Thursday, April 05, 2007

Google Desktop plugin for Outlook - Side Effects

I installed Google Desktop in every machine I use. I love the Ctrl+Ctrl to reach any document or email in the fastest way possible.

There was a third party plugin for Outlook some time back. I used it for some time and then realized it was hanging Outlook and the system. So, I uninstalled the plugin. But the recent version of Google Desktop comes with an add-on for Outlook. I guess this comes from Google itself.

Of late, I began experiencing problem opening an appointment from the Calendar. I do not know if Google tries to sync-up with Google Calendar as we use Google apps for domains for our emails and domains in our organization. I can see the contents of a meeting request in the preview pane, I can accept the request, the alert would show at the right time. But when I try to open the item, Outlook would report "Cannot open this item for reminder. Operation failed."

After googling for sometime, I bumped into a solution that suggest to switch off a plug-in. The procedure is as follows:
1. Close Outlook.
2. Open it in safe mode by typing ""C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\OUTLOOK.EXE" /safe" in the Start -> Run box or command prompt.
3. Go to Tools -> Options -> Other tab -> Advanced Options button -> COM Add-In Manager -> Uncheck the item "Google Desktop Outlook Tool bar" and click OK.
4. Go to Tools -> Options -> Other tab -> Advanced Options button -> Add-In Manager -> Uncheck Google Desktop Search Outlook AddIn and click OK.
5. Restart Outlook.


Let's hope Google fixes it in the next release of Google Desktop.

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