Salesforce for Outlook Does Not Load After Installation and There Is No Icon in the System Tray

 POSSIBLE CAUSES:

This issue could be related to a few things.
 

The following steps address the most common causes of Salesforce for Outlook not loading after installation. Work through each cause in order until the issue is resolved.

Cause 1: SFO Running in Compatibility Mode

Salesforce for Outlook does not support Windows Compatibility Mode. If SFO is set to run in compatibility mode, it silently fails on startup.

1. Right-click the SFO icon on your Desktop and click Properties.
2. Click the Compatibility tab.
3. Uncheck Run this program in compatibility mode for.
4. Click OK and restart SFO.

Cause 2: Microsoft Office Reinstalled While SFO Was Installed

If Microsoft Office is reinstalled without first uninstalling SFO, the COM registration for SFO can break.

1. Uninstall Salesforce for Outlook from Control Panel > Programs and Features.
2. Reinstall the latest version of SFO from your Salesforce org's system tray installer.
3. If SFO still does not load, proceed to Cause 3.

Cause 3: Corrupted Windows Installation or Computer Image

In some enterprise environments, the Windows image used to provision computers may have a pre-existing Salesforce for Outlook installation in a broken state.

1. Uninstall all instances of Salesforce for Outlook via Control Panel > Programs and Features.
2. Delete any remaining SFO files from C:\Program Files\Salesforce.com\Salesforce for Outlook\.
3. Reinstall SFO from a fresh download from your Salesforce org.

Cause 4: Registry Key Conflicts

If SFO was previously installed with a different version of Microsoft Office (32-bit vs 64-bit), the registry keys for COM registration may point to the wrong path.

The registry key location varies by Office version:

Delete the Salesforce for Outlook registry entries under the applicable path and reinstall SFO.


See Also
Salesforce for Outlook Retirement