Error Message using Free Avast and MS Outlook 2007

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

Hi

I am using Avast Free Edition (Program version 5.0.545 and Virus Definition Version 100606-0) in my HP Compaq Business Notebook NX6320 - Intel Centrino Duo 2.66Ghz and 2Gb ram) but experiencing some problems when I try to open the MS Outlook 2007.
When I open the MS Outlook I got the error message (translated to English because my sw is in portuguese - Brazil).

“The suplement Avast!4 (C:\ProgramFiiles\Alwil Software\Avast4\ashOutXt.dll) can not be loaded and was disabled by Outlook. Contact the suplement manufacturer to get a program update. In case an update is not available, remove the suplement.”
Please see attached the original message.

Can anyone help me to fix this problem? What does it means “suplement” and how to remove it?

Thanks in advance

2

It seems to me that the upgrade of your avast did not go well. That’s why you see outlook looking for avast 4 even though you already upgraded to avast 5.
But AFAIK avast 5 free does not include the antispam filter module. What might help: delete the file extend.dat located in
C:\Documents and Settings<user id>\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook
where is your username (this needs to be done for every user on that machine)

3

Hi K.u.r.t

Thanks a lot. Understood your comments. The file extend.dat was removed as well as the error message fixed.

Please what is the function of the file extend.dat. It can be removed as it was done without having any problem in the whole system?

Again, many thanks for your reply.

4

Outlook add-ins are stored in registry. That is where Outlook originaly reads them from - unfortunately it then sproceeds to save the info from the registry into a file called extend.dat - the whole purpose and format of this file is not clear to me as it is Outlook’s own binary. Anyway after upgrading your avast 4 to 5 the registry entries were changed but the info cached inside the extend.dat remained. The isntaller cannot touch this file as it does not belong to us. Experiments have shown however that when a user deletes this file Outlook will then re-create it next time it is started and will copy all the add-in info from the registry into this file.

5

That´s great.

Many thanks for your clear explanation. Everything is now ok.

Kind regards