed. I checked from IE and Outlook is set to my default mail client. Any suggestions of other things to check is appreciated, searching through my mailbox and .PST files would be great!

Thanks.

[449 byte] By [KJO43] at [2007-12-24]
# 1

As a first step, please review the following Using Outlook Troubleshooting Guidelines:

Thanks,

Bill Connors

1. Troubleshooting OL Issues. If OL is not indexing than a few things to check will be:

o Is the user on the default profile? We only index OL Default profile right now

o Are the OL folders selected in the indexing options?

o Incase of public folders we only index cached public folder favorites due to exchange load reasons

o If all fails we need a Mapi log file to understand what’s going on.

§ To enable Mapi Log file open registry and goto: "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MSN Apps

§ Create a DWORD LogLevel.MAPI and set it to 1

§ Now start OL and let Indexing work for a while

§ This will create a log file here: %userprofile%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Desktop Search\Logs\MAPI.txt

§ Now compare this mapi.txt file with a mapi.txt without any issues

§ Once done please disable the mapi logging by changing LogLevel.MAPI value to 4

2. Incase of a Watson crash of our processes grab the bucket id for further investigation:

o When the crash happens opt to Send a Report to Watson

o Now Right click on My ComputeràManage

o From left pane click on Event vieweràApplication

o Double click on the error which just happened. There will be a bucket id in the error report. Please send the bucket id

o For further investigation go to winqual.microsoft.com and lookup for the crash and see if there is already a bug tracking the issue. If not than a bug can be easily logged from the Watson site.

BillConnorsMS at 2007-10-7 > top of Msdn Tech,Windows Search Technologies,Windows Desktop Search Development...
# 2

Just checking - did anything in my previous post help at all?

Thanks,

Bill

BillConnorsMS at 2007-10-7 > top of Msdn Tech,Windows Search Technologies,Windows Desktop Search Development...
# 3

Hi ya,

Quick question... What did you mean when you said:
Windows desktop search won't let me select Outlook because it doesn't think I have it installed

What do you see when you go to the Desktop Search Options, Indexing, Browse?

At this point I'd Love to help but I'm really not sure what you have going on there.. If you could provide a little more detail about what you are seeing and what's happening it would really help.

Thanks!

Jeff

Jeff_R at 2007-10-7 > top of Msdn Tech,Windows Search Technologies,Windows Desktop Search Development...
# 4

Hi,

Per Forum Guidlines (created to help reduce the number of "unclassified posts", I'd like to resolve this one and close it out. Please let us know if you need additional info. or mark as "Answered". Without a reply I'll need to delete this within the next few days.

Thanks for your help.

Bill Connors

Program Manager, Windows Desktop Search - Communities

BillConnorsMS at 2007-10-7 > top of Msdn Tech,Windows Search Technologies,Windows Desktop Search Development...
# 5

I seem to be having a similar problem without an exchange connection. The Custom Indexing Options say that Outlook is not installed. Any thoughts on this?

Jim

BlueJay07 at 2007-10-7 > top of Msdn Tech,Windows Search Technologies,Windows Desktop Search Development...
# 6

I have the same problem, can not mark the the e-mail indexing options to be active. It says that Outlook and Outlook Express are not installed. I have tried reinstalling Windows Desktop Search in both english and swedish versions without and change in this behavior. Using version 02.06.5000.5378.

This problem occured just a few days back I think as I am 100% sure that it worked before that.

I am running Outlook 2003, no Exchange server connection, we use POP3/SMTP server for e-mail.

/Per Salmi

PerSalmi at 2007-10-7 > top of Msdn Tech,Windows Search Technologies,Windows Desktop Search Development...
# 7

A complete re-installation cycle of Office 2003 followed by installing WDS solved the problem. Somehow the upgrade to WDS 2.6.5 broke my Outlook 2003 it seems.

/Per Salmi

PerSalmi at 2007-10-7 > top of Msdn Tech,Windows Search Technologies,Windows Desktop Search Development...
# 8

Hello BlueJay07 and KJ043,

Could you please attempt the following?

  1. Open Outlook
  2. Click on Help: About Microsoft Office Outlook
  3. Click the “Disabled Items” button at the bottom right corner of the screen.
  4. If you see “Outlook toolbar add-in” in the list of disabled items, choose it and then click the “Enable” button.
  5. Click “OK” on the main Outlook help screen.
  6. Restart indexing in WDS.

In the event that this does not solve your problem (or that you do not see “Outlook toolbar add-in” in your disabled items list) please provide me a bit more detail about what you mean when you say WDS does not think Outlook has been installed.

It would also help if you could:

  1. Right click on the WDS icon (magnifying glass) in the system tray.
  2. Select “Desktop Search Options.”
  3. Select “Indexing” in the navigation pane on the left of the screen.
  4. Select the radio button for “Custom folders and email locations” in the “Choose what you want to index” box.
  5. Click the “Browse” button.
  6. Expand the “My Email” folder
  7. If you see “Outlook” expand it.If you do not see Outlook please tell me what you see.
  8. If you see and are able to expand “Outlook” please tell me what you see.

Paul Nystrom - MSFT

PaulNystrom-MSFT at 2007-10-7 > top of Msdn Tech,Windows Search Technologies,Windows Desktop Search Development...
# 9

Hi,

I have the same problem as described by the others. I tried the previous suggestions to no avail. When I follow the steps asked for by Paul in the last post you can see outlook but its greyed out, It can't be selected and there is a comment "Not installed on your computer." Outlook is installed and working fine.

WDS had previously had no problem with indexing outlook This seemed to occur when I asked the index to be rebuilt. I have the latest version of WDS and outlook 2003. Outlook was upgraded from outlook 2000 a couple of months back and this would have been the 1st time it been reindexed from scratch since. Since changing to outlook 2003 emails have been added to the exisiting index with no problems (before I rebuilt from scratch and the current problem).

I tried uninstalling WDS and reinstalling with no success... any suggests would be welcome. Let me know if you need more info...

Thanks,
Justin.

justinkelleher at 2007-10-7 > top of Msdn Tech,Windows Search Technologies,Windows Desktop Search Development...
# 10

I had to reinstall Outlook / Office 2003 to make it work again.

/Per

PerSalmi at 2007-10-7 > top of Msdn Tech,Windows Search Technologies,Windows Desktop Search Development...
# 11

I have the same issue.

There are no disabled items in Outlook Help, About, Disabled Items.

When I expend the "My Mail" folder, Outlook has the right 2003 icon but the text is greyed out and says "Outlook - Not installed on your computer". On the right hand side, the word "Why?" is greyed out and hyperlinks to the "System requirements" page in WDS Help.

Regards, Tony

kiwilad66 at 2007-10-7 > top of Msdn Tech,Windows Search Technologies,Windows Desktop Search Development...
# 12

I have the same problem and have tried both 2.6.5 and 3.0 versions of WDS

2.6.5 reports that outlook is not installed, there are no disabled toolsbars and I cannot select any email files for indexing.

Interestingly in the deskbar options, I have no additional menu items beyond the top level "general", "indexing" and "deskbar" items even though the help file says that there should be subheadings?

3.0 DOES see the outlook files but will not index the pst's or ost - in the file type tab, it says it is intending to index pst's with a text filter?

Anyone got any ideas - this iussue/question appears to keep cropping up in the lists

PaulHendley at 2007-10-7 > top of Msdn Tech,Windows Search Technologies,Windows Desktop Search Development...
# 13

This thread looks dead, but for me running detect and repair from Outlook help fixed the problem. Desktop search now sees Outlook.

Cheers,

superporky at 2007-10-7 > top of Msdn Tech,Windows Search Technologies,Windows Desktop Search Development...
# 14

I am still looking for answers here.

I have tried the new version of 3.0 and I do now have a box to select outlook but it does not index the pst files - it uses a "plain text filter" rather than the "microsoft Office filter" that word, excl and powerpoint use. Is there a way of selecting a better filter for outlook ? I assume it should read "index file properties AND contents"?

thanks

PaulHendley at 2007-10-7 > top of Msdn Tech,Windows Search Technologies,Windows Desktop Search Development...