Cannot open outlook

  • Thread starter Thread starter GK
  • Start date Start date
G

GK

For the past few eeks I have been unable to open
OL2002/XP. I have tried everything I know to do (reboot,
reinstall, repair, uninstall, etc.) I just cannot get the
thing to open. I have done a search for OL and find it on
my computer along with the archive and other files. What
can I do to get OL back online?
 
re install office or detect and repair,under help in word
excell or other office soft

or from cd
 
One suggestion I have found is to search for a file called outcmd.dat and
delete or rename it. If this works then Outlook should start and generate a
new file (it stores settings for toolbars or something). You need to make
sure you enable 'search hidden files' to be able to find it.

HOWEVER!
This fix did not work for me, and I have asked several newsgroups/techie
sites and no-one seems able to help. In fact I have had virtually no
replies, indicating that although this seems to be a more common problem
with outlook than it should be, there doesn't seem to be many people that
know the remedy.

I attach my original request to the microsoft.public.outlook group, in case
there are any gurus in this group that can help us.

"I'm having problems with Outlook 2k AND Outlook 97, neither of which will
open on my Windows XP system. I have run Outlook 2k for some time now with
no problem until a session of installing some Hotfixes. The next day it
wouldn't open. I tried '97 on the offchance that would work but got the same
problem. I have a 2 PC network and I link to the .PST file on the other PC
(outlook is fine on there)."

Cheers

Mark

P.S. I installed Outlook 97 to a different location to try to get around the
problem, but I'm guessing that it is a registry issue as it didn't work
still. I have tried to restore to an earlier date but I think the hotfixes
that I installed are preventing me from doing so as I always get an error
message along the lines of "Windows can't restore to this date, please
restore to an earlier date", and I've tried to go back now to the earliest
available date and get the same message.
Also, like GK, I have tried all the usuall uninstall-reinstall/repair
options
Don't ya just love Microsoft :-(
 
I've just got my Outlook 2k back up and running.
I had tried the'renaming outcmd.dat' fix that had previously been suggested
but that hadn't worked. In desperation I resolved it as follows.

WARNING... This fix involves deleting registry keys and strings and extreme
caution should be taken to delete the correct ones otherwise you may screw
up your windows system. This worked for me but I will not be responsible for
anything happening on your own pc.

1. ensure you have all of your email account details (account name,
password, server names etc)
2. go to start-control box - mail and delete all of the profiles in there
(the fix may well work without this step but this is exactly what I did).
3. Uninstall Outlook.
4. Go to start - run- regedit
5. press ctrl+f to open up the 'find' dialogue box
6. type the work 'outlook' (without the speechmarks)
7. press return or click the find next button
8. when the result is hilighted look at it and if it is an Outlook
reference, then delete it... DO NOT delete anything that says 'OUTLOOK
EXPRESS' in the string or path. Also, there is a font called 'Outlook' so
don't delete references to that.
9. press F3 (find next) then repeat the process until you have worked your
way through
the registry. There are a lot of references so this is likely to take some
time, but continue till the end.
10. when finished close the regedit window and restart.
11. when back into window, reinstall Outlook.
12. reboot
13. when you start outlook you will have to type in and set up all of your
email account details as if it is the first time it has been installed.
During this stage you can link to your old .pst file and you should have all
your messages when outlook opens.

I can't stress enough, how careful you have to be when playing around with
the registry as one wrong move could prevent windows from loading or all
sorts of other things happening. Having said that I did accidently delete
two outlook express strings but these seemed to have no effect on OE and I
was able to open it and export the messages with no problems...I was lucky.

No doubt one of the Guru's on the list will tell me I only had to delete one
or two registry strings to achieve the same effect but with very little
forthcoming information,
this is better than nothing and it worked.

Hope this helps someone

Cheers
Mark
 
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