Outlook stopped receiving email on 30 Apr. I tried to uninstall MS Office as suggested by HP, but get an error: Can't access network location of %APPDATA%.
I have an HP Pavilion dv9000 laptop with Windows Vista x64 and MS Office 2007 Outlook. I've spent hours w/ HP and AT&T tech support, but can't resolve the problems (Email & %APPDATA%). HP wants me first to restore my laptop to its originally shipped configuration (I'd prefer not to if I can) and AT&T wants $99 for advanced support. So, I came here for help.

What does it say if you type this into a CMD prompt:

echo %appdata%

A CMD prompt of echo %APPDATA% returns %APPDATA%

Originally Posted by PeraFG

A CMD prompt of echo %APPDATA% returns %APPDATA%

Which means you don't currently have an APPDATA environment variable, and that's a problem. Check this out - from the machine on which I'm currently sitting:

C:\>echo %appdata%
C:\Users\Incognito\AppData\Roaming

C:\>echo %notreally%
%notreally%

In other words, there ought to be an APPDATA environment variable in your profile, and it ought to by default point at the\AppData\Roaming folder under your profile. Otherwise, when you "echo" something that doesn't exist as an environment variable, the same sequence of characters just gets returned. Typing SET should allow you to confirm that there's no APPDATA in that list, and that would be the cause of your error message.

It's not clear why that might happen - at least to me - but the course of action seems simple: create an APPDATA environment variable and point it where it should go. Alternatively, if damage to your profile seems more pervasive (more things are broken), create another user profile and use that to log on instead.

In Control Panel, System applet, "Advanced" tab, click the "Environment Variables..." button. Under "user variables" add APPDATA and set it to

%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming

OK your way out of that and then reboot. Of course, that won't work if %userprofile% is also missing on your machine, so check whether that exists in the SET output.

You shouldn't have to mess with these things at all. If you've used "registry cleaners" or anything similar, that may be the cause.

I had the same problem with windows mail after a lot of searching on the forums, contacting my service provider and trying another e-mail program from fire fox/mozilla (which did work), I saved all my settings and e mail folders, then I deleted the e-mail account, and then re installed it. Now it works again properly.
Maybe this will work for outlook express as well.

ps. I did not care for the mozilla mail program

Thank you H2SO4!!! You got my email to finally be received on Microsoft Outlook 2007 with only 3 minutes of effort. Your instructions were right on and simple to follow. You also saved me $99 or tons of waisted time restoring my laptop Why couldn't HP or AT&T technical support figure it out after hours of tryiing?
Best Regards, Fred

[quote=H2SO4;1045671]

Originally Posted by PeraFG

A CMD prompt of echo %APPDATA% returns %APPDATA%

You shouldn't have to mess with these things at all. If you've used "registry cleaners" or anything similar, that may be the cause.

Aha!, maybe having used the CC-Cleaner that caused my problem. Thanks for the explanation

Originally Posted by PeraFG

Thank you H2SO4!!! You got my email to finally be received on Microsoft Outlook 2007 with only 3 minutes of effort. Your instructions were right on and simple to follow. You also saved me $99 or tons of waisted time restoring my laptop Why couldn't HP or AT&T technical support figure it out after hours of tryiing?
Best Regards, Fred

Glad you got it working Fred

Tech support standards vary greatly. Many people kick off their IT careers as junior help desk engineers with very little knowledge, relatively speaking. They are given a flowchart to follow: "if the problem is XYZ, get them to try ABC, then DEF, then RST." When he runs out of flowchart to follow - and your problem was fairly peculiar - Junior has no choice but to "escalate to Advanced Support." In your case it seems the company charged for getting to speak to a more senior engineer, and objectively they are within their rights to do so. Knowledge is a commodity, especially in IT.