microsoft, windows

Cannot open the Outlook window – what sort of error message is that?

404 Comments

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

image

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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404 thoughts on “Cannot open the Outlook window – what sort of error message is that?”

  1. Hi Charlie,

    I am facing exactly the same problem as you are! And in case if you manage to fix it please let me know as well. Which repair utilities did you use etc….? Hope Tim can help us and fingers crossed.

  3. @Tulga the first thing to check is whether the hard drive is failing. Check the Event Viewer for errors in the Disk category. You can also usually obtain a utility from the drive manufacturer to verify that it is working OK. If it is not, you are in a recovery situation, get a new drive and restore from backup.

    There is a repair tool that sometimes works on a PST, though I highly recommend you make a copy of it first. Find it here:

    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/287497

    If you delete your profile, yes, you could lose emails.

    I’m sorry, I can’t do detailed troubleshooting here. You could try the Outlook forums.

    Tim

  4. Great

    Thanks a lot , i was facing this problem since morning read a lot of post , nothing worked ,

    your solution worked like charm. worked well

    thanks

  5. Hi Tim,

    Thank you for your reply. It looks like my pst. folder is erased. In outlook folder there are no personal folder at all. It seems nothing can recover my archive hence the PST is not there.

    Regards,
    Tulga

  6. @Tulga

    Always worth searching the entire drive for *.pst, perhaps it is elsewhere.

    In the worst case, you can try an undelete utility, it might not work but if you have critical info there worth a try.

    Tim

  11. worked great … thanks

    outlook.exe /resetnavpane

    especially afer reparing outlook doing the scanpst didnt work.

  12. I was perplexed when I could not open my outlook. I found this website and thanks to outlook.exe /resetnavpane I can get to my e-mail again. Thanks guys.

  21. youve been very helpful.. im losing hope for i cant open my outlook, im freakin out thinking that a virus caused the problem.. thank you for the tip .. you save my work and make my day so bright… thanks a million!!!

  24. Thank you so much! I am an office manager and I swear Microsoft causes more problems for our office everyday and, in the fine tradition of giant corporations everywhere, Microsoft offers little to no real support for their products. I don’t know what I would do without troubleshooting forums like these!

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