Add-in initialization when Outlook is running in "Embedding" mode

[Alt Luke]

Hi There,

Does anyone know how to properly initialize a COM add-in when Outlook
is running in "embedding" mode (launched as "Outlook.exe -Embedding").
This mode is launched by Outlook COM clients such as ActiveSync 4.0 to
initialize Outlook without any GUI interaction.

The current problem at hand is that there is no active explorer pointer
(NULL when queried via Outlook::_Application's ActiveExplorer call).
Without a pointer to the explorer object, the GUI portions of the COM
add-in (toolbar buttons) can not be initialized.

Ways to reproduce this in Outlook 2003 on Windows XP:

1. Run the first instance of Outlook with "-Embedding" as command line
argument.
2. Outlook processs will show up in task manager but no GUI will show
up. This is the GUI-less embedding mode.
3. Run Outlook again but this time without any command line argument.
4. A second instance of Outlook will show up briefly in task manager,
but it will detect that there was already one instance running. The
second Outlook will quickly shutdown and the first Outlook (previously
GUI-less) will now show its main window. This effectively turns the
"embedding" Outlook into a regular GUI Outlook.

Hopefully this makes sense. Any insight is greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

A.L.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Many of us have successfully used the free AddinMon component from http://www.microeye.com to work around this known issue.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]]

Although AddInMon doesn't work with the newer versions of Outlook and the
latest versions of ActiveSynch. Dave and I discarded using it a while ago.
Now we're using inline code to replace AddInMon.




Many of us have successfully used the free AddinMon component from
http://www.microeye.com to work around this known issue.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Is that proprietary or have either of you published it as a sample?

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]]

Not proprietary, but not published yet. We've been trying to make it work
with VB.NET as well as with VB 6.

I may just put it up on my Web site anyway soon as a VB 6 solution and not
wait for a .NET solution.




Is that proprietary or have either of you published it as a sample?

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Cool! I'll look forward to it.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers