Having finally gotten my CRM 3.0 SBE upgraded to CRM 4.0 Workgroup Edition, I then went to install the Outlook client. I used the 90 Evaluation software (90 Day Wonder) that I had downloaded. It has a single setup application, setupclient.exe. If you already have a CRM 3.0 Outlook client installed, it will ask you if you'd like to upgrade. Initially I chose to upgrade my existing Outlook client. Actually, if you currently have the old 3.0 client installed, your only other option is to Cancel. If you are doing a new install you will have two options:
Install Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook (Recommended)
Install Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook with Offline Access (Advanced)
These are a bit confusing, at least for my addled brain. I liked the old Laptop/Desktop references. Obviously though if you are going to use the CRM Outlook client on a laptop that will be going offline, then you want to select the second option. Otherwise use the first.
Once the CRM Outlook client is installed, you must run the Configuration Wizard. I was reinstalling my client last night and couldn't figure out why it wasn't coming up when i started Outlook. This morning I realized it was because I hadn't run the Configuration Wizard. Guess I shouldn't do that kind of stuff late at night.
The Configuration Wizard for the Offline Access client asks for the URL for accessing CRM on your local network and additionally the URL for accessing it over the Internet. I haven't tried the Outlook client remotely but this could be a really nice big new feature. This option is also available in the desktop version as well. This would allow remote desktop users to directly access CRM over the Internet. This facilitates the Hosted (CRM Live) version as well as On-Premise.
The basic installation process is pretty straight forward. I did get warnings from the System Requirements screen when I installed on my desktops that have less than 1 GB RAM ("Microsoft Dynamics CRM fro Outlook requires at least 1 gigabyte (GB) of memory"). But it seems to work OK even so.
The biggest problem with the new Outlook client, and it is a big problem, is that synchronization causes Outlook to crash and restart. This is extremely annoying, especially if you are working on an e-mail when it restarts as you are likely to lose the entire message! Apparently the problem is caused by the existence of dates in the Birthday or Anniversary fields in the Contact record that are before 1970. I guess CRM 4.0 doesn't like Geezers. Microsoft is aware of the problem and is working on a fix. Unfortunately removing those dates from your data doesn't seem to help. The workaround is to not enable synchronization. Hopefully Microsoft will have their hotfix out soon.