ActiveSync says Outlook not installed?

Southbarn · 03-21-05, 05:49 AM

My Active Sync 3.8 doesn't work properly because it says that Outlook isn't installed - BUT IT IS! This happened after I upgraded by pc with the new hard disk and swapped the operating system into it.

I've had one or two other problems because of this (including the Outlook desktop icon not firing correctly), but everything else (including all Office XP applications) work OK.

OK so what have I done? I've reinstalled Outlook 2002 from my XP disks and from the Dell x50v set up disks (they give you a clean Outlook 2002 installation), and I've un-installed and re-installed Active Syn 3.8. I have carried out a "Detect and repair" operation from within Outlook, and have done a "Repair installation" from the Outlook and XP disks. I've also trawled through this *excellent* forum and the Windows Mobile > Pocket PC > Active Sync newsgroups for help on this problem.

Others have suggested a complete uninstall of both Outlook and Active Sync followed by a reboot, followed by reinstallation (presumably to clear the registry or install some innocuous but vital .dll somewhere). I haven't done this yet, but if any of you good folks have come across this problem and know the fix I'll be forever grateful!

(BTW I have a two PC partnership on the X50v, the one at work being the primary for inbox. The work set up continues to be absolutely fine!)

Adrian Knack · 03-21-05, 06:39 AM

I suspect you are right about doing a complete uninstall and then rebooting and re-installing your applications.

Such a pain I know, but in my experiance it is usually a safe bet... also it only takes about 10 minutes.

Cheers
Adrian

PS. I have not got a real solution for you sorry, just guessing based on other things I've come across.

Southbarn · 03-23-05, 05:32 AM

Thanks Adrian for the moral support! Problem is I can't now un-install Outlook/Office XP or do anything really, because of this annoying "PROPLUS.MSI" thing, which apparently is needed for any change. So I'm stuck with an Office XP installation that more or less works, which I can't repair or uninstall, and that isn't recognised as installed by Active Sync!! Catch 22!

I'm trying other fora/forums for help on this. The MS Office site has suggested running Microsoft Installer Clean Up Utility, but I haven't run this yet.

One thing I did try was to rename my drives. The problem started when I added a new drive and some new partitions, and swapped the old C:\ drive to the new disk. Someone said this could be part of the problem, abnd that the CD drive letter had changed from the original installation. Well I re-engineered the old letter set-ups last night but that didn't work.

Ho hum, I'll keep plugging away....

Adrian Knack · 03-23-05, 05:46 AM

Yeah good luck... it is probably something screwy in the registry after the drive swap.

Give the MS Installer Clean Up a go.

You could also try installing the Serive Pack 3 Patch for MS Office XP and see if that helps anything. I'd do it anyway regardless but we can always hope it will overwrite the files that don't work.

If you are really desperate to get rid of MS Office and the MS utility doesn't work you could get a 3rd party unistall like Norton's Clean Sweep.

Cheers
Adrian

Southbarn · 03-24-05, 06:14 AM

So I ran the MS Installer Clean Up utility and nuked the registry of all references to Office XP. But doing that meant I could not then uninstall Office as it didn't show up on the "add/remove programmes" window in Control Panel....doh! So I did a full re-install of Office (XP Pro + Front Page) from my disks. It seemed to work OK and even the damned proplus.msi problem seems to have been resolved. Hurrah! But when I then installed Active Sync 3.8 (which is what I've been wanting to do all along) it STILL says that Outlook is not installed, so I can't sync my calendar and contacts. Arrrgghhhh!

What I plan to do next is try a full uninstall of Office now that Installer appears to know where to find proplus.msi. I'll un-install AS 3.8 too, reboot, pray, reboot again (hey why not) and start over. Then hopefull AS 3.8 will "see" Outlook and I can get my life back! Phew.

Ciao.

Adrian Knack · 03-24-05, 06:30 AM

good luck :)

Southbarn · 03-24-05, 04:32 PM

:approve: :approve: :approve: :approve: :approve:

Yessss! It worked. Uninstalled Office. Rebooted. Reinstalled Office. Rebooted. Prayed (like I said). Reinstalled Active Sync 3.8. Rebooted. Connected. Synced! Phew I get my life back!

So if anyone else out there gets afflicted by the dreaded "missing proplus.msi" curse here is the fix:

1 Download Microsoft Windows Installer Clean Up Utility from the Office Communities site (search for ".msi")
2 Run the utility as per the instructions and the readme.txt
3 Select Office to remove - NB just Office!
4 Reboot
5 Reinstall Office from your CD
6 Reboot
7 Uninstall Office - I know this sounds mad but you need to do this to clean up your registry
8 Reboot
9 Everything works and you are at peace with the world! :love:
10 Reinstall Active Sync 3.8 (oops did I forget to say uninstall it first?)
11 Reboot
12 Start syncing. Everything in the world is beautiful and you want to have your boss's babies!
13 Have a lie down.

If you want it in detail send me a pm.

sasparella · 06-19-05, 02:23 PM

How it worked for me:

Delete all partnerships
Fully uninstall ActiveSync
Reboot desktop PC
Install Active Sync
Insert device to cradle
Set new partnership.

Now it works.

06-22-05, 10:03 AM

Thanks for following up, Southbarn. I am having this exact same problem with it saying Outlook is no longer installed, except I hadn't done anything like repartition or rename any of my drives. I specifically came to see if anyone had a fix. ;)

I'll try uninstalling/reinstalling Office and rebooting tonight and see if that does it.