How To Cleanup Outlook2007 Registry For X1 To Index Outlook

[Kenward]

[Re: Things to try if V5.6 does not index Outlook]

A few folks have reported problems whereby early versions of X1 handled Outlook just fine, but 5.6 will not play ball.

After some heart stopping experiments playing with things like the registry, they have come up with a couple of things to look for.

Here is the first trick to try:

I have, however apparently found a fix for my issue! I went into my registry (dangerous!) and located the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Zone Labs\ZoneAlarm\MailSafe Extensions\.PRF which pertains to Microsoft Outlook Profile Settings in ZoneAlarm. I don't know if ZoneAlarm (Security Suite version 6.5) changed the permissions for .PRF, but when I clicked on allow for "Full Control" and "Read" for every group or user name (and clicked on apply), then using Task Manager to end all processes pertaining to X1 and finally restarting X1, everything (so far) appears to be working fine. I removed the check marks next to all I had previously allowed, rebooted and still X1 continues to display all the PST files I have in my Outlook Profile under Select Folders to Scan. I can now add PST files there as well and indexing is proceeding!

Here's another idea along similar lines:

Kaspersky was blocking X1 from seeing Outlook profiles/folders after I installed it...I had to go into Office Guard and turn off blocking of the Office API.

That fixed it.

As the smart person who found that one suggested, other applications may be doing something similar.

The common theme here is that software designed to protect you from Osama Bin Laden and other criminals is actually getting in the way. Unfortunately, we haven't had any feedback from the X1 folks as to why this behaviour began with X1 5.6, or what might be behind it. In the meantime, maybe the above will spark off some ideas as to how to unblock X1 at your end.

If you find a similar trick, why not add it to this thread?

[Kenward]

To avoid a proliferation of Outlook stickies, I am adding another tip on Outlook and PST files to this one. It deals with a problem that crops up fairly often.

A lot of us try to keep Outlook lean and mean by archiving our PSTs files. This means that we can end up with a handful of PST files – one user has as many as 60! If these are not "attached" to a mail profile, X1 may not see them. The following steps explain how one user of X1 worked out how to get around the problem.

The tip is a year or so old, but I still use it. I don't know if later incarnations of X1 have eliminated the need for this trick. Finally, it is for Outlook in "standalone" mode rather than through Exchange.

In Outlook, create a new PROFILE. You do this by going to the "Mail" area of the Windows control panel.

There is no need to associate the Profile with any email addresses. If Windows asks you if that is OK, just say yes.

Via Mail in Control Panel, Edit the properties of the new profile. Use the bit where it says "Data Files".

Add those PSTs to the profile.

My "Archive" Profile has pointers to five different PSTs, any one of which can be as big as Outlook allows.

Then you just have to tell X1 to include that profile in the data that it searches.

If you have other problems with indexing Outlook, it would be a good idea to check that the Mail Profile that you use for everyday email really does have a connection to the PST file you want to index.

[Kenward]

There is another message that you might like to consult if those here do not dig you out of a hole.

It is especially relevant to anyone who has installed beta versions of Microsoft Office.

Find the message here:

Unable to index Outlook

http://forums.x1.com/viewtopic.php?t=3151

[cag4]

Clean install of X1:

X1 ® Professional Client Version 5.6.4
(Build 3470) (Created: Mon May 14 18:27:03 PDT 2007)

Outlook 2003 with only one .pst file... apparently associated with my profile and I ran the scan and repair .pst utility.

X1 insists on trying to scan Outlook Express, which I have long since deleted from this machine and I can't manually assign it to my Outlook .pst: I get the following error:

"Your current Outlook configuration prevents scanning external PST files. Please load PST files directly into your default Outlook profile."

X1 appears to be the right solution for our office's search needs... but obviously not if it won't search Outlook.

Anyone have the answer to this one?

Thanks,
cag4

[Kenward]

I'm afraid I can't really understand your message, or what you have done, it is a bit thin on important information. So the following is more guesswork based on general observations and some of the things that can cause the problems you see.

For a start, it is almost impossible to remove Outlook Express from a computer. You may not use it, but it is almost certainly there. It is a part of Internet Explorer (IE) and it is hard to get a PC to work without IE, even if you use Firefox.

X1 is probably detecting its presence and trying to index. Have you told X1 to ignore it?

The message about external PSTs may be because you have an old Profile in there, or stray PST files that you don't know about. (Outlook can do that sort of thing.)

You may also have unused mail profiles. X1 will look around for all of them and will try to connect to any PST files that are associated with them.

What you should do is to go to the Mail bit of the control panel, open the Profile that you think you are using. (Check to see how many there are while you are there.) Look at the data files associated with that Profile and see which "Data Files" are associated with it.

Maybe this is all tosh, but with too little detail on your setup it is hard to know what else to look for. Problems with Outlook often come down to issues in the areas that I have mentioned.

X1 can certainly index Outlook.

[cag4]

Yep -- tried that:

Only have the one profile "Outlook" so I'm assuming that's the default
Only have the one .pst file, and it's associated with that profile
Have told X1 to never index Outlook Express, Thunderbird, etc.
My .pst file is 1.8 gigs, but I don't think that should matter.

I suppose I could create a new profile and associate my .pst file with it, then delete the default and rename the new one at "Outlook", but I hate to mess with outlook that way... have had bad experiences with trying to manipulate the beast... would much rather hear from X1 that they understand the issue and have found a cure or a workaround...

Thanks,
cag4

X1 ® Professional Client Version 5.6.4
(Build 3470) (Created: Mon May 14 18:27:03 PDT 2007)
windows XP sp 2, 2 gigs, core 2 duo 1.8, outlook 2003

[Greg Dawes]

Clean install of X1:

X1 ® Professional Client Version 5.6.4
(Build 3470) (Created: Mon May 14 18:27:03 PDT 2007)

Outlook 2003 with only one .pst file... apparently associated with my profile and I ran the scan and repair .pst utility.

X1 insists on trying to scan Outlook Express, which I have long since deleted from this machine and I can't manually assign it to my Outlook .pst: I get the following error:

"Your current Outlook configuration prevents scanning external PST files. Please load PST files directly into your default Outlook profile."

X1 appears to be the right solution for our office's search needs... but obviously not if it won't search Outlook.

Anyone have the answer to this one?

Thanks,
cag4

cag4,

We've got a Knowledge Base article that should address your issue. Here are the details of the article:

If you are receiving the message, “Your Outlook configuration prevents scanning external PST files. Please load PST files directly onto your default outlook profile”

AND - you have installed and then uninstalled Outlook/Office 2007 (Office 12), then you may be experiencing the result of an incomplete uninstall of Outlook 2007.

It's probable that you have a couple of rogue registry entries that are the cause of the problem. The keys are:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook

To correct:

1. Close Outlook and X1 using File > Exit (verify that the X1.exe process is stopped via Task Manager)
2. Download this file: http://www.x1.com/cs/Outlook07.zip
3. Extract the downloaded zip file
3. Double-click the extracted Outlook07.bat file to run (this will make a backup copy of the registry entries, just in case, and will then remove the entries)
4. Restart your computer

After your computer restarts, launch Outlook and then X1 to see if you can now see your folder selection list.


Additionally, you can find this article in our Knowledge Base by:
1. Accessing the KB here: http://www.x1.com/support/kb.html?searc ... figuration
2. Clicking "Find Solution"
3. The correct solution will be the first result in the list

Hope this helps!

[cag4]

Thanks for that, although I'm not running office 2007 / outlook 2007.

Actually what I did was to install x-1 5.5.5 and guess what? Works just fine.

Not saying there's a bug in 5.6.4 or anything, but...

cag4

[Greg Dawes]

Hi cag4,

We understand that you're not currently running Office/Outlook 2007; however, at some point (we believe) that this was installed and then uninstalled from your computer. The uninstall process does not clean up after itself and leaves behind several registry entries.

Additionally, your currently installed version of X1 (v5.5.5) is not compatible with Office/Outlook 2007. Thus, when you install v5.5.5 it is not able to detect these left-behind registry keys and will run fine with your Outlook 2003 installation.

However, if you do begin to experience issues with v5.5.5 we recommend that you upgrade to v5.6.4 and then run the steps listed in my previous post to remove the Outlook 2007 registry entries.

Thanks.

[cag4]

*Very good!* Yes, I did install Office/Outlook 2007 at one point... after using it for a bit I gave up on its goofy ribbon UI and slowness of Outlook and went back to office/outlook 2003.

So I'll go back and go through the steps you suggested and try 5.6.4 when I have, as I'd like to the have network and PST archive search capabilities too.

Thanks!
cag4

btw: really liking the version I have running!