Lookout search plugin and Outlook 2007

LookoutIf you have to use Outlook I believe you deserve better search features than the features available for you by default. Many of you know the great search plugin Lookout. However after migrating to Outlook 2007 I was unable to successfuly install and use it. Instead after restarting Outlook I got error message:

Sorry! It looks like another Outlook Plugin has installed an unofficial version of the Outlook libraries which breaks Lookout. Lookout will not be able to load. […].

But it looks like there is a way to install Lookout on Outlook 2007. After closing Outlook run from command line:

cd  %SYSTEMROOT%\assembly\GAC

rename Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.OLD

type nul > Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook

rename Policy.11.0.Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook Policy.11.0.Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.OLD

After restarting Outlook everything should work. Don’t blame me if it doesn’t. But in case it doesn’t you can revert changes executing following commands:

cd  %SYSTEMROOT%\assembly\GAC

rename Policy.11.0.Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.OLD Policy.11.0.Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook

del Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook

rename Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.OLD Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook

Hope it helps!

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9 Comments »

  1. Robbie Clutton said,

    January 8, 2008 @ 12:45 am

    the company who wrote lookout were bought by microsoft and lookout found it’s way into the office 2007 client. I’m quite happy with the search features in 2007, I’m surprised you could find much difference.

  2. znachor said,

    January 8, 2008 @ 11:06 am

    My guerrilla soul tells me that Lookout is much faster that whatever they built-in in Outlook 2007.

  3. Leon said,

    January 22, 2008 @ 1:54 pm

    Renaming assemblies in the GAC is dangerous. I think my solution is better:

    http://www.wirwar.com/blog/2008/01/22/search-e-mail-at-lightspeed-using-lookout-with-outlook-2007/

  4. Mike said,

    March 3, 2008 @ 4:06 pm

    I managed to get Lookout to work inside Vista and Outlook 2007, by the following simple procedure:

    1) Install lookout
    2) Download and insert the patched Inventures_Olk.dll into the Lookout folder (C/:Programs/lookout). Just click overwrite. You can download the patched file here: http://www.wirwar.com/blog/wp-content/inventures_olk.zip
    3) Download and insert the patched Lookout.dll into the Lookout folder (C/:Programs/lookout). Just click overwrite. You can download the patched file here: http://www.scw.us/win/FixingLookout/lookout.dll

    Very simple!

  5. Kristin said,

    March 13, 2008 @ 4:08 pm

    Hi Mike,

    I tried your procedure for Outlook 2007 and Vista. However, I get the following error when trying to install Lookout “Error registering LookoutAddIn.DLL via ergsm(error)”.

    Any ideas???

    Thanks,
    Kristin

  6. david said,

    July 16, 2008 @ 1:36 pm

    I was able to get lookout running in outlook 2007 just fine by using the interop rename as described above. but ran in to a situation where i had to remove and reinstall office2007, breaking the lookout plugin again. after removing and reinstalling lookout i try to rename the interop with all the programs freshly reinstalled and get the error that a duplicate exists or that the file cannot be found. anyone run in to this situation?

    Thanks, Dave

  7. Lookout in Outlook 2007 at Joel’s Corner said,

    October 13, 2008 @ 6:23 pm

    […] there’s a solution (found in a this comment): 1) Install lookout 2) Download and insert the patched Inventures_Olk.dll into the Lookout folder […]

  8. Terry said,

    November 7, 2008 @ 4:33 pm

    I managed to get Lookout 1.30 working on Outlook 2007 again. I had the “blank toolbar” problem after using Lookout with Outlook 2007 for a few months after replacing the two .DLL files. Guess one of the Microsoft updates installed the latest Desktop Search tool and deactivated Lookout.

    I reactivated it, then restarted Outlook. Viola. It’s back, and working. I re-indexed. Lookout is working fine again.

    Here’s how I reactivated Lookout to work with Outlook 2007 again:

    Outlook
    Tools
    Trust Center
    Add-ins
    Manage “COM Add-ins”

    You’ll see that the checkbox next to Lookout is not checked, so it has been deactivated and will no longer load at Outlook startup. Check the checkbox, make sure the “Load behavior” is set to “Load at startup” (the default) and click OK.

    Lookout toolbar should be back and functional.

  9. Pierre said,

    November 17, 2008 @ 4:01 pm

    Or try Lookeen! It’s almost the same like Lookout - but new and compatible to Vista and Outlook 2007. I think they will release a free version soon, too. I think it’s important to have a company behind my most important mail search tool (and new updates, etc…). Take look:

    http://www.lookeen.com

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