I’m actually enjoying Outlook 2007 on my desktop, especially since applying the February patch. It opens in a couple of seconds even from cold. I’m running on Vista 64-bit, and not using cached Exchange mode.
Until today, that is. Started Outlook and got this bewildering message:
This Microsoft article suggested I might not have a default gateway. That was nonsense; so I opened Mail setup (I can get to this through the Properties of the Outlook shortcut), clicked Show Profiles, added a new profile and set the new one as default.
Outlook works fine now. I’m not impressed with the error message though.
Update
While using a new profile works, there is an easier fix as noted in many of the comments to this post. You can run Outlook with the /resetnavpane argument. Here’s the step by step:
1. Press Windows key and R together to open the Run dialog.
2. In the Open field, type:
outlook.exe /resetnavpane
Note: there is a space between outlook.exe and /resetnavpane. There are no other spaces in what you have to type.
3. Click OK. Outlook should open.
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Dear All,
today I had the same problem AND spent 2 hours trying to emails. phone, get in touch with Miscrosoft and….. HAD NO LUCK, and I guess nobody is suprised.
Then, I found all your comments and managed to fix it.
I thank you ALL!
I find it amazing though that Microsoft is not aknowledging this issue and I agree there must be a way of relaying this back.
Thank you all again,
back to work now
Monica
Same thing, the Outlook.exe /resetnavpane solution worked first time for me, thank you kindly folks!
Thanks. Instantly fixed. This happened, by the way, after downloading an update to Blackberry software.
Thanks to the suggestions on this forum, the issue is now fixed.
Have Win7 (newly upgraded from Vista) Ultimate running Office 2007 and also had the email problem just after I applied the Win7 upgrade.
I tried to change the shortcut as one of the earlier postings suggested, but Win7 will not allow that (does Vita allow this – I dont know?)
I too tried reload, Office repair, the registry change and what have you… checked MS error papers and none worked. And what a ueless error message!
I did not want to create new profiles… this may not correct the issue..just present a new problem later on.
Noting that the Run option is not available in Win7, I wrote a .bat file in notepad (the extensive use of good ‘ol DOS days still pays off) and placed in my tools folder on the desktop:
cls
@echo off
c:
cd \Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12
OUTLOOK.EXE /resetnavpane
echo Outlook fix completed
pause
…but why did it take a forum like this to correct a problem as profound as email malfunction! Shame on you Microsoft.
Thanks so much Tim and Mike for the reminder about importing.
I guess thanks should also go to all those search engines out there throwing up this site.
But Microsoft – what’s all this about then?!
outlook.exe /resetnavpane worked perfect for me !!
Thanks, I was totally dead in the water !!
THANKS!!! I am bookmarking this blog. I spent nearly two days trying everything else, but then I found this and it worked. Again many thanks!!!
outlook.exe /resetnavpane worked but it lost all my personal folders and recent mail etc. Can I get it back
Tim,
Many thanks as I had the same problem as so many others. Your expertise was great and my outlook is now working as before.
Keep up the good work. We need more people like you.
Thanks, like many others was battling with this for days, after reading your post I was up and running in minutes. Thanks again. Ray
Hi everyone – I’ve done the Control panel fix, but my problem is that I can’t open an archived pst file in Outlook 2007 running on Windows 7. Has anyone else got this fix?
Thanks, that helped me too. I had a trojan horse attack and after having to do a system restore I was left with my email not working properly; this did the trick. Many thanks.
While I wish I could say your fix worked Tim unfortunately in my case it didn’t. Found the solution to my problems here – http://www.msoutlook.info/question/268 – took 2 seconds to copy and paste the command to Run and Outlook boted right up.
Got my problem fixed through Microsoft support team….my Windows 7 install had Outlook running in Windows Vista 64 bit compatability mode. Unchecked that and everything works fine. They were excellent.
Hi,
I add a new profile and works fine.
So I like do say Thanks, and it´s great find ppl like you.
Ramboia
Finally a fix on the internet that works!!!
The Run “Outlook.exe /resetnavpane” worked absolutely perfectly. XP Pro; Outlook 2007.
The reason Microsoft will not post easy solutions like this is that they rely on you screwing up your registry so that you can hire a Microsoft-approved consultant to fix it. One-line solutions empower users and do not bring in revenue.
Pardon the cynicism, but when I see nonsense like my xp-installed Zune not working under Vista, it gets a little frustrating.
Kudos to Matan. What an awful bug. Windows 7 with Outlook 2007 running fine until the big error message. No Microsoft support. You saved me a lot of time. Thank you!!!
Thanks heaps, I fixed my outlook problem by following the advice posted by Mark May14,2009 by changing the settings thru the control panel.
Thanks for the help. I copied the outlook
and reset it with “outlook2″ and it opened. My resoultion is off. I selected 256, then 640x 480
then both and I could not get my normal appearance back. Tried minimize the screen but everything has a font size of maybe 40? Looked online to change the skin color or outlook, and calendar view options, that didn’t do anything.
I am happy my outlook is back. Not happy with the new appearance. Any suggestions?
WOW! I tried the patch “restnavepane” and was still getting nowhere. 2 days no email. This is my buisness. Finally reread the posts and did a copy past to be sure I was getting it right. Pasted in run and BINGO. Thanks to all here for your contributions.
Scott T wrote: The Run “Outlook.exe /resetnavpane” worked absolutely perfectly. It did for me as well, I’m running Vista Home Premium and Outlook 2007.
Running Windows 7. This happened on my Wife’s laptop. You made me look like a hero. Running ‘Outlook.exe /resetnavpane’ worked great.
Thank you.
OMG you are a star !
I have just spent 4 hours trying to fix this. wtf is up with Microsoft ? Why cant they make any troubleshooting simple ?
thank you thank you thank you
Fixed my Outlook 2007 with win7 using Outlook.exe /resetnavpane
Microsoft – hmmmnn
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!! JUST THIS LITTLE /resetnavpane HAS SAVED MY BUSINESS AND PERSONAL EMAILS.
Thanks so much! I found your post with a Google Search using the error message “Cannot Start Microsoft Outlook. Cannot Open Outlook Window.” I followed directions, found the Profile in Mail (going through Control Panel), and copied and renamed the old Profile. Now Outlook opens right up! Thanks SO MUCH!!! (I’m using Windows XP Pro, Office 2007.) AWESOME HELP!
Thank you so much! I appreciate your sharing .
Using Outcrock 2007 on Win 7 – ran “outlook.exe /resetnavpane” and now fixed. Strange that the .pst file is now much smaller 265KD – before it was 870KB – all the data is there but the favourite folders had vanised. Who knows what is going on with this stuff! Is there an alternative to Outcroak? It is so flaky with vital data…
Thanks for the fix
Thank you very much… wasted several hours on this before noticing the space between outlook.exe and the slash. It worked imediately after I tried that. scrolled down a few messages and someone said “the space is critcal”…. indeed it is. thanks a bunch everyone….
Sally again. I have a Palm Treo and just tried to synch it with Outlook; now that I have a new Profile, the Microsoft ActiveSync will not recognize the new profile and won’t synch with my Treo. It tells me to open the old profile – but that is now “defunct” (ie, doesn’t work). How do I reset my Treo/ActiveSync to read the new Profile for the synch? Thanks so much. Microsoft Support Code for this error message is 8503001f.
I googled the Error Code and found information directing me to delete the device from ActiveSync, and have the computer re-detect the device. I did that, and it worked beautifully. Now my Treo is synched again and everything is fine.
Thanks for your awesome website! Sally
Thanks! SummeRs solution worked great, saved me a lot of trouble.
summer, #24,, thanks so much. worked flawlessly, and so simple. muchos gracias
Thanks a bunch! The shortcut and switch profile info worked a treat. Happy New Year!!
Hello all,
yes, the /resetnavpane run command seems to work like a charm, but I’m not posting the 300th lovey kissy post, I have a question.
I have had to run this command line fix now a number of times. It works eveytime, sure.
But why is this happening in the first place?
1. And why does it keep reoccurring every 3 weeks or so?
2. Is there a permanent fix for those who experience the error more then once? (not just a run switch bandaid?)
3. What caused it to start happening in the first place?
Tks, I got over the Outlook window not opening with the reset navpane command but now every time I open Outlook the resolution changes and the picture expands making it very difficult to read and get to the exit button. Also after resetting it and then navigating on the outlook like open messages the same thing often happens again, making Outlook very inconvenient to work with
tks yr suggestions
sha
I tried your fix to the exact same problem. It got my outlook up and running but I seem to have lost all the data held in the contacts and calendar, plus my e-mail folders! This is a real problem. Do you have any suggestions please?
Chris
I presume you are not using Exchange?
Try a search for *.pst. You will probably find a large file called outlook.pst that has all your old data in it. You can copy this to your new profile.
Tim
Hi guys
Thanks so much for the resetnavpane solution. I was a PC for 8 years before I decided to switch to the MAC. Not a single problem recorded on the Leopard OS on my macbook of 2 years and still, touch wood, works like a charm.
Last week, I switched to PC for work purposes and 5 days down the line, this issue crops up.
Typical of Microsoft. Just like the Apple Ads. I just wish MS Office ran better on Apple. That way, I wouldn’t even bother with a PC.
Once again, thanks guys for your help. It works a doddle.
Well, I’m now a victim of this nasty gremlin, running Outlook 2007, Vista 64-bit and suddenly, out of nowhere, the Outlook dies! My second day of wrestling with this, did the repair with the install CDs, did a system restore back 4 days and have now done my best to follow the above instructions, still with no joy. I created a new user, set it as my default, copied and created a new Outlook2 file, but still nothing. Any further ideas? Still can’t open the Outlook and everything else seems to be working okay on this PC. By the way, I also synch to Blackberry in case there’s any connection with this glitch. . .
This is the “Death X” text:
Cannot start Microsoft Office Outlook. Cannot open the Outlook windwo. The set of folders cannot be opened. Errors have been detected in the file
C:\Users\Me\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\Outlook.pst. Quit Outlook and all mail-enabled applications, and then use the Inbox repair tool (Scanpst.exe) to diagnose and repair errors in the file. For more information about the Inbox repair tool, see Help.
Yea, right!
Any further thoughts/strategies would be most welcome and appreciated!
@Marblehead
First stop is to check the event log – any disk errors? Sometimes these turn out to be hardware problems.
Tim
Thanks for your monitoring this site/thread, Tim and for your reply. Would you be so kind as to further counsel me on how to check for disk errors/event log?
Thanks again. . .Hope it turns up nothing!
@Marblehead control panel – administrative tools – event viewer – look for disk errors in the system log, or anything else interesting!
Tim
Thanks for the further tip. Opened up the event viewer but do not see anything notable, which is a relief. Still don’t have joy with the Outlook, however, and am taking the tower to my tech consultant on the morrow. Stand by and I’ll let everyone know what I discover. . .
OUTLOOK.EXE /resetnavpane WORKED GREAT FIRST TIME! thanks for the post
Have this problem with my windows 7 pro
being computer illiterate I don’t know how to solve the problem
can you assist with simple steps in plain english ?
ta
Thanks so much – the outlook.exe /resetnavpane did it for me
This is such a rediculous issue from microsoft. Thanks everyone for your help. Your tips have made this day a happy day!!!