VSTO 2005 SE Outlook Requirements on End Users Computers

After a long struggle I finally have an Outlook Add in developed under VSTO 2005 which will deploy to other Office 2003 machines and seems to work well.

However I cannot get it to deploy to a machine where the office version is XP ( Fine I accept that this is not supported) But where the Outlook version is 2003 the machine having been updated using the licence/CD provided with exhange server 2003.

The requirements specify that the Outlook standalone is supported but what is the status of the exchange version

Hi Misha, Thank you for replying.

By "I can not deploy" I mean I cannot install.

The setup project is based upon that given for outlook in the msdn article "Deploying visual studio 2 2005 for office second edition using window installer" as recently updated. This installs perfectly on the 2003 machines but on the machines with the Exchange CD Outlook it fails reporting that Excel 2003 is not installed even though the add in project does not reference Excel.

I have used PSS VSTO 2005 Client troubleshooter to examine the status of the machine in question and it reports as follows

Microsoft Office 2003 Analysis

Microsoft Office 2003 Products Installed: Microsft Office Outlook 2003

Microsoft Office 2003 Products Installed : A supported version of Microsoft Office 2003 was not found.

The machine in question originally had Office XP. At a later stage Exchange server was installed in this office and the CD/licence used to install Outlook 2003 on this machine.

I have examined the CD supplied with Exchange 2003 Server Enterprise and note that it states it contains Outlook Standard 2003 which does not sound hopeful and I suspect that the Outlook version supplied with Exchange is not classed as "Standalone" but this is not clear.

Any guidence would be appriciated

Hi Helmut, Thank you for your reply.

Yes prerequisites should be ok as after a lot of trial and error we get them all sorted, except for this question of the Outlook 2003 status. My suspision is that the version of Outlook installed from the Exchange 2003 server Enterprise - Outlook standard 2003 ) does not qualify as "Standalone"

I'm note sure where the Office.Core.dll mention is stored but the Office assembly in the cache is version 11.0

I would certainly consider the set up a development machine with Office XP & Outlook 2003 if no other solution is viable but am concerned that if its a problem with the VSTO regarding the machine as not meeting the prerequisites then this will solve it.

Any advice is much appricated

Hi Misha, I have to say I approached your reply totally convinced that it would not work as I was sure that the problem was that the required libraries were not on the machine. However it worked a treat and I can now get on and roll out the solution to the users who are actually emailing me requesting it which is a first!

Thank you for your assiatance.