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Keep Outlook Running COM Addin (Made Installable Without Admin Rights)

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KeepOutlookRunning

Keep Outlook Running COM Addin (Made Installable Without Admin Rights)

What Does This Do?

This Outlook add-in forces Outlook to minimize, instead of close, when you hit the "X" button. While minimized, it stays running and you won't miss out on important emails!

How to Install:

  1. Extract contents of "KeepOutlookRunning.zip" anywhere
  2. CD to folder containing the contents you just extracted
  3. Run InstallKeepOutlookRunning.bat if you are running a 32 bit version of Outlook. Run InstallKeepOutlookRunning-64bit.bat if you are running a 64 bit version of Outlook
  4. Restart Outlook

Note: You may have to change some of the paths in the .reg file depending on your version of Outlook. Right now it is configured for Outlook 2016, the only one I have to test it on.

How Does This Work?

This does not touch any system files. The .bat file installs the DLL to the current user's AppData folder, then manually inputs all the necessary registry entries for the file to HKEY_CURRENT_USER and HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\ . By registering there, we avoid having to register in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT which requires admin privileges.

How was I able to find all the necessary registry entries? I was able to find all the necessary registry entries for installation by generating a registy (.reg) file on the 32-bit dll with Visual Studio's regcap.exe. The installation batch file replace installation path placeholders with the relevant local user paths.

Tested and Confirmed Working On

  • Microsoft® Outlook® for Microsoft 365 MSO (Version 2210 Build 16.0.15726.20070) 64-bit
  • Upgrading to the 2023 version of Outlook currently being previewed seems to break this plugin

Credit

Credit of course to Tim Eck who wrote the initial add-in for the StackOverflow Answer here: https://superuser.com/a/275244/322104

Enormous credit as well to Jens Huehn who's answer was crucial to figuring it all out, and who's batch code I borrowed. His product SlideFab 2 served as the blueprint for making this work without Admin Priveleges.

The SourceCode is sourced from Ourselp's github here: https://github.com/Ourselp/KeepOutlookRunning

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Keep Outlook Running COM Addin (Made Installable Without Admin Rights)

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