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Proofpoint, Inc.

Encryption Plug-in not showing

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Situation After installing the encryption plug-in, it does not appear to be working.
Solution Getting the Send Secure button to appear in Outlook requires a review of the below items.

Review plug-in

The Outlook plug-in is very specific to the version of Outlook as well as the bit-version. During the initial set-up, there should have been errors in regards to set-up if there was a conflict.

Please re-check you downloaded and installed the correct plug-in version for your Outlook here: Plug-in page.

  • Please do not just re-install the plug-in.
  • Perform a program.removal via your Control Panel.
  • Delete the folder Proofpoint which is found in either C:\Program Files\ or C:\Program Files (x86)
  • Once the above has been done, then re-install.

Check plug-in via add-in

Sometimes, the install works, but it does not appear properly. Review these steps to check the add-in:

  1. Open Outlook as Admin.
  2. Go to File > Options > Add-Ins.
  3. In the bottom dropdown, select COM Add-ins then click Go.
  4. Verify that Proofpoint is listed.
    • If it IS LISTED, stop, will need to perform other actions.
    • If it IS NOT LISTED, proceed
  5. Select Add.
  6. Navigate to C:\Program Files\Proofpoint\Shared
    • Depending on bit version, may be installed at C:\Program Files (x86)\Proofpoint\Shared
  7. Select proofpointplugin.dll
  8. Click Open.
  9. The Proofpoint plug-in should now be listed in the COM Add-ins.
  10. Click the Proofpoint add-in then Ok.

Other possible fixes

If the plug-in still does not show, there are other factors that can be considered here.

Registry problems

The plug-in requires that the registry be in a proper place. Typically, a fresh installation of an Outlook program from the source should input all registry information.

If you are familiar with registry fixes, you can perform a manual registry fix.

Manual Registry fixing

Proofpoint does not provide any support for registry fixes. If you know how to perform a manual fix, this is fine. Changing items in your registry is potentially dangerous and could cause more harm.

The key item in a manual registry fix is that the Outlook version is not properly set, and the plug-in cannot identify the proper Outlook version being used. This is what would need to be changed:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\Outlook\Addins\ProofpointPlugin.Connect

and set the "LoadBehavior" entry to 3

Running an Outlook fix

The Outlook program has a fix if you try to re-install it. This would be the least intrusive method of trying to fix the issue. This fix will sometimes fix issues like registry problems. However, if this does not work, we recommend doing a complete re-install.

Office 365 Outlook Installation

With Office 365, this version of Outlook is supported with the plug-in. However, the type of installation used will vary. 

  • An on-line installation does not always properly input the registry keys
  • An off-line installation works in 99% of the time.

If you are using Office 365's version of Outlook, we recommend to uninstall Outlook, and perform an off-line installation, then re-install the plug-in.

Off-line Installation

Support recommends performing an off-line installation for Office 365. In almost all cases we have come across, after downloading and installing from the off-line installer, then re-installing the plug-in, it worked right away