One of our clients ran into an issue where the Ribbon Bar in Outlook disappeared when using the Dynamics CRM Client for Microsoft Office Outlook.

In many cases the instructions below seem to resolve the issues regarding the Dynamics CRM client for Outlook  and the disappearing Ribbon Bar.

There is a knowledge base article regarding this issue. I have added a link at the end of this article. However, I thought it would be good to go into a little bit more detail for a better understanding of the issue and the proposed resolution.

Symptom

So, after you install the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Client for Office Outlook and then locate the Microsoft Dynamics CRM folders in Microsoft Office Outlook 2010, the Outlook and CRM ribbons disappear. Additionally, the Office Outlook ribbon does not reappear unless you disable Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Reason

This behavior may occur because of registry keys that are left over from an earlier version of Microsoft Outlook. This often happens when upgrading a Microsoft Office client (e.g.  Office 2010 or Office 2013 as part of Office 365).

This has commonly been found as an issue with existing registry keys that should no longer exist from previous versions of Outlook.

To resolve this issue, you will need to remove these keys using the steps below:

Warning Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly by using Registry Editor or by using another method. These problems might require you to reinstall the operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that these problems can be resolved. Change the registry at your own risk.

Important This article contains information about how to change the registry. Make sure that you back up the registry before you change it. Make sure that you know how to restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up, restore, and change the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: ien

322756 How to back up and restore the registry in Windows

Solution

To resolve this problem, follow these steps:

1. Exit Outlook.
2. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
3. Locate the following registry subkey:
   HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib\{2DF8D04C-5BFA-101B-BDE5-00AA0044DE52}
4. Right-click the 2.4 registry key, and then select Export. Save the export to your desktop to create a backup.
5. Right-click the 2.4 key again, and then select delete.
6. Start Outlook.

The article can be found here for reference:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2494581