Uninstalling Outlook XP

  • Thread starter Thread starter Wayne Smith
  • Start date Start date
W

Wayne Smith

I was stupid and installed a program for catching spam
called Spam Inpector, in turn it caused Outlook to load
extremely slow. I uninstalled Spam Inspector and then
backed up my "pst" file to a different drive, uninstalled
Outlook and deleted everything related to Outlook in the
profile folder of XP Pro and so on. Although I deleted
all the files for the original install, when I tried to
reinstall Outlook it reinstalled with the old settings
apparently locating the "backup" pst on another drive. My
reaction to this was to uninstall the entire Office
program and again delete everything left over. I
reinstalled Office as a "clean" install (at least I
thought) and when I went to start Outlook it still opened
with the old settings. When I checked the pst file in
the "Local Settings" folder there wasn't a pst there file
at all, just a "extend.dat" file,yet Outlook was still
starting and starting with the old settings nonetheless,
apparently it was getting the settings from the backup
pst still. I changed the name of the backup pst so that
after I reinstalled for the 3rd time it couldn't find the
backup pst but, Outlook still asked for the location of
the backup. Since it didn't create a new pst file on the
install and I wouldn't point it to the backup, it just
closed.

My questions are, if you uninstall Outlook and remove
everything thats left, then why when I try to reinstall
it does it still look for the old pst or the backup for
that matter, instead of creating a new pst as it should
by default? Is there a cleaning tool for Office to make
sure it completely removes it? Is there another file that
is not being deleted in the uninstall that calls for it
to look for an original installation?

I would really appreciate some help with this because it
seems my only resolve is to reformat the HD to get a true
clean install.
 
Uninstalling Outlook or even Office doesn't delete your settings so your
profile settings are retained as well.

When you start Outlook rightclick on Outlook Today-> Properties-> button
Advanced-> field Filename to see where your pst-file is located. You might
have backed up the wrong file.

To clear your profile go to Control Panel-> Mail-> button Show Profiles->
button remove.

Hope this helps!
 
Thanks for the suggestion but I have made sure that all
the pst files are gone. I have done a search of all 5 of
my drives to locate any thing left from the uninstall,
more specifically any form of a pst file. For the purpose
of backups and saving data I change the "default"
settings of critical programs such as Outlook to backup
to one of my other drives, therefore I know where those
are stored and can control them.

As I stated in my original post, the reinstall was
locating the "backup" pst and using those
settings "until" I changed the name of the backup and
then Outlook started asking for it instead of simply
using it. The fact that Outlook couldn't find
the "backup" after the name change and then closing when
I wouldn't point it to the backup clearly shows that
there are no other locations that Outlook is placing a
pst by default or otherwise and that I cleared any pst it
could use for settings.

As far as the Control Panel suggestion, there is
no "Mail" button in WIndows XP Pro, at least not in my
Control Panel. Thanks again though for your suggestions.

In case anyone is trying to email me through the address
in this post I will not be recieving it obviously until
this issue is resolved. So as an alternative, anyone
emailing me at this time can use this email address:
(e-mail address removed)

Thanks again for any help!
 
I stand corrected about the Control Panel Mail button,
obviously there is a button but I don't have it in mine
apparently due to the fact that I do not have an email
client installed. My apologies for being stupid!
 
Yes, there has to be a mailclient configured indeed :-)

Pretty strange that Outlook "found" your file by itself. I never seen that
before. When you install Outlook again and delete your profile and create
another one your problem is solved right?

Instead of using the mail icon in Control Panel you could clear the subkeys
in your registry under
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows
Messaging Subsystem\Profiles]

Make an export first just to be safe!

Hope this helps!

--
Roady
www.sparnaaij.net (gave it a remake)
News, FAQ, How To's for Outlook and more...

-----
 
Unfortunately, no the problem has been resolved after 3
attempts, although I have to look into your registry
suggestion to see if that will resolve it. The question
remains though how come Office/Outlook isn't just
creating a new pst like it would on a "new" install
instead of searching for an old installation, especially
after doing a complete uninstall of Office.

Obviously when you uninstall any program it should remove
EVERYTHING because 90% of the time if you're removing a
program it's because of a problem and you certainly
wouldn't want the same issue if you go to reinstall
because of some hidden files or registry strings sitting
there waiting to be activated again. Alot of programs
today have a removal tool to remove suchs things that are
left behind and one of my questions was if there were
such a tool for Office. I will try your suggestion and
see what happens. It's looking more like I'm going to
have to reformat to get rid of this issue. Thanks for
your help and I will reply soon to let you know if it
worked.
-----Original Message-----
Yes, there has to be a mailclient configured indeed :-)

Pretty strange that Outlook "found" your file by itself. I never seen that
before. When you install Outlook again and delete your profile and create
another one your problem is solved right?

Instead of using the mail icon in Control Panel you could clear the subkeys
in your registry under
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows
Messaging Subsystem\Profiles]

Make an export first just to be safe!

Hope this helps!

--
Roady
www.sparnaaij.net (gave it a remake)
News, FAQ, How To's for Outlook and more...

-----
Wayne Smith said:
I stand corrected about the Control Panel Mail button,
obviously there is a button but I don't have it in mine
apparently due to the fact that I do not have an email
client installed. My apologies for being stupid!

tried
to location
of for
it
Click to expand...


.
Click to expand...
 
I agree on some level with you.

Yes, when you uninstall a program it should be removed properly and not be
leaving files all over the place. But you are suggesting that it would also
delete your pst-file. Why? Uninstalling Word doesn't also remove all your
doc-files, does it? Also, not all settings can be removed. Most settings are
stored in the registry. Installing and uninstalling is mainly done by an
administrator. So when he/she uninstalls a product and the uninstall would
also remove it's settings they are still left for the user. The other way
around; when you have settings in your user profile and you log on to a
computer that doesn't have Office installed you would loose all your
settings.

There is a tool that will delete all your settings from your computer
though. I only found an Office 2000 one but when I find one for Office XP
I'll post it here.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...c6-8fa4-4768-a3ed-cc09aef7b60a&DisplayLang=en

Again, I never came accross that Outlook "tracked" the location of the
pst-file so that is strange indeed that it does.

Please post back your progress on the problem.

--
Roady
www.sparnaaij.net (gave it a remake)
News, FAQ, How To's for Outlook and more...

-----
Wayne Smith said:
Unfortunately, no the problem has been resolved after 3
attempts, although I have to look into your registry
suggestion to see if that will resolve it. The question
remains though how come Office/Outlook isn't just
creating a new pst like it would on a "new" install
instead of searching for an old installation, especially
after doing a complete uninstall of Office.

Obviously when you uninstall any program it should remove
EVERYTHING because 90% of the time if you're removing a
program it's because of a problem and you certainly
wouldn't want the same issue if you go to reinstall
because of some hidden files or registry strings sitting
there waiting to be activated again. Alot of programs
today have a removal tool to remove suchs things that are
left behind and one of my questions was if there were
such a tool for Office. I will try your suggestion and
see what happens. It's looking more like I'm going to
have to reformat to get rid of this issue. Thanks for
your help and I will reply soon to let you know if it
worked.
-----Original Message-----
Yes, there has to be a mailclient configured indeed :-)

Pretty strange that Outlook "found" your file by itself. I never seen that
before. When you install Outlook again and delete your profile and create
another one your problem is solved right?

Instead of using the mail icon in Control Panel you could clear the subkeys
in your registry under
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows
Messaging Subsystem\Profiles]

Make an export first just to be safe!

Hope this helps!

--
Roady
www.sparnaaij.net (gave it a remake)
News, FAQ, How To's for Outlook and more...

-----
Wayne Smith said:
I stand corrected about the Control Panel Mail button,
obviously there is a button but I don't have it in mine
apparently due to the fact that I do not have an email
client installed. My apologies for being stupid!


-----Original Message-----
Thanks for the suggestion but I have made sure that all
the pst files are gone. I have done a search of all 5 of
my drives to locate any thing left from the uninstall,
more specifically any form of a pst file. For the
purpose
of backups and saving data I change the "default"
settings of critical programs such as Outlook to backup
to one of my other drives, therefore I know where those
are stored and can control them.

As I stated in my original post, the reinstall was
locating the "backup" pst and using those
settings "until" I changed the name of the backup and
then Outlook started asking for it instead of simply
using it. The fact that Outlook couldn't find
the "backup" after the name change and then closing when
I wouldn't point it to the backup clearly shows that
there are no other locations that Outlook is placing a
pst by default or otherwise and that I cleared any pst
it
could use for settings.

As far as the Control Panel suggestion, there is
no "Mail" button in WIndows XP Pro, at least not in my
Control Panel. Thanks again though for your suggestions.

In case anyone is trying to email me through the address
in this post I will not be recieving it obviously until
this issue is resolved. So as an alternative, anyone
emailing me at this time can use this email address:
(e-mail address removed)

Thanks again for any help!

-----Original Message-----
Uninstalling Outlook or even Office doesn't delete your
settings so your
profile settings are retained as well.

When you start Outlook rightclick on Outlook Today->
Properties-> button
Advanced-> field Filename to see where your pst-file is
located. You might
have backed up the wrong file.

To clear your profile go to Control Panel-> Mail->
button Show Profiles->
button remove.

Hope this helps!

--
Roady
www.sparnaaij.net (gave it a remake)
News, FAQ, How To's for Outlook and more...

-----
I was stupid and installed a program for catching spam
called Spam Inpector, in turn it caused Outlook to
load
extremely slow. I uninstalled Spam Inspector and then
backed up my "pst" file to a different drive,
uninstalled
Outlook and deleted everything related to Outlook in
the
profile folder of XP Pro and so on. Although I deleted
all the files for the original install, when I tried
to
reinstall Outlook it reinstalled with the old settings
apparently locating the "backup" pst on another
drive.
My
reaction to this was to uninstall the entire Office
program and again delete everything left over. I
reinstalled Office as a "clean" install (at least I
thought) and when I went to start Outlook it still
opened
with the old settings. When I checked the pst file in
the "Local Settings" folder there wasn't a pst there
file
at all, just a "extend.dat" file,yet Outlook was still
starting and starting with the old settings
nonetheless,
apparently it was getting the settings from the backup
pst still. I changed the name of the backup pst so
that
after I reinstalled for the 3rd time it couldn't find
the
backup pst but, Outlook still asked for the location
of
the backup. Since it didn't create a new pst file on
the
install and I wouldn't point it to the backup, it just
closed.

My questions are, if you uninstall Outlook and remove
everything thats left, then why when I try to
reinstall
it does it still look for the old pst or the backup
for
that matter, instead of creating a new pst as it
should
by default? Is there a cleaning tool for Office to
make
sure it completely removes it? Is there another file
that
is not being deleted in the uninstall that calls for
it
to look for an original installation?

I would really appreciate some help with this because
it
seems my only resolve is to reformat the HD to get a
true
clean install.


.

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Click to expand...
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