Solved Cannot start Microsoft Outlook. Cannot open the Outlook window.

[derekcaldwell]

outlook.exe/resetnavpane TOTALLY worked for me on my Home Vista new HP laptop. Thanks bunches shor. I'll add to your power rating.

 

[derekcaldwell]

Well thanks, anytime you want to boost my power rating feel free to do so. My answer has helped about 5-6 others and no-one stroked me on the back yet. I could use a little rating increase.

Solved my problem. Here's a high rank.

 

[KevDev]

Just wanted to say thanks for a wonderfully simple and effective fix!

 

[dwelch42]

This worked perfectly and much easier than I first thought. Thanks

 

[Spice86]

Absolutely amazing fix, worked straight away! Cheers dude! :D

 

[azax]

Many thanks Shor!

 

[Thinknot]

Excuse the small typo...you need a space between .exe and / so type outlook.exe /resetnavpane in run and that should do it.

Another satisfied user of this quick fix for Outlook. Glad shor posted it. Heck a lot easier than importing into a new .pst. Good someone elaborated rights and directory structure for run commands for those who are dos challenged etc. I just used run and my default rights for commands is admin, so worked lickety split.

We can't all read command line syntax for ALL the apps we use. Wonder what causes this error, I suspect lockup induced forced reboots without proper win shutdown, but who knows.

Kudos to shor for this precise and simple fix.

Don't know how to boost power though. yada yada

 

[Shetlander]

Unfortunately Shor's solution didn't work for me. When I entered his fix I got the standard pop-up "Cannot start Micrsoft Outlook".
I have tried uninstalling and re-installing Microsft Outlook to no avail.
I also tried Mr Wizard's fix of renaining the Outlook folder but that had no effect either (Outlook did not create a new folder).
I have got rid of my old computer so I cannot use the Microsoft Outlook on that. Windows Mail on my Vista PC (or Windows Live Mail on my other Windows 7 computer) won't read *.pst files.
I am unable to install Outlook on my other Windows 7 computer.
So I am stuck. I have the *.pst files with my e-mails on them but no way of reading them.
I am running Vista Home Premium 32 bit.

 

[RobertH]

shor, Thanks so much. I have Win7 with Office 2010 and have no idea how this thing got goofed up in an hour. Your run command worked like a charm. Robert

 

[mghassey]

BRILLIANT fix - many thanks

 

[EMonk]

Thanks for the info Shor... simpler to do than the M$ answer, and more immediately effective. Ups to you.

 

[Charlie in NB]

I have tried the fix for 2 days and well over 10 times, but it doesn’t help me. Let me give you the entire message I am getting and perhaps my problem is deeper than all the others. Here is what I am told when my Outlook shuts right down again each time, even after trying outlook.exe /resetnavpane: Cannot start Microsoft Outlook. Cannot open the Outlook window. The set of folders cannot be opened. The file C:\Users\Charlie\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\Outlook.pst is not a personal folders file.
I am remebering to put the space after exe so I know that is not the issue.
I am completely baffled. Any help you could give me would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Spice86]

Hi Charlie!

I had this error message and I tried the resetnavpane fix and once it worked straight away but on another machine it did not.

I then went onto try the solution below and it fixed the problem straight away! Perhaps you should try this fix next >>



Re: Cannot start Microsoft Outlook. Cannot open the Outlook window.
I had this problem on a customers laptop with Vista Home Premium and Microsoft office 2007 Enterprise.

I've often seen similar errors with Office including things going wrong with Word, Excel, basically any Microsoft Office application.
Nearly all of these errors can be solved by allowing Office to re-create it's profile folders. I fixed the same problem you are having with this procedure...

1. Close all office applications
2. Browse to and RENAME the following folders (do not delete them if you wish to avoid losing any emails and address books). I normally stick an _ on the end to make it "foldername_"

For Microsoft Outlook...
C:\Users\<yourusername>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook
C:\Users\<yourusername>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Outlook

For other Microsoft Office Programs...
C:\Users\<yourusername>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office
C:\Users\<yourusername>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Office

3. Open problematic application (Outlook in this case)

The next problem you will have with OUTLOOK is your Personal Folders file will be new and therfore empty (none of your old emails, calendar or contacts in there!).
Don't panic though, all you need to do is the following...

1. Open Outlook
2. Go to File>Import and Export...
3. Choose "Import from another program of file" and click next
4. Choose "Personal Folder File (.pst)" and click next
5. Click the browse button and locate the folder that you previously renamed
C:\Users\<yourusername>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook_ ??
6. Choose the "Outlook.pst" file (which should be more than 1KB if it contains anything) and click the "Open" Button at the bottom
7. Click "Next" and then "Finish" and watch all of your lovely emails, calendar appointments and contacts fly back into your active profile!

 

[images]

I hope your rating is jumping because your fix helped me alot. How did you know about this fix?

 

[kate7731]

THANK YOU! It worked like a dream.

 

[netmindr32]

Hey Shor, I know this is an old post, but we needed help with our Outlook and your advice helped! I want to give you the recognition you deserve, but I don't know how. A little help?

 

[rkevinali]

I have WIN 7 64 bit and MS Office 2007. I am an IT proffesional and was baffled. I got the message on my home PC, worked like a charm and caused me to join the forum!

 

[doncelle]

Dear SHOR, I thank you so very much for having posted this reply to this particular CANNOT START MICROSOFT OUTLOOK problem. I'm so grateful and happy !!!!!
Have a wonderful day!
Thank you again!

 

[Sav10]

Tried Shor's fix but received the same error pop-up as before:

"Cannot start Microsoft Office Outlook. Unable to open the Outlook window. The set of folders could not be opened. The server is not available. Contact your administrator if this condition persists."

 

[Sav10]

If anyone like me wasn't lucky enough to resolve the problem using the quick fix mentioned before, I managed to fix the problem by running the inbox repair tool:


1. Quit Microsoft Outlook if it's running.
2. Double-click Scanpst.exe, located at drive:\Program Files\Common Files\System\MSMAPI\LocaleID folder where LocaleID is the locale identifier (LCID) for the installation of Microsoft Office.
3. In the Enter the name of the file you want to scan box, enter the name of the .pst or .ost file that you want to check, or click Browse to look for the file.
4. To specify scan log options, click Options, and then click the option you want.
5. Click Start.
6. When the scanning is completed, and if errors were found, you will be prompted to start the repair process.
7. Click Repair.