Hey Steve,
Sorry for the late reply. The site didn't ping me with email, despite my settings.
The force system files option seems to do the trick. Surprised that it no longer works by default, but at least there's a way to make it work.
I'm bundling mfcmapi in a suite of tools used by our techs, and I think I'll stick with the 6.0.0.1025 since I don't have to rig the registry setting for that option.
Keep up the good work.