Posted on by TechHit

How to find and disable Outlook 2003 Add-ins and plugins

Disabling unnecessary plugins is a great way to make your Outlook start faster, run more reliably, take less memory. In Outlook 2003 there are three places to look for installed addins and to disable them.

1. COM Add-ins

To view and disable COM Add-ins in Outlook 2003, navigate to:
“Tools->Other->Advanced Options->COM Add-ins…” and uncheck the Add-ins you do not need.

2. Add-in Manager

Navigate to “Tools->Options->Other->Advanced Options->Add-ins Manager…” and uncheck the Add-ins you do not need.

3. Registry Add-ins

In Outlook 2003, some Add-ins are not shown in the UI. You have to look for them in the registry.

  1. Run regedit*.
  2. Navigate to “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\ Outlook\Addins”.
  3. Look at all subkeys of Addins. Those are Add-ins you have installed. To disable a particular Add-in, set its “LoadBehavior” key to 2.

* – as always be very careful while performing registry modifications.

Do not forget to restart Outlook after making these changes.

 

See more tips on improving Outlook performance and stability.

 

50 Replies to “How to find and disable Outlook 2003 Add-ins and plugins”

  1. Very good tips, in task mannager Outlook use to take like 130k of memory use and like 20-30 second to start, after follow this tips it start inmediatly and use 20-30kb

    Thanks

  2. I’d made the mistake of downloading the latest version of my AV after getting a rather ominous warning stating that my current version would no longer be supported. The AV took over my computer and my MS Outlook and then wouldn’t uninstall. I had a friend remote in and do a manual uninstall and his comment was that the AV was as bad as any virus. After going through all of that, I was still getting an error message upon opening Outlook… you helped me eliminate that and my world is right again. Thank you for posting this!

  3. I attempted to follow your instructions, but, unfortunately, in Outlook 2003, under tools, there is no ‘other’ option.
    I’m not sure where you found it, but, its not on mine.
    Any other ideas?

      1. Its Tool->Trust Center-> then select Add-ins
        Go to the bottom of the screen where there’s Manage:
        Select->Exchange Client Extensions->Go->The disable all. It will work

      2. Tools>Options>Other>AdvancedOptions>COMAdd-ins

        COM add-ins is at the very bottom of the screen…I have had great success by unchecking any option that has “outlook” in the name, I leave the exchange options checked, but that is me you can experiment which ones you need or not. Unchecking needed add ins will increase the speed of opening outlook.

        Hope this helps

        1. When you uncheck COM add-ins in Outlook 2007 make sure you leave Windows Search Email Indexer checked. These add ins are also in Microsoft Word, Power Point and Excel.

        2. Not on mine it isn’t, doesn’t show anything like that. nor does it say anything about outlook.
          When I open my microsoft outlook a quick flash that says ms outlook plug in comes for a second.
          When i try and send an e-mail it’s word \i am writing in, The wizard is still there when \i go into tools/accounts. Yet my provider says it shows all is fine from his end. That can’t be correct if the wizard is till there when i go into my account. I am a grandma, and a 2 finger typist on here and don’t know enough to be checking and unchecking with out doing mabe some damage.
          Glo

  6. Excellent tech tip! I had about the same results as Raul. Turns out, I’d long-ago loaded VBA in a vain attempt to write something for Outlook Calendar but had abandoned that project and forgotten about it. It was hidden in the registry key. Outlook is nice and snappy now and uses less than 30kb!

  8. Does anyone know if there’s a remote way (Altiris, etc.) to identify ALL the Outlook 2003 add-ins on a given machine / list of machines?

  9. Outlook 2003
    I counldn’t find any add-ins listed so went to the registery.
    Changed the load behavoir key from 3 to 2 but it hasnt stopped the \outbak.dll add-in warning. Until I OK this I cant use outlook

      1. When I open up Outlook 2003 after about 30 seconds I get an error message:-

        Microsoft Office Outlook has stopped working, windows is collecting more information about this problem.

        Then the next message reads:- A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available.

        Nothing happens until I click close programme and Outlook closes and goes back to desktop.

        I tried your suggestion about changing the load behaviour from 3 to 2 but I still have the same problem

        Any other suggestions please?

  10. When I open Outlook the following appears in a box.
    ‘C:\users\chas\appdata\roaming\microsoft\addins\C:\program~\micro~\addin\outbak.dll

    I have to OK this box before Outlook can be used.
    Not a big deal but if I’m trying to send an email from another program I cannot do so until I go thru the process of opening Outlook as described above.

  11. Sorry got a few errors in detail

    ‘C:\users\chas\appdata\roaming\microsoft\addins\C:\program~1\micro2~\office11\addin\outbak.dll

    followed by statement is not a valid office addin.

  12. Thanks for the advice. I tried renaming the 2 files but it did not produce a change to my opening Outlook 2003. It still comes up with the box described above regarding an invalid addin
    This problem has occured following a transfer of files and settings from an older laptop running XP to my current laptop with Windows 7 home premium and installing Office 2003 from my old disk. Outlook 2003 works fine after I have OK’ed the box as described above Oct 15. Its just locked up until I do so.
    I took a screenshot but being a rank amateur dont understand how to post it.
    Previously I removed and reloaded Office 2003 (twice) but that didnt work out either.
    If I carry out a search for the outbak.dll it doesnt show.

      1. Success – thanks so much for your help. I guess it was left over from the earlier edition.

  13. Thank you, Thank you. Tried a bunch of other stuff and nothing worked. Followed you instructions to remove add ins via the registry. Got rid of an adobe pdf add in and it’s fixed. Thanks again.
    Jen

  14. My problem was the mouse cursor not working only in the message body of emails. Thanks again for the fix.

  15. When I open up Outlook 2003 after about 30 seconds I get an error message:-

    Microsoft Office Outlook has stopped working, windows is collecting more information about this problem.

    Then the next message reads:- A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available.

    Nothing happens until I click close programme and Outlook closes and goes back to desktop.

    I tried your suggestion about changing the load behaviour from 3 to 2 but I still have the same problem

    Any other suggestions please

    1. Naz – did you try disabling all your addins? You need to follow instructions in all 3 sections of this article.

      If that does not help – your issue might not be addin-related. Try running scanpst on your PST files. Scanpst instructions are here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/287497

      And remember to keep reliable backups.

  16. Hi
    I have disabled pdf, vba in the registery and still outlook is slow opening up and opening mails.
    I opened outlook in safe mode and it opened in 2 seconds.
    What can I do now?
    Olga

  17. Hi

    I have changed the outcmd.dat file to outcmd.old and outlook created a new one. Now my outlook flies. The outcmd file is about toolbar customisation.
    Locate it in start, search, find files or folders…
    olga

  18. Hi

    I forgot to say that you can rename the outcmd.dat file in search screen. Just right click and select rename.
    cheers olga

  19. I just purged a couple of add-ins and it worked just fine.
    Just found your site, but it will be a source that I will use often, Thank You !

  20. Great information, thank you! Outlook now uses half as much memory, has stopped crashing and starts 3 times faster.

  21. Hi, My outlook is version 2007, every time that i would like to open it, a message box appears. Outlook add in extension is blocking the AVG. My anti virus has expired and still i cannot use my email. Help! What shall i do?

  22. Thank you, Jakes! My Outlook 2003 Add-in controls were under “Trust Center” — not Options. Now here’s an odd one — now that I’m looking at these, why is there an ITUNES add-in for Outlook? I can’t imagine why that would be necessary!!

    1. Mayalibre – If you see “Trust Center” in Outlook, you most likely have version 2007 or newer. Outlook 2003 did not have Trust Center.

      iTunes add-in is used for things like synchronizing an iPhone with Outlook (Contacts, Calendar, etc).

  23. When opening Outlook 2007 i get the following error:
    The Add-in “(C:\windows\system32\ozujtkvo\mco_idqrnrc.dll) cannot be loaded and has been disabled by Outlook. If no update is available, please uninstallthe Add-in.

    I cannot find the addin in outlook add-ins either also rtied to search the registery for it but no luck.
    Any suggestions?

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  25. I have this error,may I know how to solve it – Outlook 2003
    AppName: outlook.exe AppVer: 11.0.8010.0 AppStamp:43d16d53
    ModName: ntdll.dll ModVer: 5.1.2600.2180 ModStamp:411096b4
    fDebug: 0 Offset: 0000eddc

  26. Does anyone know why outlook takes an incredibly long time to add a PDF file as an attachment? Its been fine and then just started playing up. Ive made a new outlook folder, checked the available space on the hard drive, but cant seem to find anything to help. Any non technical answers would be appreciated (sorry Im not a techie!!)

  27. Thanks! Tips #2 fixed my problem — it is not easy to find this buried deep in the configuration of Outlook without your excellent article.

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  29. I have Outlook 2003, and recently, I’ve been getting this strange error with the YouSendIt plugin. The problem occurs every time I start outlook. I get this message telling me, “This computer is not connected to the Internet.”. Every time I click “Retry”, I get the same error. I know for certain this computer is definitely connected to the Internet, since my Ethernet adapter is plugged in, and JAWS (Job Access With Speech) screenreader tells me so with the message, “Local Area Connection is now connected. Speed, 1.0GBPS.”. What’s going on? How do I fix this error with YouSendIt Outlook 2003? The version of the plugin I have is 2.15.0.

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