Solved Outlook 2007 won't open in Vista

[johngalt]

What seems to be happening is that Outlook is loading itself as a child process - for whatever reason - and if that child process does not go away, then it hangs.

Do yo have Outlook set to check for mail at startup? If so, disable that and see if it helps...

 

[KenV]

I had already run the office 2007 Duagnoistics and everything was OK.

I now have run the scanpst.exe. I have an outlook and hotmail pst files. The hotmail had some errors in it.

Since running the repairs Outlook seems to open perfectly. One funny item is that one of my desktop shortcuts to launch outlook had a option set of /reply as a part of the start up. I have removed the /reply option.

I am keeping my fingures crossed that Outlook keeps working.

Thanks for all the help!

KenV

 

[johngalt]

That reply shortcut may have been created to do something else, like make an automatic reply from a web link, only if you manually clicked on it it would hang Outlook because it was waiting for an email address to put in and never got one...

At any rate glad it is working again.

 

[Ken Moore]

As I haven't been able to open Outlook I can't check the current default settings. I will see what I can do in safe mode, and report back.

Thanks

Ken

 

[Confetti11]

(This thread is the first thing that comes up when Googling "Outlook 2007 Vista won't open").
Meanwhile, I typed in an entire explanation, clicked "Submit Reply", and it cleared out my entire entry because the thread is 'old.' Double-frustration. (Now I copy this before submitting.)

I have not been able to open Outlook all day. When I click Start/Outlook or click an Outlook icon, it "thinks" about it for 5 seconds, and then stops and does nothing.

In Task Manager, Outlook is not listed as running.

Going into the MS ".exe" files via Explore, the other MS programs (Word, Excel, PP) open right away. But Outlook.exe does not open.

I've tried all of the ideas in the posts that I understand. However, it still won't open. A few of the posts are too technical for me. I'm looking for "dummy-proof.'

Four weeks ago, I cleaned up Outlook, deleting old emails and opening any that were closed. I've had Outlook 2007/Vista for about 10 months.

Does anyone else have other ideas? Thanks.

 

[delphin]

Yup...service pack already downloaded. It did help in some areas but not Outlook. Do you know if there are any programs incompatible with Outlook?

Hi,

type outlook /clearviews in run. It will clear all ur customised views. (it will not affect ur rules)
let outlook open, and close once it opened.
Type outlook /safe in run. Now outlook will open in safe mode. let outlook open, and close once it opened.

Now start outlook in a normal way.

Let me know the result..

 

[Confetti11]

Delphin -

You are brilliant -- and the only person to come up with this solution.
It worked. (At least, Outlook opened -- I haven't done anything in it yet.)
The first challenge was to find "run" in Vista ("Help" was actually helpful).
And realizing you typed a space after the word Outlook in "outlook /clearviews" and "outlook /safe" helped, too.
This sure beats reinstalling Outlook (and possibly losing some history).
Thanks so much for responding!

 

[delphin]

Delphin -

You are brilliant -- and the only person to come up with this solution.
It worked. (At least, Outlook opened -- I haven't done anything in it yet.)
The first challenge was to find "run" in Vista ("Help" was actually helpful).
And realizing you typed a space after the word Outlook in "outlook /clearviews" and "outlook /safe" helped, too.
This sure beats reinstalling Outlook (and possibly losing some history).
Thanks so much for responding!

Hi,

Am so happy that i helped u

 

[ysrael737]

Can't think of any. Have you looked at Task Manager while you tried to open Outlook or before hand? Is there a hanging version of it somewhere in there that is causing confusion?

I am having the same issue. For the last month I had to rollback twice after downloading the march updates for Vista (I run Vista Home Premium 32 SP1)

The task manager helps only to get rid of the unusable Outlook session until it suggests to run on safe mode (BTW, I have disabled all add-ins - the first that outlook reported as trouble was the Avast! Outlook Add-In, so I just got rid of it, but now anything is working properly)

Curiously, after reading another thread where someone reports a misbehavior with the Recycle Bin and adding/modifying/deleting files he also reported that Outlook is acting strangely, with the same version 2007 Enterprise

Also the thing goes as bad as when changing / renaming a file on Excel, the explorer just hangs and I have to kill the process

Also, the problem extends to the explorer.exe process, which just freezes and stops working, of course, the good old taskman kill and re-run needs to be done

Any help please???

Thank you

 

[ysrael737]

The other thread that is dealing with Outlook hanging and the deletion thing can be found here (Vista Forums link)

http://www.vistax64.com/vista-general/32058-windows-explorer-hangs-when-deleting-renaming-files.html

 

[Ken Moore]

After 4 frustrating months of not being able to get Outlook 2007 going under Vista (I tried all the suggested remedies), I clicked on the desktop icon, and much to may amazement it opened, and has done ever since. I wonder if a very recent Windows Update did the trick??

Ken

 

[elwez]

each time i open outlook i get the an error msg that outlook has stopped working. my 2 options are to debug or to close the program.

i've tried a system restore, the create a shortcut method and the outlook /clearviews method from this thread. the outlook /clearviews method gives me an error msg "the command line arguement is not valid. verify the switch you are using." so i havent been able to fully use it

any ideas on how i can fix the program??

 

[ArbiterAlan]

I was running through a similar problem on Outlook 2007 w/ business contact manager not opening on Vista Enterprise. Every time I tried to start Outlook it would load one of the following 2 errors switching back and forth between them for each launch:
Outlook failed to start correctly last time. Starting Outlook in safe mode will help you correct or isolate a startup problem in order to successfully start the program. Some functionality may be disabled in this mode. Do you want to start Outlook in safe mode? (Yes/No)
-OR- Outlook failed to launch in safe mode. Do you want to start Detect and Repair? (Yes/No)
I attempted to select yes and no to either error and the ONLY thing that would load was the OUTLOOK.EXE process in task manager; even after running the detect and repair the program would not open. Subsequent attempts to launch Outlook without killing the existing process would only add an additional OUTLOOK.EXE process. Killing the open processes would only allow me to cycle to the other error message. Restarting the computer performed the same function as killing the open process.

I attempted all suggestions listed previously in this blog with no change to the situation; run commands, pst scan, using the direct executable instead of a shortcut, and all other suggestions had no impact.

I also went as far as to completely uninstall and reinstall my entire Office Professional 2007 suite, twice (restarting my machine after every un/install of course). This also had no effect; in fact, it loaded error #2 after the first reinstall, acting as though the program was never removed. Apparently Microsoft doesn't understand that when someone tries to uninstall a program they want to remove THE ENTIRE PROGRAM!!! - or at least have that option available.

After a day wasted on this rediculous error, I restarted the computer in safe mode rather than trying to get Outlook to launch in its "Outlook safe mode" (an obvious failure in programming). With the computer started in safe mode I was able get Outlook to actually load (after selecting Yes to error #1 above). I had to cycle through 5 other error message windows that popped up regarding multiple failures of the business contact manager add-on. The first error advised me that there was an error opening the add-on and asked me if I wanted to disable it - I selected yes. After reading all about how nothing could load properly I was finally able to get Outlook to close normally with the "x" button (top right) and I restarted my computer in standard operating mode. Magically, Outlook acted as though there was never an issue - add-ons and all.
I hope this helps anyone else that is having this problem.

Microsoft,
I'm still hoping you put out an update to actually fix this glitch in your Office progam's recovery procedure.

 

[smokingplatypus]

I've had similar issues with Outlook 2007. It was loading and locking on startup prior to the email preview loading. Then when I'd click elsewhere, the screen would grayout and say Microsoft Outlook (Not Responding). It would hang for a while and I would have to force it to close.

These are the steps I tried:
1) Restart
2) run>outlook /clearviews
2e. I received an error on this stating "The command line arguement is not valid. Verify the switch you are using."
3)run>outlook /safe
I then deleted any unnecessary new emails (prior to lockup). Then, disabled any unnecessary addons, such as -- Calendar Gadget for Windows Sideshow, Microsoft Exchange Unified Messaging, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server Colleague Import Add-in, Microsoft VBA for Outlook Addin. Left Outlook open.
4) From within Outlook Help>Office Diagnostics, it returned no errors.
5) I shut Outlook down and uninstalled Xobni (a nifty addin for social networking, doubt it was the issue, but just to be safe).
6) Start>Control Panel (Classic View)>Mail>Data Files -- Deleted an online calendar data file I was using to sync with Gcalendar.
7) Uninstalled Gsync for Google Calendar.
8) Rebooted.

She ran and is currently running, my best guess is it was one of those extraneous add-ins I had loading at startup that Outlook didn't like. It has worked for months prior then from waking up from sleep mode, it just wouldn't load. Hope this helps someone.

 

[ArbiterAlan]

I've had similar issues with Outlook 2007. It was loading and locking on startup prior to the email preview loading. Then when I'd click elsewhere, the screen would grayout and say Microsoft Outlook (Not Responding). It would hang for a while and I would have to force it to close.

This sounds like one of the more common issues I've seen with Outlook. Especially when you have an actual MS Exchange email account set up. When you launch Outlook or "wake" it from sleep mode it immediately starts connecting to mail servers and syncing mailboxes. If it is connecting slowly or not getting enough system resources Outlook appears frozen and when you start clicking around it will switch to the standard "program not responding" error. It's not responding because it is backed up trying complete a queue of tasks and does not have time for the extra clicking all over the place.
The only fix for this is increasing your patience allocation or getting a more powerful computer. If you give it a few minutes (even after it says program is not responding) it will finish syncing and continue normal operation. BUT, the more operations you start on your system after Outlook locks the longer it will take to respond.

And by the way - Sleep or hibernate mode is the worst thing you can do to your computer. When you "wake" your system an enourmous amount of resources are consumed all at once because every program and process tries to restart at the same time, applications don't re-open properly, processes get corrupted, and many things will crash. Sleep mode is the biggest change mistake Microsoft has made to Windows since they removed a real DOS environment from their OS.
You're better off shutting your computer down than using sleep mode.

 

[bing3]

until 5 minutes ago i had the same problem and have been trying to fix it for weeks. I did the following. I went to the the the short cut destination and right clicked on the outlook icon, which is in file "office 12" in the menu is an option to restore older versions. the only option i had was july 2008, it even told me it was very old. Follow the instructions which launches a shadow copy. It's a bit ropey for the first 10 minutes lots of not responding but it has solved the problem. Try it hopefully it works for you:D

 

[SlackerD]

Hi, I have thoroughly read through this entire thread and NONE of the steps helped me. I had purchased a Vista 64bit laptop as a backup to my other laptop. I had not intended to use it for email & contacts. When the primarly laptop's motherboard went out I was trying to set up iTunes on the new laptop and intend to have it sync my contacts and calendar to Outlook 2007. I do remember before even installing iTunes that Outlook had the "failed to start" error, but I dismissed it at the time as I had a working version on the now deceased computer.

So you see, I never setup Outlook on the new laptop. When trying any of the steps above I can not find files when trying the run command or starting the computer in Safe mode doesn't work. I reinstalled Office 2007 3 times and did all the updates. A friend helped me disable the addins after the second reinstall. On the last install I installed office 2003 and was able to open Outlook. It went through and started downloading email, etc (how did it know what my email address was... how did it know I have both a yahoo email and gmail that redirects mail to the yahoo account?). Anyway, I did an upgrade of Office 2007 and tried opening Outlook and wham, same problem... Outlook failed to start, won't start in safe mode... blah, blah, blah.

This is frustrating! I was planning on using my recovery discs but found that they did not help another user. I'm out of ideas and this at this point is at the top of my computing skills. I guess I will have to try to sync my iPhone with Windows contacts and lose the calendar (I don't think iTunes gives pc users another choice to sync the calendar other than Outlook or paying for Mobile Me).

Last comment: My husband has a desktop Vista 64bit system which runs Outlook fine. His is faster... its a quad and my is a duo processor. Still, my dead laptop had a duo processor but it was running Vista 32bit.

Thanks for any help!

Denise

 

[snapper1]

After updating Windows Updates I also lost Outlook, then having spent a full day trawling the forums I found this: Run outlook. exe /resetnavpane

 

[shor]

run outlook.exe /resetnavpane there is a space after .exe

 

[alexa]

Thank you Shor, you just saved my day!
That did the trick for my Outlook 2007 error.