Outlook and "Bad Image" error (msimtf.dll)

[mechphisto]

I have a user in the office, with Windows XP Home (SP2) and Office
2002 (SP3).

She's starting to get this message:
"OUTLOOK.EXE - Bad Image. The application or DLL C:\WINDOWS
\System32\msimtf.dll is not a valid Windows image. Please check this
against your installation diskette."
every time she starts up Outlook, sometimes two or three of them in a
row she has to OK.
They'll also pop up now and then while using Outlook.

This only started happening a couple of days ago, and she hasn't
installed or uninstalled any software lately, and nothing else unusual
has happened with her PC before this started.
She has all the MS Updater updates, and I can't find anything useful
about this on the Interwebbytubes.
Any suggestions?

Thanks!
Liam

 

[Mark L. Ferguson]

Outlook Help menu has a 'detect and repair' option that should repair that
file.

 

[neo [mvp outlook]]

Could be the sign of a failing hard drive. Have you tried running a chkdsk
to verify?

 

[Frank Saunders MS-MVP IE,OE/WM]

I have a user in the office, with Windows XP Home (SP2) and Office
2002 (SP3).

She's starting to get this message:
"OUTLOOK.EXE - Bad Image. The application or DLL C:\WINDOWS
\System32\msimtf.dll is not a valid Windows image. Please check this
against your installation diskette."
every time she starts up Outlook, sometimes two or three of them in a
row she has to OK.
They'll also pop up now and then while using Outlook.

This only started happening a couple of days ago, and she hasn't
installed or uninstalled any software lately, and nothing else unusual
has happened with her PC before this started.
She has all the MS Updater updates, and I can't find anything useful
about this on the Interwebbytubes.
Any suggestions?

Thanks!
Liam

You'll get more knowledgeable help for Outlook in an Outlook newsgroup:

news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.outlook
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.outlook.Calendaring
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.outlook.configuration
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.outlook.Contacts
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.outlook.Fax
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.outlook.General
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.outlook.installation
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.outlook.interop
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.outlook.printing
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.outlook.Program_AddIns
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.outlook.program_forms
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.outlook.Program_VBA
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.outlook.ThirdPartyUtil
On the Web:
http://www.microsoft.com/communitie...&pt=&catlist=&dglist=&ptlist=&exp=&sloc=en-us

 

[mechphisto]

You'll get more knowledgeable help for Outlook in an Outlook newsgroup:

Thank you. Good thing I asked in a couple of Outlook groups:
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.outlook.general,
microsoft.public.outlook, microsoft.public.windowsxp.general,
microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support

But then, with Microsoft stuff, I never know if a problem is purely
the app or the OS, so I ask in both places.
Thanks,
Liam

 

[mechphisto]

Thanks for the suggestion; I'd forgotten all about that feature!
Unfortunately, it didn't fix the problem.
(But I'll certainly keep that in mind for other issues that crop up! I
have a couple of user I have to run scanpst on once every couple of
weeks...I wonder if running that might fix whatever root problem keeps
fouling their pst files....)
Thanks again,
Liam

 

[Brian Tillman]

Thanks for the suggestion; I'd forgotten all about that feature!
Unfortunately, it didn't fix the problem.

Well, msimtf.dll is a Windows DLL. Try reregistering it. Open a command
prompt window and enter:

regsvr32.exe /u msimtf.dll
regsvr32.exe msimtf.dll

 

[mechphisto]

Well, msimtf.dll is a Windows DLL. Try reregistering it. Open a command
prompt window and enter:

regsvr32.exe /u msimtf.dll
regsvr32.exe msimtf.dll

Hmm, I wouldn't have thought of that.
Well, I tried, but on both commends I get:
"C:\Windows\System32.dll" is not an executable file and no
registration helper is registered for this file type.

Well, thanks for the suggestion.
-Liam

 

[Mark L. Ferguson]

Since I get a success dialog on those commands, I think it likely that you
should be looking to a repair of this system file. msimtf.dll

I suggest using start/run, type:
msconfig

Expand file button, point at the old file, and when asked browse to the XP
setup files location to find msimtf.dl_ , or perhaps msimtf.dll in one of
the *.cab files, or perhaps a standalone file,

 

[Brian Tillman]

Hmm, I wouldn't have thought of that.
Well, I tried, but on both commends I get:
"C:\Windows\System32.dll" is not an executable file and no
registration helper is registered for this file type.

Hm. This doesn't seem like a reasonable result. Try this instead:

regsvr32.exe /u %systemroot%\system32\msimtf.dll
regsvr32.exe %systemroot%\system32\msimtf.dll

 

[windmap]

Try repairing the Outlook in ADD/REMOVE programs.You may need installation
file or CD

 

[mechphisto]

Hm. This doesn't seem like a reasonable result. Try this instead:

regsvr32.exe /u %systemroot%\system32\msimtf.dll
regsvr32.exe %systemroot%\system32\msimtf.dll

Nope, still didn't work.
Until... I directly copied an older version of the file from c:\WINDOWS
\$NtServicePackUninstall% into the system32, and then the regsvr
commands worked! (The msconfig method someone else recommended didn't
seem to work.)
And then, Outlook opened again just fine without errors.
Thanks for the advice!
-Liam

 

[mechphisto]

Since I get a success dialog on those commands, I think it likely that you
should be looking to a repair of this system file. msimtf.dll

I suggest using start/run, type:
msconfig

Expand file button, point at the old file, and when asked browse to the XP
setup files location to find msimtf.dl_ , or perhaps msimtf.dll in one of
the *.cab files, or perhaps a standalone file,

Well, that didn't seem to work. No errors or anything, it acts like it
did it, but the date/size of the file never changes after doing that.
What I ended up finally doing, is directly copying the msimtf.dll from
c:\windows\$NtServicePackUninstall$ into the system32, and then un-
and reregsvr32-ing it.
(The original file was 156KB and 8/4/2004, the backed up one I copied
over it with is 141KB and 8/29/2002. I hope the difference doesn't
hurt something else....)
But, that finally seemed to work.
Thanks for the advice and replies!!
-Liam