Outlook Add-in conflicts with Norton Anti-virus

[jsg]

We are constructing an add-in to be used with Outlook 2003. It works
beautifully with Outlook, except when Norton Anti-virus (either 2003
or 2004) is installed. Then, when Tools, Options is opened and
closed, Outlook closes. Also if we open an email, and click its File,
Properties, ok, Outlook closes. If we right click on Personal
Folders, then Properties, ok, Outlook closes. These problems seem to
occur in situations having no relation to the actual operation of our
add-in or Norton. It is just whether Norton is installed, and they
occur even if all of Norton's features are turned off.

Does anyone know how we go about understanding better what the problem
is and how to find out how to solve it?
Thank you.

 

[Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]]

Are you using CreateObject("Outlook.Application") or GetObject in your OCX
code for the property page? Norton uses a known buggy interface in the
Office AV API's for its script stopping and will crash Outlook when you use
those methods (or CreateObject on Word more than once). It's been documented
since 2001 but they've never changed or fixed what they do.

The workaround for that if you are seeing that problem is to use
PropertyPageSite.Application to get an Outlook object in your property page.

 

[Thomas Wetzel]

Hello Ken,

Do you have a possible solution if I want access Outlook via VB?
I must use CreateObject to create an instance of Outlook.

 

[Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]]

Hi Thomas,

From where are you doing this? Is this from a COM addin or a standalone
program? In a COM addin you always should be using the Application object
passed to you in the On_Connection event. If it's a standalone program you
don't have any problems using CreateObject("Outlook.Application").

 

[Thomas Wetzel]

Hi Ken,

I use a standalone application.
I don't have problems - if the backup add-in is not loaded ;-).

 

[Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]]

A standalone app shouldn't have that problem, it's not running in-process
with Outlook like an addin is. Are you having problems (other than with
PFBackup)? What problems are you having with and without PFBackup?

Please post some of the preceding thread in your posts so it's easier to
follow the thread.

 

[Thomas Wetzel]

Hello Ken,

with Outlook like an addin is. Are you having problems (other than with
PFBackup)? What problems are you having with and without PFBackup?

If PFBackup is installed then you cannot create a handle on the
Outlook.Application.

Every standalone application will not work if the PFBackup add-in is loaded:

set myOutlook=createobject("Outlook.Application")

Will not fail. But you don't have a handle to Outlook after this line.

I wonder why you Outlook MVP don't ask Microsoft why they build such a bad
add-in and then deployed it world wide.

 

[Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]]

Well, you can send an email to (e-mail address removed) to complain about
PFBackup and add your voice to complaints about it. I personally haven't
used it since it came out since it was so buggy and often left Outlook
hanging after you exited.

Can you get a valid handle for Outlook.Application if you use GetObject()?
That should return a handle if Outlook is running.

 

[Thomas Wetzel]

Hello Ken,

Can you get a valid handle for Outlook.Application if you use GetObject()?
That should return a handle if Outlook is running.

No, no chance. At the bottom line you cannot use Outlook with a standalone
application if the PFBackup add-in is loaded.

 

[Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]]

Thomas,

I can't repro that at all here.

I downloaded and installed PFBackup and made sure it was running in Outlook.
I then ran a standalone EXE that uses CreateObject("Outlook.Application")
and verified that I had a valid Outlook object by displaying a number of
properties in a message box control. I then exited Outlook and ran the EXE
again and again verified that I had a valid Outlook application object. I
had no problems at all with CreateObject, which behaved the same as when
PFbackup was not installed.

 

[Thomas Wetzel]

Hello Ken,

I can't repro that at all here.

Was your Outlook closed and the outlook.exe process, too?

As I have thousands of customers in the world I ran into this problem in the
past. There are a lot of problems reported in the newsgroups.
Now, I first check if this add-in is loaded. Then I start Outlook with
ShellExecute and then I created the new instance.

It is an honor for me to discuss with a MVP.

Cheers

 

[Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]]

Hi Thomas,

Yes, I tried the test first with Outlook running and then I closed it down
and checked in the Task Manager to make sure Outlook wasn't running and then
tried the test again. In both cases I had no problems.

I've seen a lot of posts about PFBackup not letting Outlook close down, I
haven't seen any where it prevented getting an Outlook.Application object
using automation code. I do know that early versions of it didn't correctly
handle the bug in the On_Disconnection event and waited for that event to
release its Outlook objects so On_Disconnection never fired. But that seems
to be fixed in the recent version I downloaded this morning and used for my
tests.