Can not create CommandBar when Outlook is run minimized (Outlook 2007 Add-In)

Question

Original post:
When Outlook is launched, the Add-In is loaded and adds a toolbar with some buttons.

toolBar = OutlookApp.ActiveExplorer().CommandBars.Add(MENU_TAG, MsoBarPosition.msoBarTop, false, true);

Everything was working fine, but now one user has his Outlook shortcut set to launch Outlook minimized.

And then OutlookApp.ActiveExplorer() return null. Is there some event I can use to catch when there is an ActiveExplorer and then add the commandbar?

OutlookApp.Explorers.NewExplorer doesn't work.

Also, when I show a messagebox before I add the CommandBar: everything works fine, even with Outlook minimized... Why?

edit:
Accessing the Explorers proprerty directly did work, as someone said in the answers. So this solves the problem for a minimized outlook... But...

One of the users does not have Outlook run minimized, and still the plugin loads before any gui is available. There are not even 1 explorer in the Explorers collection :( How is this possible?

edit 2:
I tried using a timer as suggested by 76mel, checking ActiveExplorer for null every 100ms. This adds the buttons as expected, but I can set the Picture property of the button.

I get this exception:
Catastrophic failure (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8000FFFF (E_UNEXPECTED))

Answer 1

Hi If there is no UI = no explorer :(

Try waiting until the Explorers.NewExplorer event fires to be able to get a CommandBars object.

Marcus

Update: Yes it looks like a timer will do the trick ok a bit hacky. So wire up a timer when you have a null ActiveExplorer and check for the ActiveExplorer onTick. Once the user pops outlook you get you atcive explorer and you can then add you tool bars.

Answer 2

I'm not familiar with managed addins, but I found this answer. If there is no ActiveExplorer, try to access the Explorers collections directly, like in Explorers[1].

I had the same problem in my ECE and solved it by waiting for OnObjectChange callback that would be called when the user changes a folder in Outlook, and then I try to recreate the toolbar. This might roughly correspond to the FolderSwitch event in the Outlook object model.

Just my 2c.