HowTo-Outlook

Update January 11, 2011
This update has now been fixed and rereleased by Microsoft and should no longer cause any of issues mentioned below. You can install it via Microsoft Update (if you haven’t already) or download and apply it manually here.

Various issues have arisen for some Outlook 2007 users after applying KB2412171. These issues include;

• Loss of the Archive and AutoArchive feature.
  They are missing the option File-> Archive… and the AutoArchive section under Tools-> Options…-> tab Other as well as the AutoArchive tab in the Properties dialog of a folder.
• Outlook is slow to respond when switching folders.
• Accounts requiring Secure Password Authentication (SPA) may have issues to connect.
• Exchange Accounts that have been configured to connect via Outlook Anywhere with NTLM authentication may be reset to Basic Authentication and now requests for the password.
• IMAP accounts and accounts connecting via SSL may give send/receive errors. Gmail is for instance reporting error 0x800CCC78 and cannot send the message. Another common error is 0x800CCC1A.

Microsoft is currently investigating this issue. If you are (heavily) affected by this, the solution for now is to remove the update via Control Panel by selecting “View installed updates” in the section Add/Remove Programs (Windows XP) or Uninstall a Program (Windows Vista and Windows 7).

If you cannot remove the update via Control Panel, you can either use System Restore or uninstall Office 2007 and then reinstall it again and apply all updates except for KB2412171. No data or settings are lost in this process, but it never hurts of course to make a backup of your Outlook data before proceeding.

Additional notes
The update has been pulled from Microsoft Update; there is no need to disable Microsoft Update anymore to prevent the update from being reapplied.

The above issues can also happen when you’ve installed hotfix KB2458611 as it is based of the KB2412171 update.

If you have Previous Versions enabled in Windows Vista or Windows 7 or have a system which is also running Outlook 2007 but which has not been updated yet, then you could copy over the OUTLOOK.EXE file as a quick and dirty fix (no future guarantees!). Make sure that the file version is 12.0.6539.5000 and make backup of your current OUTLOOK.EXE file (which would be either version 12.0.6548.5000 or 12.0.6550.5001). Be ready to restore the original OUTLOOK.EXE file when a permanent fix is being made available.

Former Outlook MVP and current OneNote MVP Ben Schorr is also actively reporting about this issue and might have additional information, workarounds and solutions while Microsoft works towards a fix.

The following updates and hotfixes have been released for Outlook 2003, 2007 and 2010;

Update KB244978 for Outlook 2003
This is a rollup update for Outlook 2003 containing 1 additional fix for crashes with specific add-ins.

View: Full list of fixes and download information for KB2449798

Update KB2412171 for Outlook 2007
This is a rollup update for Outlook 2007. Currently, no additional fixes have been announced for this update but several new issues have been reported with this update.

View: Full list of fixes and download information for KB2412171

Hotfix KB2458611 for Outlook 2007
This Hotfix contains 11 fixes for specific issues and adds support for connecting to the Exchange 2010 Online Archive. Most notable fixes are;

• Sent Messages of an IMAP account are not stored to the Sent Items folder of the IMAP account even if the account is configured to do so.
• Outlook doesn’t close when specific add-ins are installed.
  Solutions to various programmatic issues when using BeforeItemMove.
• For requirements to connect to the Exchange 2010 Online Archive see; Exchange archive not visible in Outlook

View: Full list of fixes and download information for KB2458611

Hotfix KB2459115 for Outlook 2010
This hotfix contains 10 fixes for specific issues. Most notable fixes are;

• Solutions to various programmatic issues when using BeforeItemMove.
• Outlook may stop responding when connecting to a large IMAP mailbox.
• Contacts from a SharePoint contact list have their preferred message format set to Rich Text Format (RTF).

View: Full list of fixes and download information for KB2459115

Obtaining the updates and hotfixes
The updates can be obtained and installed via Microsoft Update.

As for the hotfixes; since these are hotfixes and not regular updates, you won’t be offered this update via Microsoft Update but will have to request it. You can do this at the information page of each hotfix.

If you are not (seriously) effected by any of these issues, it is recommended to wait for the next Service Pack or regular Rollup Update which will most likely contain all these fixes as well.

Update Rollups have been made available for Exchange 2007 and Exchange 2010.

• Update Rollup 2 for Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 1
• Update Rollup 2 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 3
• Update Rollup 5 for Exchange Server 2010 RTM
• Update Rollup 5 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 2

Note that these will be the last Update Rollups for Exchange 2007 SP2 and Exchange 2010 RTM. It is recommended to upgrade to Exchange 2007 SP3 or Exchange 2010 SP1.

Are you fully prepared already? It’s only 2 more weeks till Christmas! If sending out Christmas cards is still on your To-Do List in Outlook, then the Christmas guide might be helpful to you.

Outlook can be a great help when you need to address all your envelopes by either printing the address directly on them or onto labels. Simply select which people you want to send an email to (Categories as useful in this case) and do a mail merge with Mailing Labels or Envelopes as the selected output.

To make sure you keep track of how much time there is left till Christmas, Add-In Express has created a free add-in which adds a countdown timer in the bottom left corner of Outlook.

This little add-in, “invented” by fellow Outlook MVP Eric Legault, has a few more tricks up its sleeve as well and works with Outlook 2000 or later (yes, even the 64-bit version of Outlook 2010!).

Download: Free Outlook Christmas Day Countdown Add-in!

For more mail merge instructions and tips see; Mail Merge
For the special Christmas guide with additional links to ideas and Christmas templates see; Christmas Time!