When you open an email in Outlook, the Outlook Social Connector is minimized as a single line at the bottom of the Reading Pane. To expand it, click the arrow or drag the top of the minimized pane up until it's the size that you want.

  1. Outlook Social Connector Add-in
In the info tab of my outlook I have a 'upgrade now' message stating I must 'upgrade to the latest version of Outlook Hotmail Connector to continue using this e-mail account'. When I do press the upgrade now button, outlook freezes and says 'upgrade in progress - your mailbox is currently being optimized as part of upgrading to Outlook 2010. May 20, 2019  Describes an issue in which the Outlook Social Connector feature does not function correctly when you run Outlook 2010 or Outlook 2013 by using the 'Run as administrator' command or when Windows Search is not installed.

I don’t see the People Pane.

Try these solutions.

  • Turn on the Reading Pane Click View > Reading Pane, and then click Right or Bottom.
  • Turn on the People Pane Click View > People Pane, and then click Normal or Minimize.
  • Make sure your organization lets you connect to the Internet Some organizations don’t allow access to social networking sites outside of their intranet. Contact your network administrator for more information.

Hook up apps to the Outlook Social Connector

If you use Outlook and SharePoint at work, you can see contacts in your organization.

Note: Several social apps, including Facebook and LinkedIn have been removed from the Outlook Social Connector. For more information, see Facebook Connect is no longer available.

  1. Click View > People Pane > Account Settings.
  1. Check the boxes next to the social networking accounts you want to hook up, and add the appropriate information, such as user names and passwords.
  2. Click Connect > Finish.

What is the Outlook Social Connector?

The Outlook Social Connector lets you work in Outlook while staying up to date on the status and activities of your friends and contacts, whether they're from your organization, or from social networking sites on the Internet, like Facebook and LinkedIn.

Note: Some Facebook features are no longer available. For more information, see Facebook Connect is no longer available.

For example, if your colleague, Michael Affronti, belongs to two social network sites that you also use, you can see his status updates, comments, messages and alerts on those sites, all in one location in Outlook. You can also see a list of the Outlook items you shared with Michael, such as e-mail messages, attachments, and meetings.

The Outlook Social Connector also updates Michael’s information in your Outlook contacts folders whenever he changes his social network profiles.

The Outlook Social Connector shows updates and information for your contacts in the People Pane, which sits below your open Outlook items, such as e-mail, appointments or meetings, and contacts.

When you select an Outlook item, information about the sender appears in the People Pane. When you select an Outlook item that includes multiple people, a small image of each person also appears in the title bar at the top of the People Pane, and you can click an image to display that person's information in the People Pane.

To see larger pictures of all the people included in the item, click the little toggle button to the right of the small pictures on the title bar.

Click any of the images to display that person's information in the People Pane.

To see different information for the person in the People Pane, click any of the tabs at the left side of the list window.

Hide the Outlook Social Connector

To hide the Outlook Social Connector from all views, click View > People Pane > Off.

Hi, I have just spent the best part of two days trying to connect my Microsoft Office version of Outlook to my Outlook.com account, so that I can have my e-mails on my computer. What a headache! It was so difficult to find information! To save others the cost and stress I've had, I thought it would be helpful to share the problems I encountered here, as well as the solution.
1st FEBRUARY 2018
How to view, send & receive e-mails from Outlook.com (Outlook.live.com) on your computer, via Outlook 2010 (part of Microsoft Office [Windows]).
If you have a Microsoft email account that ends in @outlook.com, @live.com, @hotmail.com, or @msn.com, rather than visiting a website to access e-mails, they can be accessed via the Outlook 2010 programme, if you have Microsoft Office installed on your computer.
Bit
However, you need to download *Outlook Hotmail Connector* from the Microsoft.com website. There are two versions: 64-bit & 32-bit. These numbers refer to the type of Operating System your computer uses. It uses one or the other. You can discover which type of Operating System you have by clicking as follows:
Start (click on the Windows Icon)/ Control Panel/System & Security/System.
The System Type is displayed.
After restoring my computer to factory settings and reinstalling *Microsoft Office Professional 2010* (version 14.0.7.7015.1000), I clicked on the Microsoft Outlook 2010 icon and went through the *Microsoft Outlook 2010 Startup Wizard* process to configure Microsoft Outlook 2010 (the *Mailbox*information entered was the Server Name for the SMTP setting, as detailed at my online account).
I then installed *Outlook Hotmail Connector 64-bit* (File Name: *OutlookConnector.exe* - Version: 14.0.6123.5001 - published 7/2/2012) using the following link to access the download:
As necessary, following successful installation, I restarted my computer. However, when I attempted to view my e-mails, I encountered problems. I was able to view the old e-mails (stored on my computer as .pst files**), but I couldn’t send or receive e-mails, even though I had not opted to “Work Offline”:
I found information advising me that, while in Outlook, I should click on the *File* tab and then on “Add Account”:
However, when I clicked the File tab, I was not permitted to select the Add Account option. Instead, highlighted in red, two information sections were displayed between the usual “Add Account” and “Account Settings” options. The first section informed:
'Upgrade in Progress
Your mailbox is currently being optimized as part of upgrade to Outlook 2010. This one time process may take over 15 minutes and performance may be affected while the optimization is in progress.'
Immediately below that, the second section informed:
'Upgrade Outlook Connector
You must upgrade to the latest version of Outlook Hotmail Connector to continue using this e-mail account.'
To the left of the text in the second section, a new symbol was displayed, offering the option to 'Upgrade Now'. I clicked on it but no dialog box displayed. It just blinked when I clicked on it. Nothing happened. Presumably, an upgrade was being downloaded & installed? I waited for over six hours. Nothing happened. No further information was displayed.
I exited Outlook & Opened it again. A Microsoft Outlook dialog box displayed. It had a warning symbol (yellow triangle with exclamation mark) with the following text beside it:
“Outlook cannot log on. Verify you are connected to the network and are using the proper server and mailbox name. The Microsoft Exchange is unavailable. Outlook must be online or connected to complete this action”
I was connected to the internet, so it appeared that the Outlook Hotmail Connector was just not connecting to Outlook.live.com (AKA *Microsoft Exchange*). I decided to “repair” it, by clicking as follows:
Start (click on the Windows Icon)/ Control Panel/Programs/Programs and Features.
That took me to the *Uninstall or Change a program* page where all installed programmes are listed. I scrolled down to *Microsoft Outlook Hotmail Connector 64-bit* and right-clicked on it. That gave me the option to Uninstall or *Repair*. I successfully completed the process. However, I still had the same problems – NOTHING had changed.
Eventually, I found a solution offered via an online Microsoft forum (by Paulie- D), dated 24th March 2014:
The advice was to “repair” *Microsoft Office Professional 2010* and restart the computer. I followed this advice, by clicking as follows:
Start (click on the Windows Icon)/ Control Panel/Programs/Programs and Features.
That took me to the *Uninstall or Change a program* page where all installed programmes are listed. I scrolled down to *Microsoft Office Professional 2010* and right-clicked on it. A box displayed, providing two options: “Uninstall” or *Change*. I opted for the latter. A Microsoft Office Professional 2010 dialog box appeared, offering four options:
The repair took about eighteen minutes. Autocad join lines into polyline.
Now having repaired both the Outlook Hotmail Connector & Microsoft Office Professional 2010, I hoped all would work well when I opened Outlook 2010. It didn’t appear to have worked – nothing had changed – I had the same problems.
I returned to the online Microsoft forum to seek a solution. There was advice to *Create an Outlook profile*. I did this by clicking as follows:
Start (click on the Windows Icon)/ Control Panel. Then type Mail in to the Search Control Panel search box (upper right of display), then select the *Mail* option. A *Mail Setup – Outlook* dialog box is displayed and offers a range of options. This link shows the process & provides guidance:

Outlook Social Connector Add-in

Quote:
When you have typed a name and clicked “OK”, an *Add New Account* dialog box is automatically displayed, inviting you to enter your name, e-mail address & password. Once I had completed this process, I was congratulated for :
That was the end of all my problems – everything was fixed & working as it should. It is worth noting that although I had been able to access the *Mail Setup – Outlook* dialog box prior to repair of *Microsoft Office Professional 2010*, none of the options displayed were working – when I clicked on them, nothing happened. It would appear that the repair was necessary before any of the options in the *Mail Setup – Outlook* dialog box could be selected.
SUMMARY
Following installation of Microsoft Office Professional 2010:
** ADDITIONAL INFO/NOTES ON .pst FILES
https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/287070/how-to-manage--pst-files-in-microsoft-outlook