Windows

Microsoft Lookout For Outlook

Posted by on Jul 26, 2004 | 26 Comments

For Microsoft Outlook users: “Lookout is a lightning-fast search for your email, files, and desktop works with Microsoft Outlook. Built on top of a powerful search engine, Lookout is the only personal search engine that can search all of your email from directly within Outlook – in seconds. You can use Lookout to search your: Email messages; Contacts, calendar, notes, tasks, etc.; Data from exchange, POP, IMAP, PST files, Public Folders; Files on your computer or other computers.” The direct download link on Microsoft’s site works (oops! No, it doesn’t), but here’s the irony – if you look on the alleged details page, it currently says: “The download you requested is unavailable. If you continue to see this message when trying to access this download, you might try the ‘Search for a Download’ area on the Download Center home page.” Even when you search for it, Lookout doesn’t show up. Explain THAT one to me.

UPDATE: Thanks to Gnomie Lance from Down Under for finding us a link that works! Here it is: http://www.lookoutsoft.com/Lookout/download.html

  • http://www.lookoutsoft.com/Lookout/download.html Janis

    Now goes to a link to download microsoft desktop search. I downloaded this yesterday at 2pm, it tool until 7pm to index all the files it was after and then continually was trying to reindex up to 5,000 files that had changed on the network each hour. All while slowing my computer to a crawl. So I uninstalled it. I tried to grab Lookout from a fellow user, but there is no .exe file in the folder. If anyone can tell me how to download Lookout (NOT Microsoft Desktop Search) I would greatly appreciate it.

  • Roy Herman

    Janis,

    Email me at royherman@comcast.net and I will get you Lookout. I had the exact same issues with MDS and very much feel your pain. Lookout is simply the best tool out there for efficient and organized searches of Outlook mail. I am very sad it is no longer in development or supported, but until something better comes along, I will remain an enthusiastic supporter.

    The world has been Google-ized, and I do not understand why. Who would want a behemoth that overwhelms and impairs your machine when a simple, elegant, intuitive, clean and practical tool exists? I guess if the superior tool was no longer available, then one must use the inferior tool: that seems to be Microsoft’s strategy in obtaining and subsequently discontinuing Lookout. I know of absolutely no one who has ever used Lookout who prefers the Google or Microsoft alternatives. Let me know how it works for you.

  • http://www.majorgeeks.com/Lookout_d4808.html Mike C.
  • Jim Willimas

    Mike C: Thanks for the link for 1.3.0! I just installed it on my new Vista machine and it’s now happily indexing my email. This superb tool was invaluable on my old W2K box, and I’m delighted to have it back.

    Thanks!

  • http://www.hellernetworks.com Jon Heller

    Thanks for keeping this alive, Chris! (And thanks…in advance, Roy!)

    A g-search for “Outlook Lookout” returned you at #2 Chris-right below a link to WDS in the #1 spot. (Hmmm…that was NOT accomplished using standard SEO, that is certain.)

    I have been using Lookout pre-Microsoft and tried to always keep a backed-up copy of the latest version somewhere safe and sound. And I managed too-until last weekend.

    Beautiful in its simplicity, and fast…very FAST…it’s a shame it was bought, not to use it, grow it or even learn from it, but to squash it and make it go away…

    Check out the hype from Redmond in this press release following the purchase! (http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2004/jul04/07-16LookoutPR.mspx)

    So thanks again Chris…and I’m counting on you Roy, wherever you are!

    Jon Heller

  • Brant

    Hi All,
    I’ve been using Lookout for a while and am also a great fan. I have been having problems however with what appears to be a “buffer overflow (bo: heap)” error that occurs when it’s trying to finish indexing. Sometimes I can get around this by disabling my buffer overflow protection on my virsuscan, but I’m on a corporate computer and the viruscan seems to re-enable frequently. Anybody run into this issue and have any suggestions on another work-around? Thanks,
    -Brant

  • Burr

    Lookout is one of my all-time favorite tools! Finding the majorgeeks download link was huge as I’ve been without the tool since moving to a new machine about 3 months ago.

    - Outlook Advanced Find is just broken. I have multiple GBs of emails.
    - Google Desktop can’t drill into the emails well enough. I typically use “from:jim +keyword” since I know who sent the email

    I can’t say anything about Windows Desktop Search.

  • Tim Schneller

    Has anyone been successful installing Lookout 1.3 or any other version on a Vista machine running Outlook 2007. I have used LO for years and there is still nothing better. When I installed on this new machine, I received an error. It looks like MS has tried to incorporate the logic into there outlook search function, but is doesn’t work…

  • Matt Parker

    Some guys started Lookeen (Lookeen.com) which looks pretty much like the successor of Lookout! Supports Office 2007 and Vista! I think its still beta now..

    -Matt

  • Howard

    You have to love the http:\\www.webarchive.org they have the look out site, including downloads hosted on lookout.com back to the inception of the product. The last version of the site, before M$ hijacked the url back to MDS is http://web.archive.org/web/20060831223528/http://www.lookoutsoft.com/Lookout/download.html

    The only thing I don’t love about Lookout is that I cannot tell the difference between Read and Unread E-mail in the search results…..

  • Mark Kroehler

    Like others on this thread, I’ve been using Lookout for a few years and loved its ability to perform searches against multiple GBs of e-mail, quickly and painlessly. I, too, made sure that I always had a backup copy for the periodic rebuilds. When I saw that Microsoft was buying the source and baking it into the Windows Desktop Search tool, I thought “Oh, no, not another good tool gone…” But, I still had Lookout… or so I thought…

    With the release of Office 2007, Microsoft “broke” Lookout. Installation of the Lookout add-in fails due to “file incompatibilities” with Outlook 2007. So much for Lookout…

    I tried some of the others…
    Google Desktop – Useless
    Windows Desktop Search – Even more useless
    Outlook Advanced Search – Laughable

    And, thanks to Matt Parker’s earlier post, I have stumbled onto Lookeen (it’s actually Lookeen.net). So far, it has been an excellent replacement for Lookout. Keeping my fingers crossed!!!

    Since it’s in beta, you’re supposed to register, but here’s the link to the goodies… http://www.lookeen.net/download/lookeen.zip

  • Marc Moonlight

    Hi Chris,

    I remember you from the Tech TV days, they were Great!

    Is there a way to get Lookout to work with Out 2007? I actually like Outlook 2007 but love Lookout so I am kind of torn here :(

    Any help would be appreciated,

    Thanks

    Marc M

  • Ben

    Hi,
    no – Lookout doesn’t work with Outlook 2007! That’s the probelm many users have…
    But give Lookeen – as Mark mentioned – a try…it works fine, as fast as Lookout and has the same usability and features!
    Here is the link: http://www.lookeen.com

  • Charles

    I tried Lookeen based on Ben’s suggestion; wow – what a piece of junk. After indexing for hours on my email, it finally completely locked up Outlook.

    I tried it on two computers – same result.

  • http://www.lookeen.com Peter Oehler

    Hi Charles,

    This is Peter from the Lookeen team. Our Software is still beta and we are constantly working on it.
    It would be a great favour if you could send us a report via our “Send Report”-feature located in the “Help”-menu. I’m looking forward to here from you!

    Regards,
    Peter Oehler
    http://www.lookeen.com

  • Tijugara

    Look at this, seems to solve the issue.

    http://www.scw.us/win/FixingLookout/

  • forbsy
  • http://www.wirwar.com/ Leon

    Mike Belshe’s solution involves renaming some critical Office assemblies and I would’t recommend that. I think I have a better solution to get Lookout to work with Outlook 2007:

    http://www.wirwar.com/blog/2008/01/22/search-e-mail-at-lightspeed-using-lookout-with-outlook-2007/

  • http://www.ww-supply.com Jill

    We use lookout at our office and it is a wonderful tool. I have four remote guys – they can see the public folders in Outlook but Lookout will not index the public folders. They connect to exchange using HTTP Exchange Proxy settings.

  • Alistair

    Hello,

    If anyone ever comes across a version of Lookout that works with Vista please let me know as i miss it! I doubt this will happen though seeing as Microsoft have bought it. I haven’t had the same results with Lookeen but it is better than nothing.

  • Paul Short

    I have two different systems – a XP and a Vista system. I’ve compared Lookout and Lookeen – and Lookeen definitely finds as much as Lookout! And it finds more items and “better” than the WDS4.
    Lookeen is the best follower of Lookout I have found in the web…

  • Michael

    I’ve been a fan of Lookout for years, but rather than hacking it into working with Outlook 2007, I tried switching to Xobni. Its pretty slick and its free, you should check it out.

  • Dmytro

    What is the very latest version of Lookout?

  • Terry

    I managed to get Lookout 1.30 working on Outlook 2007 again. I had the “blank toolbar” problem after using Lookout with Outlook 2007 for a few months. Guess one of the Microsoft updates installed the latest Desktop Search tool and deactivated Lookout.

    I reactivated it, then restarted Outlook. Viola. It’s back, and working. I re-indexed. Lookout is working fine again.

    Here’s how I reactivated Lookout to work with Outlook 2007 again:

    Outlook
    Tools
    Trust Center
    Add-ins
    Manage “COM Add-ins”

    You’ll see that the checkbox next to Lookout is not checked, so it has been deactivated and will no longer load at Outlook startup. Check the checkbox, make sure the “Load behavior” is set to “Load at startup” (the default) and click OK.

    Lookout toolbar should be back and functional.

  • Benjamin Miller

    I agree Paul Short! Lookeen is really the best follower of Lookout!!

    Just try it…you find it under http://www.lookeen.com

  • +JMJ+ @TotusTuusFamily

    Excellent! Sharing.