repost: "customize" freezes - Outlook 2002

[Roxana]

Repost - "customize" freezes - Outlook 2002 - from 3 days ago.

Outlook 2002/ Office XP/ Win98se

Might as well ask if there's a fix for the near constant freeze which occurs
when attempting to employ the menu item: Tools > Customize.
This freezing issue always requires the most drastic measures to shut down
Outlook/Winword. I should add that the shutdown is never successful; always
resulting in a "Because Outlook was not closed properly...checking <some
folder> for problems". etc.

Thanking you for any suggestions. (this is one busy NG)

Roxana

 

[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.

 

[Roxana]

Renaming didn't work.

Renamed to Outcmd.old while Outlook was closed.
Launched Outlook, and all was normal.
Closed Outlook.
Re-launched Outlook.
Tried "Customize".
Outlook Froze; GUI wouldn't re-draw properly'
Ctrl-Alt-Del Outlook.
No new Outcmd.dat file was created.

Re-launch Outlook:
The data file 'Personal folder' was not closed properly. .... checking for
problems'
The data file 'Archive folder' was not closed properly. .... checking for
problems'

Renamed Outcmd.old back to Outcmd.dat

Now I'm here. Any other suggestions ?

Thanks for the reply and your help.

in message

 

[Jocelyn Fiorello]

Strange that it would work once and not the next time. Have you tried
opening Outlook in Safe mode? Go to the Windows Start menu, click Run, then
type in the following:

outlook.exe /safe

See if it works properly then. If so, we will have to go through some other
steps of narrowing down the problem when Outlook runs in normal mode.

 

[Roxana]

I'm sorry; I must have created a bit of confusion by my wording. When I
wrote "Renamed to Outcmd.old while Outlook was closed. Launched Outlook,
and all was normal.", I simply meant that having renamed Outcmd.dat to
Outcmd.old didn't affect the *opening of Outlook in any way*. The problem
with "Customize" remained, and still remains.

As for any positive result using "Outlook Safe Mode; that's unable to effect
any change (for me). eg - There is
any "customize" option on the menu in safe mode as it is
greyed-out/inactive.

I apologize for any confusion.

Thanks for your reply.
Roxana

in message

 

[Roxana]

There was a "hiccup" in my last post, as I also opened Outlook in safe mode
while OE was open as my newsreader; It messed up my ongoing reply.

I had written (but OE hiccoughed), and intended it to read:
There *isn't any* "customize" option on the menu in safe mode as it is
greyed-out/inactive.

Roxana


"Roxana" <wrote in message news:[email protected]...

 

[Jocelyn Fiorello]

Two more things to try (if #1 doesn't work, try #2):

1) Run Detect and Repair from the Help menu of any installed Office product
-- if you can't get to it in Outlook, go to Word or something else. You will
need to have your Office installation CD handy.

2) Create a new mail profile. This tends to cure a lot of ills.
Instructions for creating a new mail profile can be found at
http://www.howto-outlook.com/faq/newprofile.htm.

 

[Roxana]

Hello.

Im always "concerned" when running any MS "repair". What I mean is, that for
example: running Repair IE has rarely worked; has undone loads of things;
has required me to run WinUp and get numerous things back in order.
So, my question is, if I do an Outlook "Detect and Repair", will that be as
big a nuisance as doing a "Repair Internet Explorer" can be ? Worse still,
if it doesn't accomplish the repair.

And yes, I do have my Office XP Install disk.

I also already have a second profile in Outlook 2002 . It too exhibits the
same freeze when trying to run "customize". Is that of any significance or
any bearing on this ? In other words, would that preclude the idea of having
yet another profile as a means to fix this matter ?

I should add, that due to a delay in getting further response here, I'd made
a new post in Outlook newsgroup the other day. I apologize, but i was
sitting here in limbo.

Link to my other post in Outlook Newsgroup

Thank you for your time and your reply.
Roxana.

"Jocelyn Fiorello" wrote in message

 

[Jocelyn Fiorello]

I couldn't follow your link to the other post but I found it through Google
Groups. It looks like Diane Poremsky asked you the same questions I did
Since Diane has been in the Outlook arena much longer than I, I think I will
let her take over on your issue, and let this thread drop. I apologize if I
was delayed in answering you, but I'm sure that you already know that these
forums are completely peer-to-peer and we can only answer questions in our
spare time. The only sure way to get immediate help is to call Microsoft
Product Support.

Good luck fixing your issue

 

[Roxana]

<top post>

I apologize Jocelyn. It was my mistake in that I probably (likely) - in my
haste - failed to prefix the "part to the message url. If not that
(and upon closer inspection it appears that it isn't), then I don't know
what went awry. No matter... except that you were somehow caused to perform
more work, and that does matter. I'm sorry, and I apologize to you.

Yes, the same questions were posed. ;-)) I'd tried to return and address
them - along with whatever else might have cropped up - as quickly and
accurately as I could.

Maybe Diane has been "in the Outlook arena" for more time than yourself, but
I do recognize your name and have looked at many of your posts in the past.
;-)) Don't under-rate yourself. *smile*.

I understand, and I thank you for your post and your genuine intent. *smile*

Peace be with you,
Roxana

PS - The "Detect and Repair" didn't fix the "customize freezes outlook"
issue. lol :-D

"Jocelyn Fiorello" wrote in message

 

[Roxana]

It was suggested I perform a "Detect and Repair" of Outlook 2002 to try to
fix the Hard Freeze of Outlook when trying to use the menu item >
"customize".

I conducted the "Detect and Repair" and it failed to correct the Hard
Freezing of Outlook 2002. The situation remains as it was, and is unresolved
as of this moment.

Roxana

 

[Jocelyn Fiorello]

This might be obvious -- if so, sorry. When you created a new profile, you
created it from scratch, right? It wasn't a copy of another one? Sometimes
people copy a bad profile and then wonder why it doesn't work. Doesn't sound
like you would do that but I had to ask anyway.

Did you do a search on your drive for all files that might be called
"Outcmd.dat"? Just wondering if renaming all of them would help...I think I
said this before but it is not normal for Outlook not to create a fresh new
copy of the file if it can't find one when it starts. That's why I suggested
running the Detect and Repair option, to see if it could fix whatever might
be wrong there.

I'm running out of ideas but if I think of something else I'll let you know.