Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Fixing the "ExSec32.dll is incompatible with Microsoft Outlook" Error

The Problem
I had a user who the the following error on the computer "The file ExSec32.dll is incompatible with Microsoft Outlook. Install Outlook again." We actually had installed this version of office recently because we had a spare license and would allow them to use a more familiar version until their computer was replaced. This popped up when they tried to do anything with Microsoft Office's Outlook 2007. The user said he wasn't aware of what had gone wrong. It had worked good for awhile and after one reboot he had started getting this error. I tried a couple of troubleshooting methods and actually looking around the web didn't provide me a good answer.

I then went to the Control Panel>Add or Remove Programs and did a repair install of Outlook 2007. While waiting for the repair to finish then I noticed the hard drive was filled to the brim with only a few hundred megabytes left. I freed up some space and since the computer would be replaced this year I left it for the time being, expecting the amount I freed up to be enough. After about a 3-4 weeks the user started experiencing the same problem again.

The Solution
The thing that led me to my solution was they told me though this time that the computer was wanting to install updates and after the reboot it started  popping up the error again. I then saw that the Office 2007 Service Pack 3 was pending to install. So I told it to start hoping that something in it would resolve the issue. During the update the computer complained about being really low on space. I then quickly freed up about 3GB after which it left me alone and the update completed. I rebooted and upon reboot the software was working fine.

I believe that the Service Pack 3 for Office 2007 was only finishing partly until the system ran out of space. Somehow it was was then causing the above error. So make sure you have enough space, check for Microsoft updates and apply all the latest. All the above will hopefully cause your problem to be resolved.

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