Ref: Use Word as your email editor

Hi,

Please allow me to post this here as a service to others. I just visited
Sage Software's discussion forum and I see that they have removed all
discussions prior to 1/29/08. Very handy for them I suppose. What follows is
an edited discussion that I had with a very competent Microsoft support
engineer on this topic.

Regards,
Brcobrem
4/21/08

**********************************************
Hi,

Is there any correlation between the items seen in
"Tools Options Other tab : Advanced Options button Add-in Manager
button" and
"Help About Microsoft Office Outlook : Disabled Items button" ?

I ask this because I had a situation where Outlook hung, and upon the next
startup of Outlook, I was prompted that act9ext.dll had caused the hang, and
asked me if I wanted to disable it. I said Yes. I now see it as a disabled
item in "Help About Microsoft Office Outlook : Disabled Items button", yet
when I look at "Tools Options Other tab : Advanced Options button
Add-in Manager button" , I still see it (shown as "Act! Extensions") with a
check mark meaning that it is still enabled.

I know that act9ext.dll is in fact disabled, because that dll is apparently
the sourse of an extremely annoying Act! "feature". The "feature" pops up a
little dialog box intermittantly telling you that you are using Word as your
email editor. When that little window pops up (or even pops under other open
windows where you can't see it) the whole desktop and all open applications
hang, until you click the OK button on that little Act! dialog box.
Additionally, there used to be an ACT! tab when I opened Outlook's Tools
Options, but that tab is now missing (I don't need that tab's features
anyway).

Since the day that I selected Yes to disable act9ext.dll, I have had
absolutely no more annoyances. This is a common annoyance for Outlook users
who also have ACT! installed. I would like to provide a "how-to disable
act9ext.dll" for other Act! users who prefer to use Outlook with Word as the
editor for email (like I do), instead of the (weak) Act! email client.

So, can you point me to the registry settings that reflect these diabled
items and/or their disabled status? Perhaps I can figure out why I still have
a check mark on "Act! Extensions" even though act9ext.dll is lieted as
disabled in "Help About Microsoft Office Outlook : Disabled Items button".

I look forward to your reply.

********************

According to your description, you want to know the registry key for
Disabled Item and how to disable Add-ins.

Based on my knowledge, the relevant key is:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\versi on\Outlook\Resiliency\Dis
abledItem

The name of the value is not human readable (it's a random string), and the
data is binary, but if you pop it open with regedit, you can see that the
value contains information about the DLL we're calling into.

Since this key is binary, if you want to disable the specific Add-in, why
just uncheck as you discovered

Advanced Options button Add-in Manager button.

Hope this information help! If there is anything unclear please feel free
to let me know.

*********************

I checked the reg key that you suggested and I see what you mean.

How about this: Can you find the reg key for this UI path: Outlook Tools
Options Other tab Advanced Options button Add-In Manager

I ask this because I still see "Act! Extensions" is enabled in there. I want
to look at the reg key to see if enabled has some kind of value. It is also
possible that the system just keeps track of all ecf (Extension Configuration
files) files, wherever and whenever they are installed by any softwares.

You would think that if it was listed as "disabled" in Help, then it
wouldn't still show as enabled in Add-In Manager.

I look forward to your reply.

********************

Based on my knowledge, you can decide enable or disable Add-in in Add-in
manager, while disabled items is managed by Outlook itself, when it
initiates Add-in if it causes crash, Outlook will put it to disabled item
although it is enabled in Add-in.

For you current sitatuion, if you don't want the Act! Extension, you can
disable it in Add-in

If there is any other concern please feel free to let me know.

**********************

4/21/08 Addendum:

For those advanced uses who are familiar and capable with the Registry
Editor, below is the REG_BINARY key to disable act9ext.dll . Note - This will
also remove the Act! 2007 tab (and some of it's functions) in Oulook's Tools
Properties, however Act! contacts will still be available to Outlook in my
experience. Caution: Improper use of the Registry Editor can render your
computer useless. I would strongly suggest that you use Outlook's Add-In
Manager first and see if that creates the desired result.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\O utlook\Resiliency\DisabledItems]
"7CA0B"=hex:01,00,00,00,3c,00,00,00,3c,00,00,00,63 ,00,3a,00,5c,00,77,00,69,00,\
6e,00,6e,00,74,00,5c,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65 ,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,\
00,61,00,63,00,74,00,39,00,65,00,78,00,74,00,2e,00 ,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,00,00,\
63,00,3a,00,5c,00,77,00,69,00,6e,00,6e,00,74,00,5c ,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,\
00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,61,00,63,00,74,00 ,39,00,65,00,78,00,74,00,\
2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,00,00

Regards,
Brcobrem