Installing SAP GUI on 64-bit Windows 7 with 32-bit Office

Question

Until about 6 months ago, 64-bit systems in my environment had 64-bit Office 2010 installed.  That caused some problems with other applications, so I made the decision that, going forward, ALL systems would have 32-bit Office 2010 installed.
Apparently, it's taken 6 months, but I finally have a need to Install SAP GUI 7.20 Patch 6 on a 64-bit Windows 7 system with 32-bit Office 2010.  It turns out, that doesn't work.
I receive this:
Not all package prerequisits [sic] are fulfilled
Outlook Client extension for the synchronization of SAPoffice calendar with Outlook calendar... No compatible version of Microsoft Outlook found.
I am assuming that since this same installation works on my 32-bit systems, that it is upset about my architecturally-mismatched Office.
Am I correct about the source for this problem?  If so, is there anything I can do to make the GUI work in this environment?

Answer 1

Hi John,
Actually, there is no mismatch in having 32-bit Office installed on 64-bit Windows.  In fact, this is probably the preferred environment.  SAPGUI in general is much happier with 32-bit Office, especially older patches (by the way, 7.20 is no longer in support -- you should upgrade to 7.30).
The errors you're receiving are most probably related to lingering 64-bit components of Office on your workstation.  We had the same situation in my office a while back, when we first started rolling out 64-bit Windows to a few users, and the PC techs mistakenly thought that meant they had to install 64-bit Office.  That caused lots of problems, since 64-bit Office is incompatible with many things, not just SAPGUI, as you found.  Correcting the error by simply reinstalling Office 32-bit resulting in workstations with some 64-bit and some 32-bit components, and that just made things worse.  Systems where 32-bit Office was installed from the beginning (on 64-bit OS) had no problems at all.
So, what you're probably going to need to do is to uninstall all Office components (including Outlook, Visio, anything like that, not just Word and Excel), and also uninstall your SAPGUI, then reinstall 32-bit Office (with Outlook) from scratch, then reinstall your SAPGUI.  This will probably clear up your problem.
Regards,
Matt