Outlook 2007 reading pane gone blank

[Jason]

In my case, whilst I did not create a new user, I did delete the profile and
allowed Windows (Vista) to recreate it. But this didn't appear to make any
difference.

I think the dialog problem that I'm getting now might be related to
activation, which I'm loathed to do until I'm in a position to fix the
problem.

I noted someone else here thinks Anti-Virus has something to do with it, and
interestingly enough, I do have Trend-Micro installed on that machine, albeit
the CSM Agent rather than the, I think, more common Internet Security Suite.

The argument against this is, I have two similar machines, each running
Outlook 2007 (Office 2007 SP1 + latest hotfixes), latest version of Trend
Micro's CSM, and Windows Vista (SP1 + other latest hotfixes). There are
unfortunately a number of other differences as well, which make deducing the
problem from differences nigh on impossible, but it does to me weaken the
argument for the anti-virus software being the issue.

Jason.

 

[Roady [MVP]]

I think we were replying at the same time ;-)

I can get assistance once I can deduce and repro the issue. At this moment I
haven't been able to do that to a point where I suspect it is an Outlook
issue. As I've mentioned in another post I think it's retraceable to 3rd
party security suites. I'd leave it then up to them to fight out if it is a
Microsoft issue or not as I cannot look in either's source code ;-)

I can raise awareness at Microsoft so they might update the "Know Issues"
section of the KB article for the security update but they cannot state
these problems with 3rd party products without proper proof. That would
result in yet another law suit ;-)

Also I'm not fully certain if all the issues reported are actually
retraceable to the security update. I'm not trying to dismiss your issues
here but it is a common occurrence that once an update has been released
people try to relate all their issues to it while in fact these are
standalone issues or issues that were already existing on a system but only
surfaced because of the update. Cause and symptom are easily confused
sometimes.

The fact that Outlook doesn't close when pressing the close button makes it
a 3rd party issue with about 99% certainty.
See for some solutions;
http://www.howto-outlook.com/faq/outlookdoesntclose.htm

 

[jlrodgers]

I can tell you that when the reading pane acts up, Outlook is using 0%
of the CPU with the CPU Usage being listed at under 2% total (for a
quad core) for all processes. Even when outlook is running, or closed
but still listed in the processes -- and I'm using AVG antivirus. On
top of it all... it affects all users on the computer, even the one
user account that's only logged once every two or three months.

If that helps you out any.

 

[Hombre]

I'm having exactly the same problems as previous posters have noted and they
also started last week - so presumably also linked to the recent MS software
update.

The reading pane disappears and fails to work.  A restart sometimes fixes
the problem but only temporarily.  I also see approx 50% CPU utilisationfromOutlookin the task manager after closingoutlook.  It appears thatOutlook
never fails to close completely and is stuck.

Isn't it timeMicrosoftacknowledged the problem and gave us a timescale for
a proposed solution?

I had the same problem as you originally described, however I've at least
found a work around that *sometimes* works.  I say "had", as I now seem to
have a problem that's even worse, and I know my original problem hasn't gone
away...  I think they're related...

Firstly, note that simply "left clicking" on the email, or using the up/down
arrows to cycle through the emails does not cause the reading pane to be
updated.  HOWEVER!!  (Now, because of my other problem, I can no longer test
the accuracy of the work around, but thegeneralidea is right)...  Start by
left clicking on an email, and then right-click on any other email.  You'll
get the context menu up on top, but the reading pane will also get updated
with the email you right-clicked on.

My new problem, is the "Reminders" window now pops up, and I cannot get rid
of it, or do much else inOutlook.  I try and create a new email, but Iget
the message "A dialog box is open...", but I cannot see one for the lifeof
me.

If anyone has a solution other than uninstall recent updates, I'd be most
grateful!

Jason.

PS After writing the above message, I closedOutlook.  But Task Manager tells
me thatOutlook.exe is a process which is still running and still consuming
45-55% of CPU!?  I'm going to reboot now and if I can get back to yesterday's
healthier state.
:
I'm absolutely fascinated by the follow-up posts from others with similar
problems.
I fired up my laptop this morning (I'm based in the UK) about 20 minutes ago
and just to report that, as I type this,Outlookhas seized up again as soon
as it got going.  Task Manager tells me thatOutlookis now hogging 50% of
the CPU.
Here are two other symptoms of the weird behaviour: 1) NormallyOutlookis
set automatically to download my e-mail when it starts - but when itgoes
AWOL like this morning I have to click 'Send/Receive' to get it to fetch my
mail; 2) If I open a message to read it (the reading pane is blank again, so
I have to open the message manually), and then click the big black Xat the
top to delete it, nothing happens... I have to close the message, highlight
it in the Inbox, and then hit the black X or the delete button from there.
Yesterday, however,Outlookworked better for most of the day!
Is anyone from MS able to advise what we should do please?  Is it indeed
better to uninstall recent updates?
Thanks for everyone's support and interest.  
:
Hello Roady,
Here is another observation that might help.  Incident to all these other
problems, we have found that we can no longer reliably attach files to an
e-mail message.  You select the files and choose insert, the dialog closes
normally, but the attachment field and listed attachments are never appended
to the message.  We're usingOutlook2007,MicrosoftVista Ultimate,and 4
GB of RAM, but still get some symptomatic delays while processing.
******************
messageNope, can't remember coming across this issue before (and I'm here for
quite the number of years already).
Creating a test user is only to find out the scope of the issue;user
configuration issue or company wide configuration/installation issue. It
helps with troubleshooting and trying to find out how to make itwork
under your own user account. That's why I called it a test user and not a
new user ;-)
--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
Coauthor, ConfiguringMicrosoftOutlook2003
http://www.howto-outlook.com/
OutlookFAQ, HowTo, Downloads, Add-Ins and more
http://www.msoutlook.info/
Real World Questions, Real World Answers
-----
Thanks for your continuing support.
Version number is:
(12.0.6300.5000) SP1 MSO (12.0.6213.1000)
Following your post I tried Repair (ie from Office CD) and thisappeared
to
help initially, but since then the problem has recurred intermittently
through the day.
About half an hour ago I rebooted the computer, andOutlookis now
working
again fine.  The reading pane is functioning.  Before the reboot,
however,
Outlookhad again slowed to a crawl, the reading pane was disabled and
there
were several otherOutlookmalfunctions.  I noticed thatOutlook'sCPU
usage
had increased to 50%, and by co-incidence saw that the preceding poster
in
thisforummentioned a similar phenomenon.  Is something going on here
across
a number of other users too?
I haven't tried logging on as another user.  Do you mean creating another
Windows User on my laptop?  I'd prefer to avoid that if possible... it
seems
to be quite a palaver creating all the new user's setings.  Iwould give
it a
go if you still think it necessary - what is the way to do it as simply
as
possible please?
:
What is your exact version number? Help-> About
Did you try running Repair already?
If it still doesn't work after that, log on as a different user (create
a
test user if needed) and see if the issue also occurs when logged on as
that
user.
--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
Coauthor, ConfiguringMicrosoftOutlook2003
http://www.howto-outlook.com/
OutlookFAQ, HowTo, Downloads, Add-Ins and more
http://www.msoutlook.info/
Real World Questions, Real World Answers
-----
I tried running safe mode, and theOutlookwindow looks exactly the
same
as
normal mode - ie it didn't say 'Safe mode' in the title bar,or
anything
like
that.  Is that right?
Anyhow, the reading pane doesn't seem to work in that mode either.
Thanks for your help with this.
:
Does it work inOutlookSafe Mode?
Start-> type;outlook.exe /safe
In addition see
http://www.howto-outlook.com/faq/outlookdoesntstart.htm
--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
Coauthor, ConfiguringMicrosoftOutlook2003
http://www.howto-outlook.com/
OutlookFAQ, HowTo, Downloads, Add-Ins and more
http://www.msoutlook.info/
Real World Questions, Real World Answers
-----
The reading pane has recently stopped working and is justgrey.
If I restart the computer, it may work briefly, then after a while
stop
and
go blank again.
Any suggestions please?
Am running Vista for Business.  I recently successfullyrestored
the
computer to an earlier backup following a crash, and alsorecently
installed
Business Contact Manager forOutlook- could the reading pane
problem
be
anything to do with either of these events?
Apologies if I've missed an easy fix elsewhere in theforum, but I
couldn't
see anything on a quick look.
If an expert has come across this problem before and knows the fast
solution, it would be much appreciated.
Thanks.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I too am having the same problem with Outlook 2007 in Vista Business
not displaying a message is in the reading pane. This problem just
started this morning. Have all recent updates as of today March 20.
Am running Kaspersky 7.0 with no issues as of yet. It is a good
working AV program. Also, when sending an email with an attachment,
it does not "show" the attachment, but when you send it and look in
the "sent items", it shows the attachment. I have Office 2007
Enterprise and later installed Business Contact Manager from the MS
site. Hope there is a quick solution to this problem.

Thank you,

Richard David

 

[jlrodgers]

I can tell you that when thereadingpaneacts up, Outlook is using 0%
of the CPU with the CPU Usage being listed at under 2% total (for a
quad core) for all processes. Even when outlook is running, or closed
but still listed in the processes -- and I'm using AVG antivirus. On
top of it all... it affects all users on the computer, even the one
user account that's only logged once every two or three months.

If that helps you out any.

EDIT: I just noticed (and disabled for the nth time) the stupid itunes
plugin for outlook.... outlook seems to run faster with that disabled
(and actually recovered from a reading pane problem with just a
restart of the program).

Not saying it fixed it... but it sure didn't hurt it (by disabling the
plugin that is).

 

[Blue Max]

Thanks, Roady, I appreciate the suggestions and link. We'll follow some of
the suggestions in the link to troubleshoot the problem and time will likely
tell if this is a widespread problem or not.

Thanks,

Richard

***********

 

[Gustavo]

This is what worked for me:

Open Outlook 2007. From the Tools menu, select "Trust Center," select
"Add-ins," click "Go" on "Manage Com Add-ins" at the bottom of the window,
uncheck "OutlookAddin". That's it.

 

[gacaldas]

Thanks, Roady, I appreciate the suggestions and link.  We'll follow someof
the suggestions in the link to troubleshoot the problem and time will likely
tell if this is a widespread problem or not.

Thanks,

Richard

***********
message

I think we were replying at the same time ;-)

I can get assistance once I can deduce and repro the issue. At this moment
I haven't been able to do that to a point where I suspect it is an Outlook
issue. As I've mentioned in another post I think it's retraceable to 3rd
party security suites. I'd leave it then up to them to fight out if it is
a Microsoft issue or not as I cannot look in either's source code ;-)

I can raise awareness at Microsoft so they might update the "Know Issues"
section of the KB article for the security update but they cannot state
these problems with 3rd party products without proper proof. That would
result in yet another law suit ;-)

Also I'm not fully certain if all the issues reported are actually
retraceable to the security update. I'm not trying to dismiss your issues
here but it is a common occurrence that once an update has been released
people try to relate all their issues to it while in fact these are
standalone issues or issues that were already existing on a system but
only surfaced because of the update. Cause and symptom are easily confused
sometimes.

The fact that Outlook doesn't close when pressing the close button makes
it a 3rd party issue with about 99% certainty.
See for some solutions;
http://www.howto-outlook.com/faq/outlookdoesntclose.htm

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
Coauthor, Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003
http://www.howto-outlook.com/
Outlook FAQ, HowTo, Downloads, Add-Ins and more

http://www.msoutlook.info/
Real World Questions, Real World Answers

-----

Hello Roady,
We are starting to get a small following on this issue, but haven't heard
back from you as yet.  As an MVP, are you able to get any assistance from
Microsoft on this issue?  Upon Googling this issue, I also found a number
of posts across other sites expressing this concern.
Thanks,
Richard
**************
in messageNope, can't remember coming across this issue before (and I'm here for
quite the number of years already).
Creating a test user is only to find out the scope of the issue; user
configuration issue or company wide configuration/installation issue. It
helps with troubleshooting and trying to find out how to make it work
under your own user account. That's why I called it a test user and not
a new user ;-)
--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
Coauthor, Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003
http://www.howto-outlook.com/
Outlook FAQ, HowTo, Downloads, Add-Ins and more
http://www.msoutlook.info/
Real World Questions, Real World Answers
-----
Thanks for your continuing support.
Version number is:
(12.0.6300.5000) SP1 MSO (12.0.6213.1000)
Following your post I tried Repair (ie from Office CD) and this
appeared to
help initially, but since then the problem has recurred intermittently
through the day.
About half an hour ago I rebooted the computer, and Outlook is now
working
again fine.  The reading pane is functioning.  Before the reboot,
however,
Outlook had again slowed to a crawl, the reading pane was disabled and
there
were several other Outlook malfunctions.  I noticed that Outlook's CPU
usage
had increased to 50%, and by co-incidence saw that the preceding poster
in
this forum mentioned a similar phenomenon.  Is something going on here
across
a number of other users too?
I haven't tried logging on as another user.  Do you mean creating
another
Windows User on my laptop?  I'd prefer to avoid that if possible...it
seems
to be quite a palaver creating all the new user's setings.  I would
give it a
go if you still think it necessary - what is the way to do it as simply
as
possible please?
:
What is your exact version number? Help-> About
Did you try running Repair already?
If it still doesn't work after that, log on as a different user
(create a
test user if needed) and see if the issue also occurs when logged on
as that
user.
--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
Coauthor, Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003
http://www.howto-outlook.com/
Outlook FAQ, HowTo, Downloads, Add-Ins and more
http://www.msoutlook.info/
Real World Questions, Real World Answers
-----
I tried running safe mode, and the Outlook window looks exactly the
same
as
normal mode - ie it didn't say 'Safe mode' in the title bar, or
anything
like
that.  Is that right?
Anyhow, the reading pane doesn't seem to work in that mode either.
Thanks for your help with this.
:
Does it work in Outlook Safe Mode?
Start-> type; outlook.exe /safe
In addition see
http://www.howto-outlook.com/faq/outlookdoesntstart.htm
--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
Coauthor, Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003
http://www.howto-outlook.com/
Outlook FAQ, HowTo, Downloads, Add-Ins and more
http://www.msoutlook.info/
Real World Questions, Real World Answers
-----
The reading pane has recently stopped working and is just grey.
If I restart the computer, it may work briefly, then after a
while stop
and
go blank again.
Any suggestions please?
Am running Vista for Business.  I recently successfully restored
the
computer to an earlier backup following a crash, and also
recently
installed
Business Contact Manager for Outlook - could the reading pane
problem
be
anything to do with either of these events?
Apologies if I've missed an easy fix elsewhere in the forum, but
I
couldn't
see anything on a quick look.
If an expert has come across this problem before and knows the
fast
solution, it would be much appreciated.
Thanks.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

This is what worked for me:

Open Outlook 2007. From the Tools menu, select "Trust Center," select
"Add-ins," click "Go" on "Manage Com Add-ins" at the bottom of the
window, uncheck "OutlookAddin". That's it.

 

[Styles]

Within the last couple days I have noticed the same problem and finally
became frustrated enough to go searching for a solution. On my own I have
completed many of the mentioned diagnostics with no positive outcome. This
seems to be a newer posting but has anyone actually fixed the problem yet?

 

[Blue Max]

Thank you very much for the suggestion!

****************

Thanks, Roady, I appreciate the suggestions and link. We'll follow some of
the suggestions in the link to troubleshoot the problem and time will
likely
tell if this is a widespread problem or not.

Thanks,

Richard

***********
in
message

I think we were replying at the same time ;-)

I can get assistance once I can deduce and repro the issue. At this
moment
I haven't been able to do that to a point where I suspect it is an
Outlook
issue. As I've mentioned in another post I think it's retraceable to 3rd
party security suites. I'd leave it then up to them to fight out if it
is
a Microsoft issue or not as I cannot look in either's source code ;-)

I can raise awareness at Microsoft so they might update the "Know
Issues"
section of the KB article for the security update but they cannot state
these problems with 3rd party products without proper proof. That would
result in yet another law suit ;-)

Also I'm not fully certain if all the issues reported are actually
retraceable to the security update. I'm not trying to dismiss your
issues
here but it is a common occurrence that once an update has been released
people try to relate all their issues to it while in fact these are
standalone issues or issues that were already existing on a system but
only surfaced because of the update. Cause and symptom are easily
confused
sometimes.

The fact that Outlook doesn't close when pressing the close button makes
it a 3rd party issue with about 99% certainty.
See for some solutions;
http://www.howto-outlook.com/faq/outlookdoesntclose.htm

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
Coauthor, Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003
http://www.howto-outlook.com/
Outlook FAQ, HowTo, Downloads, Add-Ins and more

http://www.msoutlook.info/
Real World Questions, Real World Answers

-----

Hello Roady,
We are starting to get a small following on this issue, but haven't
heard
back from you as yet. As an MVP, are you able to get any assistance
from
Microsoft on this issue? Upon Googling this issue, I also found a
number
of posts across other sites expressing this concern.
Thanks,
Richard
**************
"Roady [MVP]" <newsgroups_DELETE_@_DELETE_sparnaaij_NO_._SPAM_net>
wrote
in messageNope, can't remember coming across this issue before (and I'm here for
quite the number of years already).
Creating a test user is only to find out the scope of the issue; user
configuration issue or company wide configuration/installation issue.
It
helps with troubleshooting and trying to find out how to make it work
under your own user account. That's why I called it a test user and
not
a new user ;-)
--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
Coauthor, Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003
http://www.howto-outlook.com/
Outlook FAQ, HowTo, Downloads, Add-Ins and more
http://www.msoutlook.info/
Real World Questions, Real World Answers
-----
Thanks for your continuing support.
Version number is:
(12.0.6300.5000) SP1 MSO (12.0.6213.1000)
Following your post I tried Repair (ie from Office CD) and this
appeared to
help initially, but since then the problem has recurred
intermittently
through the day.
About half an hour ago I rebooted the computer, and Outlook is now
working
again fine. The reading pane is functioning. Before the reboot,
however,
Outlook had again slowed to a crawl, the reading pane was disabled
and
there
were several other Outlook malfunctions. I noticed that Outlook's CPU
usage
had increased to 50%, and by co-incidence saw that the preceding
poster
in
this forum mentioned a similar phenomenon. Is something going on here
across
a number of other users too?
I haven't tried logging on as another user. Do you mean creating
another
Windows User on my laptop? I'd prefer to avoid that if possible... it
seems
to be quite a palaver creating all the new user's setings. I would
give it a
go if you still think it necessary - what is the way to do it as
simply
as
possible please?
:
What is your exact version number? Help-> About
Did you try running Repair already?
If it still doesn't work after that, log on as a different user
(create a
test user if needed) and see if the issue also occurs when logged on
as that
user.
--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
Coauthor, Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003
http://www.howto-outlook.com/
Outlook FAQ, HowTo, Downloads, Add-Ins and more
http://www.msoutlook.info/
Real World Questions, Real World Answers
-----
I tried running safe mode, and the Outlook window looks exactly
the
same
as
normal mode - ie it didn't say 'Safe mode' in the title bar, or
anything
like
that. Is that right?
Anyhow, the reading pane doesn't seem to work in that mode either.
Thanks for your help with this.
:
Does it work in Outlook Safe Mode?
Start-> type; outlook.exe /safe
In addition see
http://www.howto-outlook.com/faq/outlookdoesntstart.htm
--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
Coauthor, Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003
http://www.howto-outlook.com/
Outlook FAQ, HowTo, Downloads, Add-Ins and more
http://www.msoutlook.info/
Real World Questions, Real World Answers
-----
The reading pane has recently stopped working and is just grey.
If I restart the computer, it may work briefly, then after a
while stop
and
go blank again.
Any suggestions please?
Am running Vista for Business. I recently successfully restored
the
computer to an earlier backup following a crash, and also
recently
installed
Business Contact Manager for Outlook - could the reading pane
problem
be
anything to do with either of these events?
Apologies if I've missed an easy fix elsewhere in the forum,
but
I
couldn't
see anything on a quick look.
If an expert has come across this problem before and knows the
fast
solution, it would be much appreciated.
Thanks.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

This is what worked for me:

Open Outlook 2007. From the Tools menu, select "Trust Center," select
"Add-ins," click "Go" on "Manage Com Add-ins" at the bottom of the
window, uncheck "OutlookAddin". That's it.

 

[Jason]

I tried all of the above as well, with no luck... in the end, I re-installed
Vista (as an upgrade over the top of the existing Vista), re-applied all the
hotfixes and service packs, and problem solved.

Jason.

 

[jlrodgers]

Kind of curious, but does anyone else with this problem happen to have
Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional (with the PDFMOutlook plugin) --
potentially also with the Business Contact Manager?

Not sure if me disabling this will work (nothing else did -- and
wasn't about to uninstall the KB946983 which was listed as a solution
that worked elsewhere). But I noticed after disabling it, the reading
pane seemed to load almost 2x as quick.

 

[jlrodgers]

Apparently not even that works.... Outlook 2007. Only Microsoft
plugins (as comes with outlook and installed by default) and the
reading pane problem still occurs. No AV plugin, nothing other than
MS ones.

 

[fortysixandtwo]

Apparentlynoteven that works....Outlook2007. Only Microsoft
plugins (as comes withoutlookand installed by default) and thereadingpaneproblemstill occurs. No AV plugin, nothing other than
MS ones.

We are having this exact same problem, but ONLY with new users that
were set up on the Exchange server AFTER the last round of Updates
that have been mentioned in this thread. All 175+ employees that were
already set up in Exchange (including myself) are just fine. Not sure
what this means.

 

[fortysixandtwo]

We are having this exact sameproblem, but ONLY with new users that
were set up on the Exchange server AFTER the last round of Updates
that have been mentioned in this thread. All 175+ employees that were
already set up in Exchange (including myself) are just fine. Notsure
what this means.

The fix I've found, is that when you open Outlook, it hides a dialog
box to enter your initials (because, as I said in my previous post,
this only affects new users), so just open up Word, or Excel, and
enter in the persons initials in that dialog box you get there. Now
Outlook should do its thing, however, the reading pane will still not
display. Just close out of Outlook (you'll probably have to kill the
process in task manager) and re-open. No deleting add-ins, no
removing MS updates. Just a simple solution and everything runs super
smooth now!

 

[Jason]

That didn't work for me... I agree with you though, in that it seems to be
some sort of dialog box that is going into the background and hiding which is
the root of the problem. I noted some time after my initial problem started,
the symptoms changed slightly, and Outlook would complain of a dialog box
that was open somewhere. Do you think I could find one? Nope!!

Jason.

 

[wayne]

My wife had this problem, but I didn't. We both have the same laptop with
Vista Business and Office 2007. On closer inspection I noticed she had not
downloaded and installed Office 2007 SP1. I had. I suggested to her to
download and install SP1 for Office 2007. She did and the problem
disappeared. The problem has not reoccurred for going on 5 hours now.

Wayne.

 

[Scotch]

I thought I should at long last post an update to this board in case it's of
any help to the amazing number of people who have added messages about
similar problems - thanks for all the interest.

In parallel with the Outlook problem, I was experiencing a separate problem
that Windows Automatic Update had stopped working and was refusing to
download or install any more updates.

I feel as if I've spent most of the last fortnight fiddling with my computer
to try and solve these issues. When you come to these message boards you
suddenly realise how many hundreds if not thousands of people around the
globe are spending hours and hours of their time engaging with gremlins on
their machines... what on earth did people do with their time on the long
dark nights before computers were invented?

I got to the stage where I felt I was unable to waste any more time
unsuccessfully trying out various little fixes suggested by different people;
and decided on something more drastic.

I did a full restore of my whole system to a date in February which was
before the problems started occurring, using the Rescue and Recovery
programme supplied with my laptop. I had previously tried a 'partial'
restore - which is supposed to restore all system files and settings, but
leave other personal files and programmes alone - but it was after that the
problems were persisting, so it evidently hadn't done its stuff properly.

The full restore (havng saved my personal files etc to CD) took a whole lot
more time, but first it fixed the Windows Update bug, which was cause for
some optimism.

Incidentally I then did some other spring cleaning, especially defragmenting
the hard disk, which helped my copy of Outlook 2007 (*before* re-installing
Business Contact Manager) to perform much more quickly and smoothly.

Then came the moment to try re-installing Business Contact Manager (BCM).
Wondering whether this was at the root of the Outlook problems described in
this thread, I took another full backup of my system before adding BCM.

It took several attempts to get BCM to install properly, including more
references to support pages and message boards elsewhere to try and
understand why. Finally it did.

All seemed well on the first day... but then... on the second day Outlook
seized up again with all the problems noted in this thread! However... I
then noticed that Windows Update was offering me another update - Office 2003
Service Pack 3. This seemed a bit puzzling as I don't have Office 2003 on my
laptop, but Office 2007. But I had noticed that when installing BCM from the
Office 2007 CD, it had first of all loaded a component called 'Microsoft
Office 2003 Web Components'. So I let Windows Update install the update,
which is of course what it couldn't do when I first had the problems listed
in this thread, because Windows Update was also broken.

The outcome of this long story is that Outlook 2007 with BCM, and my laptop
as a whole, now seem to be working well. Not that I quite believe it... I
fully expect to have to post again tomorrow, or the next day, to say that the
gremlins have come back...

Is it conceivable that the problems are caused when BCM is installed on a
2007 system, but the additional Office 2003 SP3 component is missing or has
not yet been added on?

Hoping this feedback may be of some help.

Cheers

 

[blazer682]

The fix I've found, is that when you open Outlook, it hides a dialog
box to enter your initials (because, as I said in my previous post,
this only affects new users), so just open up Word, or Excel, and
enter in the persons initials in that dialog box you get there. Now
Outlook should do its thing, however, the reading pane will still not
display. Just close out of Outlook (you'll probably have to kill the
process in task manager) and re-open. No deleting add-ins, no
removing MS updates. Just a simple solution and everything runs super
smooth now!

This fix worked for me, on XPSP2 system and Office Suite 2007. The
issue seems to be that you need to open one of the other apps first
(Word, Excel), enter the user's initials and activate the software.
OL2007 doesn't appear to have the ability to deal with these other
windows which seem to be hidden in the first instance. Once I dealt
with the other windows in Word, Outlook appears to behave normally.
So...maybe MS can create a fix for that?

 

[Blue Max]

What if you don't have the "OutlookAddin" ?

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