Beginning in Outlook 2007, Microsoft included a new feature that is designed to help protect your personal information from potential viruses on your computer. This new feature is called the 'Trust Center'.
If you have Outlook 2007 or 2010, you MUST have a valid antivirus suite installed and enabled on your machine, or else Outlook will deny access to all programs attempting to access its information, whether the program is legitimate or not.
To check and see if your antivirus is registered with Outlook, follow these steps:
Outlook 2007:
1. Select the 'Trust Center' option from the 'Tools Menu'
2. Select 'Programmatic Access' from the list on the left and search for 'Antivirus Status' on the right pane
Outlook 2010:
1. Open the 'Options' screen by clicking File --> Options
2. Select the 'Trust Center' option on the left tab, then click 'Trust Center Settings'.
3. Select 'Programmatic Access' from the list on the left. Look for the 'Antivirus Status' field on the right.
If you see 'Valid' next to Antivirus status, then you are ready to go. If it does not say valid, then you need to contact your system administrator / IT consultant about acquiring a valid antivirus suite.
NOTE: If you are using Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, or Windows Server 2008 R2, you will not be able to obtain a 'Valid' status. Windows Server operating systems do not support antivirus detection, so most integrations with Outlook will not work on these operating system.
