Please wait while Windows configures Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010

I just installed Office 2010 and each time when I start Outlook I get an installer dialog saying;

"Please wait while Windows configures Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010"

It finishes this process and then Outlook starts normally but when I restart Outlook, this process starts all over again.

None of the other Office applications trigger this installer dialog; just Outlook.

How can I get Outlook to start without needing to go through this process?

If you are suffering from this issue, check if the conditions below apply to you;

  1. You are running Windows XP or Windows Server 2003.
  2. Starting Outlook in Safe Mode does not trigger the installation dialog;
    Start-> Run; outlook.exe /safe
    (note the space in the command)
  3. Starting Word or Excel does not trigger the installation dialog.
  4. Enabling Installer Logging for Windows XP reveals the following in the log-file;
    REINSTALL=OutlookSearchPHAndPluginReg

In that case, the issue is being caused by a corrupt installation of Windows Search. To solve this, re-install Windows Search. When you now start Outlook, you’ll get the installer dialog one more time but not anymore after restarting Outlook.

If you do not like Windows Search, you can uninstall it again. After uninstalling Windows Search, restart your computer. When you now start Outlook 2010, you’ll get the installer dialog one last time and fully got rid of Windows Search and the installer dialog.

Please wait while Windows configures Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010
A corrupt Windows Search installation can cause a lot of waiting…

Note: Outlook 2010 relies heavily on Windows Search for features such as Instant Search, Conversation View and the People Pane. As an alternative to completely uninstalling Windows Search, you can also configure it to only index Outlook data.

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