Outlook 2007 freezes on startup

[Carlo]

Yesterday a janitor pulled my PC's power cord. When I restarted the system
(Windows XP Professional) today and tried to start Outlook 2007, the Outlook
window background appeared with the Microsoft logo, and froze there.
Restarting the operating system didn't help.
When I kill the frozen Outlook 2007 program through the task manager, the
"End Now" dialog window says that Outlook is waiting for an input from me. I
cannot check if there are any dialog windows under Outlook on the desktop,
because Outlook is frozen and does not allow me to minimize the window.
Outlook starts in safe mode and works fine (although with limited
functionality). I tried to disable all add-ins, but Outlook will still start
only in safe mode. I also tried to rename my Outlook.pst file so Outlook
won't find it, but the problem persists.
Any suggestions?

Thank you.

 

[Jocelyn Fiorello]

You may have a corrupted outcmd.dat file. This is the file that stores your
toolbar customizations, and when it becomes corrupted, Outlook can't use it
at startup to build your toolbars, thus causing the hangups. Try renaming or
deleting your outcmd.dat file while Outlook is closed. Renaming it might be
the best idea if you have a lot of customizations that you'd prefer not to
lose; that way if renaming the file doesn't solve your problem, you may be
able to restore it later when you do get Outlook working properly again.

Note: You'll need to search within hidden Windows folders to find the
outcmd.dat file. More on Outlook file locations can be found at
http://www.slipstick.com/config/backup.asp.

 

[Carlo]

Thanks for the try, Jocelyn. However, I tried to rename ALL of the files in
both
C:\Documents and Settings\Carlo\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft
AND in
C:\Documents and Settings\Carlo\Application Data\Microsoft (first each one
in turn, then all of them together), but even that didn't help.

Personally, I think it's a bug in the Outlook code, not a corrupt file: It
seems that Outlook is trying to ask me some question on startup, but the
dialog window that is supposed to do that and collect my answer is displayed
below the main Outlook window, rather than above. Outlook will block until I
answer (and consequently fail to honor window manager requests for
minimizing, etc), but I cannot answer because I cannot access the dialog
window. Evidence for my conjecture is that when I kill Outlook to restart it
in safe mode I am told that the program is waiting for a response from me.

Of course, I can always exit this catch 22 by starting from a clean slate
(uninstall Office, manually clean the registry and data files because
uninstall is not done cleanly, reinstall, set up all of my email accounts and
profiles, import the old .pst file), but Microsoft and my own department's
mail setup conspire to make account setup a particularly complex operation.
If I have to do something that radical, perhaps I should just change
operating system altogether.

 

[Jocelyn Fiorello]

You can also try creating a new mail profile...less drastic than trying to
completely clean Outlook/Office from your system or reinstalling your OS
altogether. Instructions for creating a new mail profile can be found at
http://www.howto-outlook.com/faq/newprofile.htm.

 

[Carlo]

Thanks again, Jocelyn.

That did not work, either. However, after noticing that the
WindowsSearch.exe process kept hanging upon reboot, I turned it off through
msconfig, and Outlook works now. Go figure...

Cheers,

Carlo

 

[Jocelyn Fiorello]

Aha. Well, glad you got it fixed and thanks for sharing your solution.

 

[Keri]

Hello,

I am having this exact problem, however I'm not sure how to access msconfig;
can you offer any guidance? It would be much appreciated!

Thanks so much