Outlook 2007/Vista 64/ "Cannot open the Outlook Window"

C

CliffB

Unable to start Outlook; rcv dialog "Cannot Start Microsoft Office Outlook;
Cannot open the Outlook Window". Error occurred AFTER a Norton 2009 "idle
time scan" hang DURING an Outlook send/receive that was apparrently hung due
to Norton.

I have attempted several published fixes including Scanpst,
DeleteOutlookProfiles, running Outlook with /safe switch (same error),
uninstall/reinstall Outlook, turning Norton 2009 off during my process, etc.

On reinstall (after running DeleteOutlookProfiles), I create a new profile
and a new Outlook PST ... still receive the "cannot open..." error.

Any further suggestions - hopefully short of resorting to my recovery image?

Thanks,

Cliff
 
D

DL

Have you uninstalled Norton, then use the tool available on Norton web site
to completely remove?
 
C

CliffB

Thanks for the quick reply. No I have not ... primarily because the Norton
distribution was preloaded to this shiny new laptop which did not include a
Norton 2009 disk. Neither have I (yet) searched Norton for a linkage.

Cliff
 
D

DL

Uninstall it, via add/remove dialogue, or there maybe an uninstaller in the
Norton program files grouping.
Then clear temp files & reboot
Try checking Norton site for the completely remove utility, older versions
of Norton had such & I assume the same is true for your version
AV apps often cause problems when intergrated into Outlook
 
C

CliffB

I did a complete Norton removal (using the removal tool on the Norton site)
under the guidance of a Norton rep via an Internet session. Outlook still
failed to start with same error dialog.

Again, deinstalled Outlook & ran DeleteOutlookProfiles. Reinstalled Norton.
Run Office repair. Reinstall Outlook and configured for a new PST.

Outlook still will not start ... displays "Cannot open the Outlook Window".

Cliff
 
D

DL

Don't reinstall Norton!
With Norton completely removed from your system, then set about repairing /
configuring outlook
Uninstalling Outlook, rarely cures a problem that Office Diagnostics wont
fix
 
C

CliffB

With Norton completely removed bythe published Norton removal tool;all
profiles had been removed with the DeleteOutlookProfiles utility; Outlook was
installed from the control panel/resident .cab files; installation was
successful; initial invocation of Outlook configured a profile and
successfully 'tested' to my ISP mail; configuration process indicated a new
..pst was being created; THEN displayed "cannot open Outlook window".
Confirming, Norton has been removed and error still occurs.

I guess I am now hoping for a registry hack or something to avoid rebuilding
the system from the recovery media.

thanks...
 
D

Dan Thomas

Hi CliffB,

I've experienced the same symptoms since yesterday, though I'm not running
Norton: Yesterday, outlook and vs2008 appeared to hang at the same time
(similar to what you are describing) and I couldn't even terminate the
processes via task manager.

I did a hard-reset and this morning I'm getting the exact message you are.
I've tried the whole uninstall this, fix that routine and getting nowhere
fast. It would be nice if the event log had something more substantial in it
to help in diagnosis.

I'm on win2k8 server (64-bit). Any news on a solution apart from the most
brutal options (clean install) yet?

Thanks

-- Dan
 
C

CliffB

Since I have a second machine, I have been living with the issue on my Vista
machine. I have not heard any 'fixes' although it seems there are more
reports like ours.

Resisting a complete rebuild ...

Cliff
 
D

Dan Thomas

Ok mate, I got it going...

Now this is a bit vague because I was trying to reset everything but the
process was:

1) Removed my ost (yes I'm using exchange) - well I renamed it
outlook.ost.old in C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook and
renamed my archive folder in C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Local
Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook
2) Uninstalled all addins
3) found this page and started playing with no success
http://www.microsoft.com/communitie...6cc86ae-e2a0-4254-9fd3-82f4e8d06865&p=1&ntf=1

.... UNTIL I ran Outlook.exe /resetnavpane

Clears and regenerates the Navigation Pane for the current profile. Removes
all Shortcuts and Favorite Folders. Has the same effect as deleting
profilename.xml in your user directory.

After this, I was able to get back into outlook!

The only clue as to why this may have worked is because when I got the
problem, another XML file on my machine (required to run one of my
development programs) had also become corrupted - I can only guess that
perhaps the profilename.xml possibly became corrupted in a similar kind of
way...

I'm really sorry I cannot give any more detail: I've been effectively
button-mashing (ok, running varous command-line switches mainly to do with
"cleaning" stuff) but it only worked once this switch was executed.

It may be a combination or specifically this switch, but I hope this
provides a little bit of a clue...

-- Dan
 
C

CliffB

You are 'The Man'!

This is farther into Windows stuff than I usually go ... profilename.xml was
not something of which I was aware.

Outlook.exe /resetnavpane appears to have resolved the problem.

Thanks VERY Much!

CliffB
 
C

CliffB

You are 'The Man'!

This is farther into Windows stuff than I usually go ... profilename.xml was
not something of which I was aware.

Outlook.exe /resetnavpane appears to have resolved the problem.

Thanks VERY Much!

CliffB
 
M

Middle Child

Your suggestion: 'UNTIL I ran Outlook.exe /resetnavpane' worked very well for
me.
Thank you very Much!
 
C

ChadH

i am running Outlook 2007 and ran into this issue today for no apparent
reason. I rebooted my machine after a short internet outage, and BAM! "Cannot
open outlook..."

Under deadline, I Frantically started Googling the problem finding that most
people were donig uninstalls, system restores, and many other time consuming
cannibalistic things to try and fix the issue.

Then I found this post... within 10 seconds of reading and typing
Outlook.exe /resetnavpane i was back in business without the headache of
smoking 1/2 my machine to fix the problem.

Dan... the next time I am out at the pub, i will raise a glass for you my
friend.

Thank you very much.

ChadH
 
F

FishSlapper

Dan, you are a steely-eyed, missile man! I was approaching 24 hours of being
into this problem (i.e. "Cannot open the Outlook Window"), when I found this
thread. I am running Outlook 2007/Vista 32/Ultimate/, and started getting
that message after a system hang yesterday. Like Cliff and others, I had
tried EVERYTHING to get this fixed, but nothing solved the problem, until I
found your post, Dan. So, as you suggested, I ran: "Outlook.exe
/resetnavpane" and it fixed my Outlook problem too! Thank you very much for
posting the problem (Cliff) and the solution (Dan).

Regards,
 
N

Nurgle

Dan,

Same issue this morning, out of the blue, no reason why, works fine on my
wife's log in,cannot open on mine. used your resetnavpane and all sorted!

many regards
 
D

dejanr

Same issue on my father's computer, outlook.exe /resetnavpane cured
it.

It probably happened after Vista SP2 installed.
 
C

CliffB

Not completely, the original problem was reported prior to installing Vista
SP2. That being said ... it may very well be a 'recent' update that is also
in SP2.

Cliff
 

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