June 18, 2009

Google is working on an update to its Google App Sync software, the latest version of which breaks Microsoft's Windows Desktop Search along with several plug-ins found in Outlook.

A post by Google on its enterprise blog late Tuesday details some of the broken plug-ins, which include Adobe's Acrobat PDF Maker toolbar, as well as Microsoft's Office Outlook Connector and Outlook change notifier. As a fix, Google is recommending that users with Google App Sync installed, and who need to use these tools and plug-ins simply uninstall the program until a fix can be made.

While the plug-ins may not be as important to some users, the crux of the problem is that Google's add-on disables Windows Desktop Search, and some other third-party search tools. It's not doing this maliciously though; Google says it does it to keep them from endlessly attempting to index the sync files the special software creates. Getting those programs to stop doing that will take cooperation from the companies that make them (including Microsoft), which Google says it's working on.

Google introduced its App Sync software earlier this month as an optional tool to its Premier and Education Edition users. It lets them sync up messages, calendar appointments, and contacts between Outlook and Google's hosted office services.