Windows 11 New Outlook Startup

Question

Microsoft Outlook doesn't open on startup in Windows 11.

I googled and found that the solution is to go to the task manager, find outlook, go to the olk.exe location, create a shortcut and put it in the startup folder.

After doing this, outlook opened fine on startup, until the olk.exe location was changed and broke the shortcut. Will I have to create a new shortcut every time outlook is patched?

The image shows my old outlook shortcut with the target set to
"C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.OutlookForWindows_1.2025.522.100_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe\olk.exe"

After going through task manager and finding the olk.exe location, the new location is now "C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.OutlookForWindows_1.2025.527.300_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe" and the previous folder is no longer present.

Is there anyway to have the startup shortcut be updated when the outlook version is changed?

Answer 1

This works on my PC. Use "%localappdata%\Microsoft\WindowsApps\olk.exe" as the path

Answer 2

Hi @Bruno Blanco, 

Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum. 

It looks like the issue is related to Outlook's executable path changing after updates, which breaks the startup shortcut. Here are some solutions you may try: 

Option 1: Use PowerShell: You can use a script to detect the latest Outlook version and open it at startup. 

-Open Notepad > Copy and paste the following script: 

$path = Get-ChildItem "C:\Program Files\WindowsApps" -Recurse | Where-Object { $_.Name -match "Microsoft.OutlookForWindows" } | Sort-Object -Descending | Select-Object -First 1
Start-Process "$($path.FullName)\olk.exe"

  -Save it as OutlookStartup.ps1 > Press Win + R > type shell:startup >Enter 

-Move OutlookStartup.ps1 to the Startup folder. 

*This script will always find the latest Outlook version and launch it at startup. 

Option 2: Use Task Scheduler:  

-Press Win + S, search Task Scheduler and open it >Create Basic Task >Name the task "Start Outlook on Startup" > Next > Choose When I log on > Next > Select Start a Program > Next. 

-In the Program/script box, enter

powershell.exe -File "C:\Path\To\StartOutlook.ps1"

(Replace C:\Path\To\StartOutlook.ps1 with the actual location of your PowerShell script). 

-Click Next > Finish to save and activate the task. 

I hope this helps. 

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