How to Uninstall an Outlook Add-in

So, after hitting issues left and right, solving them and posting them on various sites including this one. I had gone dry for a while, there were no issues… I thought to myself “This is too good to be true;” sure enough, it was. However, this is only a minor inconvenience, but one that requires solving none the less.

Being in a corporate environment, it is natural that my company requires that I load Anti Virus software on my machine, Symantec Corporate Edition as the company standard. The installation is simple and straightforward, but being that I have come across a newer version than was provided to me, it was required that I remove the outdated installation.

The uninstall left me wanting as it decided to leave behind a nagging Add-in in Outlook 2007. Every time I open Outlook I am prompted with a pop up that tells me to remove that add-in for Symantec Anti Virus that wasn’t uninstalled automatically.

With no reference to this in “Add or Remove Programs”, or any other obvious way to remove this, I started poking around.  It seems that Office Add-ins are handled within the application and can be removed from the application.  To do so:

• Go to Tools –>Trust Center within Outlook
• Click the Add-Ins option on the left side.

Now here is the confusing part.  If you are doing this, you will  notice that there is no add-in reference for Symantec.  You will have to select the option for “Exchange Client Extensions” in the “Manage” drop down at the bottom of the window.

• Make the selection for “Exchange Client Extensions”
• Click Go

You will get a new window with a bunch of options and check marks.

• Uncheck the option for “Symantec Antivirus”
• Click OK

These instructions apply to other add-ins as well