Unable to open the Outlook window; MS solution bad

Recent Blogs	<< Back
How To enable Outlook autocomplete from Contacts 2/10/2010 What is Microsoft .NET and How does it work? 3/9/2010 C# - Writing your own .NET Compiler 3/10/2010
More...
IT Jobs Hiring Cisco Voice Operations Engineer New York, NY Sr. Software Engineer -- DSP Algorithms, Security Encryption, C/C++ (San Diego, CA ) Los Angeles Area, CA Legal Software Trainer (Los Angeles Area) Los Angeles Area, CA More jobs...

 

Microsoft has a knowledge base for fixing this error message that pops up:

"Unable to open the Outlook window,
No profile has been created,"

or

"The list of Profiles cannot be loaded"

Microsoft says: This issue may occur on a computer that is running Microsoft Windows XP when the Outlook.exe file was configured to open with the Windows program compatibility mode setting.

When you set compatibility for Outlook to Windows 95 or to Windows 98/Windows Me, Outlook displays this error message. This is because the location of the Outlook Profile information in the registry differs on a Windows XP-based computer.

This issue may also occur when the registry key that stores the profile settings for Outlook is damaged.

 

Method 1 solution seems simple: Disable the compatibility setting

1. Locate Outlook.exe.
   
   Outlook.exe is typically located in one of the following folders, depending on the version of Outlook that you are running:
   • Microsoft Office Outlook 2007
     C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12
   • Microsoft Office Outlook 2003
     C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office 11
   • Microsoft Outlook 2002
     C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office 10
   • Microsoft Outlook 2000
     C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office 9
2. Right-click Outlook.exe, and then click Properties.
3. On the Compatibility tab, click to clear the Run this program in compatibility mode for check box.
4. Click OK.
5. Try to start Outlook. If you receive error message again, use Method 2.

Method 2: (Delete the registry key) has an inherent problem

The problem is it forces you to rebuild your entire profile for Microsoft Outlook. This can be a big pain, especially for me, if you have multiple accounts, including Microsoft Exchange settings.

The solution is actually must simpler

Open a Run command window and execute the following command:

outlook.exe /resetnavpane

 

Tuesday, March 16, 2010 4:31:24 PM