Full Text Search Engine is not found when installing on SQL 2008

The CRM installations is attempting to find a service named "msftesql", which is the name of the sql 2005 text search service. On sql server 2008, the service has another name, so you need to change the service name to "msftesql".  After the change, Remember to change the service name back to its original name.

Thanks to this reply : CRM4 install against SQL Server 2008 gives missing msftesql and ci - AlliterationArtist

1. Open up regedit
2. Navigate to HKLM/System/currentControlSet/Services
3. Locate the key entitled MSSQLFDLauncher (which is the name of the key for the indexing service in 2008)
4. Rename it to "msftesql" and Reboot he machine.
5. Install crm
6. rename key back to MSSQLFDLauncher and reboot again

Problem Fixes for Plugins

KB 950542 : Synchronous plug-ins do not respond to the events that are triggered in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0

When you deploy synchronous plug-ins in a Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 server that is configured to use a host header, the synchronous plug-ins do not respond to the events that are triggered in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0.

KB 948746 : Error message when you execute a plug-in on a nondefault organization instance in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0: "The request failed with HTTP status 401 unauthorized".

The default behavior for ICrmService object is that the organization name is the organization friendly name without spaces.  It is not so in many cases. There is a fix for that. The KB also instructs how to change the friendly name if this is the choice.

Logging Usage and Displaying Summary

Blog entry named CRM Usage Reporting Unleashed telling how to set IIS log to a database table and create reports on that table.

Can not Load Plugin Assembly error in Offline Client

The Outlook offline does not regiter plugin assemblies correctly. This may happen when uninstalling and re installing the Offline client.
To fix this, you need to write the Assembly Public Key token in the registery as a new key under ther "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MSCRMClient\AllowList" Key.
Getting the key can be done by executing sql query "select * from PluginAssemblyBase" in the organization database.
This is from KB 949088 by microsoft, can be found on KBAlertz here.
The title for the KB is :
Error message when you start a plug-in assembly in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 client for Outlook: "Unable to load plugin assembly"

Problem Installing Outlook Offline client with MSXML 6 installation failure

MSXML 6 installation recognizes newer versions and reports a failure when executed. The SQL Express installation does not recognize the newer version and executes the 6 installtion which in its turn retruns a failure. After that the SQL Express installation will not continue and the CRM Outlook clinet will not be installed too.
Aaron Bertrand writes about this in his blog here and includes a solution. The solution includes installing the Windows Installer Cleanup Utility.

Problem uninstalling the Report Server ActiveX

http://www.experts-exchange.com/Web_Development/Components/ActiveX/Q_24119190.html

Solution for "An Entity with the specified name already exists" error when going Offline

a post on "MrDave's (David Yack) CRM Blog!" has a solution and an explanation.
The problem is caused by setting a customized entity with the display name or plural name of a system entity. The outlook client expects the name to be used by the system entity and then throws an error.
original Post is here