Skip to content

Should I Use Office 64-bit or 32-bit? Are You Still Advocating the 32-bit Outlook?

← Systems Manager
Release Date: 9/26/2023
Version: 8.5 & Higher

Q - Office 64-bit or 32-bit? Are you still advocating the 32-bit version of Outlook? We are moving to Office 365 and we have been installing the 64-bit version. Thank you for your recommendation.

A - As of this writing, we are still using the 32-bit version of Outlook 2019 in-house. The reason is that Elliott is a 32-bit application. The impact of choosing 32- or 64-bit Outlook is when Elliott needs to communicate with Outlook through the MAPI interface, we need 32-bit Outlook. On the other hand, in Elliott's configuration, you can choose to use either MAPI or SMTP to send out email. SMTP is the default. See sample screen below:


If your Elliott email configuration is to use SMTP, then in the majority of the areas in Elliott, it does not matter whether you use Outlook 32- or 64-bit. This is because when sending email through SMTP, Elliott does not interact with Outlook.

On the other hand, there are a few areas in Elliott where you may choose to send an interactive “Email.” Below is an example of an eContact list for a customer. In this list, you can highlight a customer Contact, and choose to send an email. See sample screen below:

If you have Outlook 32-bit installed, then the email client that will be brought up, by default, will be your Outlook. If you have Outlook 64-bit installed, then it won't work. A workaround solution is to configure your Elliott email settings to use Elliott's email client to send interactive emails. You can find this setting by going to the "Setup" icon in the Elliott Control Center. Then go to the Misc. tab and click on the "Email Settings..." button. See sample screen below:


The Elliott email client is a simple implementation and does not have all the features of Outlook. But it is workable for sending simple messages. See sample screen below:

If you don't mind using the Elliott SMTP client when sending interactive emails in Elliott, then you can use 64-bit Outlook.

So the bottom line is this. If you want to use 64-bits, it will work in most areas with Elliott if you choose SMTP, which is the recommended method in Elliott. In some areas in Elliott, there may be issues with sending out interactive emails, but there’s a workaround method as indicated above. On the other hand, if you use 32-bit Outlook, there's no need to use a workaround method.

For Elliott versions prior to 8.5, please see the following KB article on this subject:


EMK

Feedback and Knowledge Base

(thinking…)