Microsoft Lookout For Outlook
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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

20 Comments
Janis
February 2nd, 2007
at 6:48am
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
February 6th, 2007
at 9:25am
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.
Mike C.
February 12th, 2007
at 3:00pm
You can get ver 1.3.o from http://www.majorgeeks.com/Lookout_d4808.html
Jim Willimas
February 21st, 2007
at 4:47pm
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!
Jon Heller
April 11th, 2007
at 12:44am
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
April 18th, 2007
at 3:41am
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
April 23rd, 2007
at 4:58am
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
July 9th, 2007
at 7:58am
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
October 11th, 2007
at 4:18am
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
October 20th, 2007
at 4:37am
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
November 2nd, 2007
at 2:06pm
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
November 3rd, 2007
at 8:57pm
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
November 9th, 2007
at 4:30am
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: www.lookeen.com
Charles
November 18th, 2007
at 9:18am
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.
Peter Oehler
November 27th, 2007
at 2:54am
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
www.lookeen.com
Tijugara
December 17th, 2007
at 10:52am
Look at this, seems to solve the issue.
http://www.scw.us/win/FixingLookout/
forbsy
January 8th, 2008
at 4:55pm
Lookout will work with Outlook 2007:
http://www.belshe.com/2007/12/06/how-to-install-lookout-on-outlook-2007/
Enjoy
Leon
January 23rd, 2008
at 5:43pm
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/
Jill
March 31st, 2008
at 1:47pm
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
June 18th, 2008
at 8:20am
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.