At least Outlook 2007 itself worked perfectly. Things didn't go so smoothly when it came to some of the add-ins we had been using to enhance Outlook 2003. Some of them threw up error messages like the one in Figure A.

FIGURE A

An error message from an Outlook 2003 add-in that won't work with Outlook 2007. Click picture for a larger image.

This wasn't really a surprise. With all the changes between Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007, it was very likely that at least some add-ins wouldn't work with the new version. The way to deal with this problem is to first contact the publisher of any add-in programs you are using to see if they have a version that's compatible with Outlook 2007. If they do, they will be able to tell you exactly what to do to get it installed and running.

In the meantime, you'll want to disable or uninstall the add-ins that don't work. Sometimes you will get the option to disable a problem add-in when Outlook warns you of a problem. At other times, you will need to disable or uninstall an add-in manually.

To do that, you'll need to find the add-in you want to disable in the Add-ins section of the Trust Center. In Outlook 2007, click Tools, then Trust Center. In the Trust Center window, click Add-ins to see all the add-ins that are installed, whether active or not, as shown in Figure B.

FIGURE B

Find the add-ins that are giving you problems in the Add-ins section of the Trust Center. Click picture for a larger image.

Find the name of the add-in you want to work with in the Name column, then find out what kind of add-in it is in the Type column. In Figure B, all the add-ins happen to be of the type COM Add-in.

Once you know the type of add-in, select that type in the Manage box at the bottom of the page and click Go. This opens a dialog box where you can manage all add-ins of a particular type.

Clear the checkbox next to the name of an add-in you want to disable (but not uninstall) or select the add-in and click Remove to uninstall it.

Repeat this process whenever you get an error message related to an add-in, and you will soon have Outlook 2007 running smoothly (although without some of your add-ins).

Upgrading from a beta to the shipping version on a Windows XP machine
If you have been working with a beta version of Outlook 2007, you may be planning to do this kind of upgrade. Unfortunately, you can't just install the production version of Outlook 2007 or any 2007 Microsoft Office system application over the betas.

"You need to uninstall all 2007 Office system beta applications before you can install the production version of any application."

You need to uninstall all 2007 Office system beta applications before you can install the production version of any application. You must also uninstall several other things before installing the production version of any part of 2007 Microsoft Office system.

See the Resources list at the end of this article for a link to Microsoft Knowledge Base article 927222, which lists all the things that must be uninstalled before you install Outlook 2007 or any other component of the 2007 Microsoft Office system.