Search e-mail at lightspeed: using Lookout with Outlook 2007
Everybody who uses Microsoft Outlook must know that Outlook’s search functionality sucks. Yes, I know that’s a bold statement, but there’s no other way to say it. Outlook search sucks big time, period! Even Joel agrees… My mailbox is growing every day and I find it harder and harder to keep track of its contents. A search through my archived folders often takes a much as a full minute of searching, which I find unacceptable. In the press I often read Microsoft Corporation finds Search important and lately we’ve seen them release some impressive search products (i.e. Search Server 2008 and Search Server 2008 Express). Also a major part of my daily job involves implementing SharePoint 2007 solutions at our customers, which most of the time also includes SharePoint’s search feature. But somehow the Outlook team seems to have missed the boat…
Some years ago a guy called Mike Belshe created a great free Outlook add-in called Lookout, that offered a lightning fast search. Within seconds of starting a search (often even within a second!) the results would appear on screen. Microsoft was quick to buy his company and its technology. At that time many people expected Microsoft to integrate Lookout into Outlook, but unfortunately they seem to have shelved it (Mike himself claims some of his Lookout code ended up in Windows Desktop Search). So now there’s no official way to obtain Lookout. Luckily there are many sites that still offer the Lookout download. A quick search on Google should point you to some sites containing working download links.
However, getting Lookout to work with Outlook 2007 is more problematic. It turns out that Lookout checks for specific Office Primary Interop Assemblies (PIAs) and the PIAs that come with Outlook 2007 don’t pass this test. The result is that Lookout prevents itself from running under Outlook 2007 and instead displays this warning message:
After much demand Mike Belshe published a way to get Lookout to work with Outlook 2007. For this you have to rename an Office PIA file, which resides in the Global Assembly Cache. While this solution gets Lookout to work, it may have serious impact on other applications/add-ins that make use of this PIA. So this solution isn’t acceptable for me (and it shouldn’t be for you!).
Instead I opted for a different approach. The only reason that Lookout doesn’t run on Outlook 2007 is that dreaded PIA check. So why not remove it? Which is exactly what I did…
A quick Reflector session revealed that the code that performs the PIA check is located inside the assembly named Inventures_Olk.dll and goes by the name of CheckOutlookInterop(). What it does is compare the installed Office PIA’s name to a built-in string constant. If the match is positive it returns the boolean value true, otherwise it returns false. Using ILDASM I decompiled the assembly to CIL, changed CheckOutlookInterop()‘s code to always return true and recompiled the assembly. So that gave me a fully working Lookout version that’s compatible with Outlook 2007!
You can download the patched assembly here. Just replace the the original Inventures_Olk.dll with the patched version and you should be searching your Outlook 2007 content a lightspeed in no time…
Oh yeah, there’s one small issue… It seems Lookout crashes while indexing if you run it on Vista. Bummer…
Update: Recently I discovered there’s another bug in Lookout that causes dates to be parsed incorrectly if you have the .NET Framework 2.0 installed. You can read more about it here. Fortunately someone has fixed this problem and also released a patched DLL that you can download.
Update 2: The DLL I patched and offer on this blog should work with Lookout version 1.3.0.24057. But as I understand that version of Lookout crashes during indexing on Vista and Windows 7. In the comments below user Stroth claims he got my patched DLL working with an older version of Lookout, a version that also works with Vista and Windows 7 and doesn’t crash. That’s good news, however I never tested that.
Posted on January 22, 2008, in microsoft, search and tagged decompiling, ildasm, lookout, outlook 2007, patch, pia. Bookmark the permalink. 169 Comments.
LeonZandman.com 
Oh, and NOW it’s crashing under Vista (I added a bunch of additional PST files). Oh well.
@Sheryl: I’m glad you like my patch 🙂 It’s too bad Lookout doesn’t run well on Vista.
With Outlook 2003 Professional Edition, the Lookout wizard runs EVERY time Outlook is launched. Would appreciate some straight talking advice from anyone reading.
Thanks
@Mike: I’m also using Lookout with Outlook 2003 Pro on my work laptop and didn’t encounter that problem. Often when these things happen it means the wizard’s settings aren’t persisted.
Although I haven’t actually checked, I think that when Lookout is run for the first time it checks if it has been run before. If it hasn’t, the wizard will pop up. When the wizard finishes it saves certain settings to the disk. It could be that on your system the wizard either isn’t able to save those changes to disk or those saved settings are somehow deleted from your disk. Either way, the next time you start Outlook the saved settings aren’t found and the wizard reappears.
If you really want to find out I suggest you run Process Monitor, a tool by Mark Russinovich that you can download from the SysInternals website (http://www.sysinternals.com/). Using that tool you can track whatever Lookout is trying to write to the disk or the registry.
I was able to resolve the missing Lookout tool bar. I found two versions Inventures_Olk.dll I had down loaded a 30K version from another site and was not able to see the Toolbar although it did resolve the startup error. I download. I then down loaded a 80K version from http://www.wirwar.com/blog/wp-content/inventures_olk.zip installed it and the lookout wizard launched when I restarted work, hope this helps someone else.
Sorry typo above, should say- the Lookout wizard launched when I restarted Outlook.
Excellent – thanks for making this work!
Solved problem:
Had same problem with Lookout toolbar not showing up. XP, OL2007, and Lookout. Checked under Help->Disabled Items and found an item there which I enabled. Closed OL and restarted and Lookout began with indexing wizard starting up.
Thank you.
Leon!
this saved my life! I really loved the lookout experience and did not find any solution with outlook 2007 that could be used as a replacement. Your fix works brilliant and without any problems for me (XP). This is totally cool!
thanks so much
Stephan
Thanks! I also had to re-enable the toolbar under help-> about outlook-> disabled items. I am a big fan of lookout and have been having trouble searching my e-mail all week since it stopped working for me after outlook crashed. Now I can find whatever I want again!!!!!
Thanks,
CD
I got it to work fine on my office computer which has XP, but it would crash on my home Vista x64 machine. I tried installing the latest 1.3x version of lookout and renaming the assemblyGAC files with no luck.
I got it working by using the older 1.20 version as suggested and using the 2 patched dlls. I zipped them up and added instructions for anyone interested.
http://rapidshare.com/files/194044374/LookOut_for_Outlook.zip
i tried all of the stuff to get back my old good lookout, but it doesn´t work on vista quite right…i really was pissed off because i liked it so much and it was such a great help for me…but no i found a tool which is even equal with outlook and works quite similar…lookeen…it´s really great and you can test it for the first 14 days for free… http://www.lookeen.com
you will see, it´s really a great alternative!
Paul
Great information!
I am on Vista Business SP1, Outlook 2007.
I was able to get Lookout 1.3 to run after replacing Lookout.dll, Inventures_Olk.dll as mentioned above. I got the error “access to the path c:Program FilesLookout SoftwareLookoutAppUpdate.log is denied” – it turned out the log file didn’t exist. After I created the log file, I ceased to receive the error. The index built manually without crashing and I have had no issues to date (although I have only had it running for 2 days).
thanks very very much.
i cried a little when it worked again.
ol2007 @ xpSp3, lookout 1.3 😀
Excellent work-around. Other fixes on the Internet did not work, but this one did. Thanks a bunch!
I never knew how much I relied on Lookout until I got upgraded to Office 2007 last week. The built-in Outlook search is really a dog, and having Lookout working again really brings a palpable feeling of relief.. Thanks..
Which folder is the Inventures_Olk.dll file in?
Thanks!
On my system it is located in C:Program FilesLookout SoftwareLookout.
just to mark it here too:
I’ve tried all the solutions above, none worked for me.
Then I’ve donwloaded Lookout 1.28, and without any patching or modification it works perfectly (and fast).
Cheers!
This worked on Outlook 2003 & XP Pro(currently indexing folders). Before this, I had wasted about 10 hours in total over the last 4 months to find a solution. I can’t express in words how much this means to me – just BIG BIG THANKS.
Microsoft can kill a product – not the creativity 🙂
I tried it and it didn´t work…but I am not soo sad about it because in the meantime I think it makes no sense to use an tool, which isn´t developed anymore and will not be in future! So I think the best solution is simply to use another tool, because there are a few good ones, which in my opinion overtake Lookout, so for example LOOKEEN!
Thanx so much! Replacing the two .dlls worked for me – I REALLY missed searching my .pst files!!
Hiii
Thanks Alot. It is working fine for me. I’m great Fan of this application. You make my day.
🙂
Sanjay
This fix really works.
I had applied an earlier workaround to get Lookout working with Outlook 2007 on Windows XP Professional, but after many happy months of using it, it stopped again with an error:
———————————————————-
Lookout failed to start
Sorry!! It looks like another Outlook Plugin has installed an unofficial version of the Outlook libraries which breaks Lookout. Lookout will not be able to aload. For more information, see this link: http://www.lookoutsoft.com/Forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_IC=10
———————————————————-
This link wasn’t useful – it only led to Windows Search, and it was the unpleasantly slow experience with that application which made me look for the original solution to getting Lookout back and working again.
However, this page here was useful, and the link to the page with:
http://www.wirwar.com/blog/wp-content/inventures_olk.zip
produced a workaround in only the time it took to rename and copy the DLL and restart Outlook – or next to no time.
Very happy.
To add to my last comment, yes, my Lookout was in a different location as pointed out by an earlier poster:
C:Program FilesLookout SoftwareLookout
Great fix!
just copied the DLL and the lookout error prompt vanished.
thanks a ton!!
A ‘life saving fix’ – fantastic!
Used zip provide by Stroths above and all seems to work fine with LO 1.2 and OL 2007 SP1 & Vista
I really don´t understand why so many people hold on an old undeveloped tool!?
There are so many out there, which are as good as Lookout even better and which are developed and supported! Ok once it was really a good tool, but know in 2009 it is dead!
Beside this I work with Lookeen now too and have to say that is a lot better than Lookout!
Worked great! Nothing that I have tried comes close to Lookout. I’m glad you could help me get it back! I really appreciate it.
Thanks! Worked great. I’ve not found a good replacement for Lookout ever since moving to 2007. Am so grateful to have stumbled across your site. Many thanks!
I’ve struggled with Lookout 1.3.0 crashing on my Windows 7/Outlook 2007 when indexing. Tried Stroths suggestion, where he has assembled an archive with Lookout 1.2.0 and the modified dll’s (http://rapidshare.com/files/194044374/LookOut_for_Outlook.zip).
I uninstalled Lookout 1.3.0 and followed Stroths instructions in the zip-file.
Lookout is finally indexing again!! 🙂
I got Lookout 1.20 working on Outlook 2007 with Vista using Mike’s instructions above. Thank you Mike.
I had this working for last 3 months on new XP machine with outlook 2007. It stopped working yesterday. I’ve tried re-installing and replacing DLLs but no luck. I’ve tried removing outcmd.dat and extend.dat but still no luck.
I can’t live without lookout. Any help appreciated.
If I go to Help->Privacy Options…->Add Ins, I noticed that mscore.dll shows next to lookout. Is this what should show for lookout? I am still not seeing the toolbar show when I start outlook 2007.
I found the article at http://ewbi.blogs.com/develops/2006/04/outlook_lookout.html and created the config file suggested.
If I now look at lookout.connection.log, I see the following (note: the 8/10/2009 entry showed starting up and no error thrown but lookout would not appear on toolbar in outlook … after config file created, I get an error in the log with bad lookout image:
8/10/2009 8:09:59 PM Starting up
8/12/2009 1:29:57 AM Starting up
8/12/2009 1:29:57 AM Caught exception loading assembly (C:Program FilesLookout SoftwareLookoutLookout.dll): System.BadImageFormatException: The format of the file ‘Lookout.dll’ is invalid.
File name: “Lookout.dll”
at System.Reflection.Assembly.nLoad(AssemblyName fileName, String codeBase, Boolean isStringized, Evidence assemblySecurity, Boolean throwOnFileNotFound, Assembly locationHint, StackCrawlMark& stackMark)
at System.Reflection.Assembly.InternalLoad(AssemblyName assemblyRef, Boolean stringized, Evidence assemblySecurity, StackCrawlMark& stackMark)
at System.Reflection.Assembly.LoadFrom(String assemblyFile, Evidence securityEvidence, Byte[] hashValue, AssemblyHashAlgorithm hashAlgorithm)
at System.Reflection.Assembly.LoadFrom(String assemblyFile)
at LookoutAddIn.Connect.OnConnection(Object application, ext_ConnectMode connectMode, Object addInInst, Array& custom)
=== Pre-bind state information ===
LOG: Where-ref bind. Location = C:Program FilesLookout SoftwareLookoutLookout.dll
LOG: Appbase = C:Program FilesMicrosoft OfficeOffice12
LOG: Initial PrivatePath = NULL
Calling assembly : (Unknown).
===
LOG: Policy not being applied to reference at this time (private, custom, partial, or location-based assembly bind).
LOG: Attempting download of new URL file:///C:/Program Files/Lookout Software/Lookout/Lookout.dll.
Got LookOut 1.28 working with OLK2007 SP2 on XP SP2.
Installed patched DLL from wirwar and re-enabled Lookout via Tools>TrustCenter>Addins.
Thanks to all for the opcode hacking and the workaround commentary.
For Vista/Windows 7 users:
I managed to make Lookout run smoothly using Lookout 1.20 and replacing DLLs mentioned before: lookout.dll and Inventures_Olk.dll.
Any other version of Lookout with these DLLs causes Outlook crash during indexing.
BR,
Lux
Like Lux1983 and Tore, I got Lookout 1.2 running on Windows 7 by using Stroth’s zip package.
I had previously tried version 1.3 and 1.2.8 and both would crash during indexing. Haven’t run it for long yet but it’s getting past the point it was crashing at, and so far so good. Like all the other commenters, I’m SO relieved to finally have Lookout back! My heartfelt thanks for all the reflection/debugging/patching work.
FYI if you run into problems with the Rapidshare link, WayBackMachine still seems to have old versions of Lookout available (try circa 2004).
I wonder.. if someone were to patch the 1.2.8 or 1.3 DLL’s.. if those more recent versions would work without crashing during indexing..?
@Richard Kagerer: The DLL I patched and offer on this blog works with Lookout version 1.3.0.24057. But as I understand that version of Lookout crashes during indexing on Vista and Windows 7. Apparently Stroth got my patched DLL working with an older version of Lookout, a version that also works with Vista and Windows 7 and doesn’t crash. That’s fine, but I never tested that.
Personnally I haven’t yet found any need to run Lookout on Vista and, more recently, Windows 7 RTM. Outlook 2007 search is significantly faster on Vista/Windows 7. I do however still use Lookout on my work’s laptop, which still has Windows XP/Office 2003 installed.
Testing Windows 7 Enterprise here with Outlook 2003. Can’t imagine working w/o Lookout, though – but of course it crashes when indexing… There was one missing thing in Lookout, though – indexing of PDFs. So may be I’ll have to use lookeen or copernic…
It worked like a charm on: Win XP, Lookout 1.3.0.24057, Outllok 2007 (12.0.0.6514)
Hi!
Thanks to stroths my Outlook and W7 lives again. I have turned off all the “new” indexing crap that MS is frocing us to use. LookOut workes just great, all queries are there instantly. No wait time. And indexing is complete in 30-60 minutes in the latest (indexing about 3 GB of PST files data). Indexing from MS doesn’t work and one doesn’t really get what he wants. Indexing of file on my HDD can be also done by LookOut, but I don’t use it, I’m searching using Total Commander, the old fashion way – no regrets ;). This is also an asnwer to people complaining here why are we want to user software that is so old and not supported – because 1. It’s SMALL, it’s FATS and it WORKS :))) Muhehehe
The best fix yet. Great work – XP, Outlook 2007user Lookout fan
Another reply on a stale thread. I had to install Vista Pro (comes with Outlook 2007) on this laptop for other reasons, and the lack of a functional Lookout was bad, really bad, especially on the road.
I started with Lookout V1.3 but couldn’t get it to work. Took a deep breath and tried the rename thing, no joy renamed them back, tried overwriting the DLL files, still no joy, always a crash during indexing.
I found a copy of Lookout122 on a ‘kits’ cd I had burnt for myself a couple of years ago. Deinstalled Lookout13 (thankyou Microsoft for moving Add/Remove Programs to Programs and Features, not!) installed Lookout122. Replaced the 2 DLL files and voila! I now have a working Lookout.
Thanks everyone for working through this issue and coming up with solutions for this old road warrior. Life without Lookout was grim. My next challenge is to install encryption.
Jeff, could you upload lookout122? I can’t find it anywhere. Or if someone else is able to, I would be most grateful.
I am running Windows 7 x64 and have fixed the Crashing issue by:
Start Outlook and go into the Lookout options, move the slider for indexing speed right down. Do a full index (can take a little while) and should all be working fine 🙂
I was successfully able to index using 1.3.0.24057 on Outlook 2k7 SP2, Windows 7. I actually installed it originally by renaming the PIA as discussed above. I don’t really care about that as a fix since I really have no use for any other outlook plugins that I can think of. I did install the modified Inventures_OLK.dll, but not the lookout.dll. Indexing was crashing. I unchecked the option to index the contents of documents (I just care about the mail index, really) but no change. I slowed down the index speed to half like 9BelowZero suggested, no change. I noticed at this point that it kept crashing as soon as it would try and index my deleted items folder on my exchange mailbox, so I emptied it. Subsequently it indexed with no crashes. I have no idea whether this was just luck or if some combination of these things fixed it,, but I just wanted to let you all know that there is hope 🙂
Thanks Lee, it works! Lookout 1.3.0.24057 on Outlook 2007 Version 12.0.0.6504 Windows 7 Ultimate x64. I did the rename of Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook file in the GAC but was getting the indexing crash. I cleared the Deleted Items and set the indexer to not index ‘Deleted Items’ and it is working perfectly even with full speed indexing 🙂
Windows XP Media Center (laptop) and Windows XP Pro (work)
Outlook 2007, Lookout ver1.30 (1.3.0.24057)
Patched file Inventures_Olk.dll
NET Framework
Works Great!!! Thank you for this great fix.
With an apology to the developer, Mike Belshe, this is by far the better workaround.
For those who might remember, Lookout does for Outlook what Norton Commander did for DOS (before Windows).
Very happy to have Lookout back and running.
I’m encountering a very strange problem since I installed Lookout.
I’m using Outlook 2003 on Windows XP SP2, and .NET Framework 2.0 since a week (but this didn’t change the behaviour in any way with respect to when I had .NET 1.x).
In results output window I’m able to sort by any column except for Date!! Even if I manually change the option in the file nothing changes:
Date
False
The same if I click on the column head in lookout result window.
Does anyone have encountered a similar problem? On Google I found nothing.
That’s really annoying as you can imagine.
Thank you
Mike’s fix worked for me. Win7, OL2007.
Make sure you OVERWRITE the existing dlls with the ones in Mike’s post.