Sophos Outlook 2013 Plugin – Error 1001

When installing the Sophos Outlook Add-in, you may see this error:

Error 1001: No supported version of Outlook found

When installing the Sophos Outlook Add-in, you may see this error:

Error 1001: No supported version of Outlook found

Applies to the following Sophos product(s) and version(s)

Sophos Outlook Add-in

The customer may be running a “Click-to-Run” version of Outlook 2013, which doesn’t install the expected Outlook registry entries that the Sophos Outlook Add-in is looking for.

Currently, Click-to-Run is not a supported version of Outlook by the Sophos Outlook Add-in. To verify whether a Click-to-Run version is installed, search for the following registry keys:

64 bit Windows running 32 bit Outlook

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Common\InstallRoot\Virtual\VirtualOutlook

32 bit Windows running 32 bit Outlook

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Common\InstallRoot\Virtual\VirtualOutlook

The part we’re looking for is the “VirtualOutlook” key, so you could also search the registry for that string.

Other indications of click-to-run installations, is the presence of just “Microsoft Office 2013” in the add/remove programs listing without any additional office components. To be certain, check the registry as indicated above.

What To Do

This may be a workaround, though it’s hard to script since there are multiple dependencies tied to Outlook version, Windows version, and the Windows language.

Note: If this workaround does not solve the issue (many customers have reported it does not work for them), then tell the customer that click-to-run versions of Outlook are not currently supported.

For 32-bit versions of Outlook running on 32-bit versions of Windows and 64-bit versions of Outlook running on 64-bit versions of Windows, you will need to use these registry key as your working path:

  • Outlook 2007: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Common\LanguageResources
  • Outlook 2010: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Common\LanguageResources
  • Outlook 2013: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Common\LanguageResources

For 32-bit versions of Outlook running on 64-bit versions of Windows, you will need to use these registry key as your working path:

  • Outlook 2007: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Common\LanguageResources
  • Outlook 2010: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Common\LanguageResources
  • Outlook 2013: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Common\LanguageResources

In the appropriate registry key, add the DWORD value UILanguage with the decimal value representing the installed Outlook’s language. For reference purposes, use the second column value in this MSDN table: https://msdn.microsoft.com/nb-no/goglobal/bb964664.aspx

Commonly used values for the core languages that the Outlook Add-in is tailored would be:

  • English: 1033
  • French: 1036
  • German: 1031
  • Italian: 1040
  • Spanish: 1034
  • Japanese: 1041
  • Simplified Chinese: 2052 (tied primarily to Mainland China)
  • Traditional Chinese: 1028 (tied primarly to Taiwan)

With the SDU, you can confirm the installed language of Windows, which should normally match what the Outlook language is, though you may have to poke around the registry to confirm this (or ask the customer directly).

Once this registry key is set, run the install again and it should now succeed.