Solving Outlook 2007 Error: Cannot start Microsoft Office Outlook. Cannot open the Outlook window

Hello Everyone,

Last night when I was opened the outlook to check my e-mails, I was shown welcomed with a horrible error in outlook saying:

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

I run on Windows Vista with Outlook 2007.

I tried a lot of times, but in vain. I then restarted my system, still no luck.

Then I browsed google and it came up with a few forum links:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/252304

http://forums.techguy.org/business-applications/544134-cannot-start-microsoft-office-outlook.html

I tried all their suggestions in it. But still it did not work... Then I began to get worried as I had a whole lot of mails in it (atleast 2 years data) and to my bad, I never took a backup.

Then one link gave me a suggestion which actually worked.

Basically you would need to locate Outlook.exe and run it with /resetnavpane

Please see the steps below for the non-techies.

Steps:

1. Locate Outlook

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. Open a command prompt. Click on Start->Run and type cmd

3. Type cd C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12

Note: This was my case since I was running Outlook 2007, if you are using another version of Outlook, change your directory appropriately.

4. This should change your directory to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12

5. Type Outlook.exe /resetnavpane
C:\Users\Naveen>cd C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12>Outlook.exe /resetnavpane

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12>

6. This should bring you back to the command prompt, then you are done!!!

7. Try Opening Outlook again and it should work.

Good luck!!!

With Regards,

Naveen...