Problem description:
A full install of Microsoft Office 2003 with Business Contact Manager
will fail when opening Outlook 2003 for the first time with an error dialog
showing:
Object Reference not set to an instance of an object.
Contact Business Contact Manager Support.
When this error-dialog is dismissed, a "Serious Error" dialog will be seen
indicating a problem with the Business Contact Manager.
When that dialog is dismissed, another dialog will be seen indicating a
problem with Microsoft Outlook itself.
If Norton AntiVirus is installed, another dialog will appear indicating that
NAV is reacting to the startup-crash of Outlook and offering to disable the
NAV add-in for Outlook. This is a complete red-herring and has *nothing*
to do with the problem. Answering for-or-against does not change the
situation at all.
Problem resolution:
After installing Microsoft Office 2003, from the install CD, open Outlook
at least once *before* updating the product using either the Microsoft
Update
or Office Update websites.
Answer all the questions necessary to integrate Business Contact Manager
with Microsoft Outlook 2003 - and allow the initialization process for BCM
to successfully integrate itself into Outlook 2003. Shut Outlook 2003 down
and
then restart Outlook 2003 to confirm the integration process was successful.
Once the integration process in the original product has completed
successfully,
you can now update using Office Update or Windows Update and the update
process should go-to-completion successfully.
Note: If the problem recurs, you will need to completely uninstall Business
Contact Manager and Office 2003. After reinstalling, make sure you open
Outlook 2003 and confirm correct operation after *each* update-set is
installed.
Corrective action required:
One or more of the Security Patches for Microsoft Office 2003 has not
been properly regression-tested. As a result, if the Security Patches are
installed *before* Microsoft Outlook 2003 is started for the first time -
and
the user wishes to integrate Microsoft Outlook 2003 with Business Contact
Manager - then the initialization process required to integrate BCM with
O2K3 will fail due to security restrictions imposed as part of the set of
security updates for Office 2003.
The above problem requires further investigation. Updated patchsets
must be developed which allow the initialization of BCM *after* the
security patches are installed.
Best I can do for now. <tm>
Bill
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