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Cannot start microsoft office outlook. Cannot open the outlook window

Back from a week's leave and all ready to go when I get ...

"Cannot start microsoft office outlook. Cannot open the outlook window"

 Nice error message hey:)!

I tried a pile of the obvious stuff to no avail when I finally found the following forum entry from a guy called Dan Thomas (on the third search page!)

Run outlook.exe /resetnavpane

https://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/en-us/default.aspx?dg=microsoft.public.outlook&tid=4df24070-b33a-409f-82a5-c18385fd6739&mid=a28f285e-8029-4d8b-9dfa-ca17d4fd897b&cat=&lang=&cr=&sloc=&p=2

I guess it was obvious that the error would be to do with a navigation pane on the outloook UI - for goodness sakes!

Anyway, thanks Dan - wherever you are!!!

Comments

  • Anonymous
    May 31, 2009
    PingBack from http://microsoft-sharepoint.simplynetdev.com/cannot-start-microsoft-office-outlook-cannot-open-the-outlook-window/

  • Anonymous
    June 02, 2009
    Thanks man, this should be the only solution on the web! Took me 30min to get your solution :)

  • Anonymous
    June 03, 2009
    Thanks Mate, worked a treat. This type of information sharing is great for useless people like me. Thankyou again

  • Anonymous
    June 07, 2009
    Wow.... where has this solution been all my life. It works... it's simple and it's fixed the problem in all of 5 seconds..... never mind the hour trwling through webpages with long winded solutions.   Well done on finding this.

  • Anonymous
    June 07, 2009
    thank you so much!!! good job!

  • Anonymous
    June 09, 2009
    Brilliant, that worked a treat. I too found various solutions to do with reconfiguring Outlook, reinstallation and then importing settings and so on, then I stumbled across this entry, gave it a try and I'm up and running.

  • Anonymous
    June 09, 2009
    This work pefectly. Thanks Again

  • Anonymous
    June 09, 2009
    Nice and simple solution. Thanks Mate to share useful information.

  • Anonymous
    June 09, 2009
    Nice and simple solution. Thanks Mate to share useful information.

  • Anonymous
    June 09, 2009
    3 days, 4 IT 'experts', and the solution takes 2 seconds. Just one question....what have I actually done?   reset navpane makes me suspicious whatever problem is still there, I've just 'navigated' away from it.

  • Anonymous
    June 09, 2009
    Thanks for saving me a lot of work. Great solution on here. And thanks to Dan!

  • Anonymous
    June 10, 2009
    Thanks mate, you legend!! Nothing else worked!!!

  • Anonymous
    June 10, 2009
    Sweet.  This did the Trick. I was just about ready to Re-Install! :( Thanks :)

  • Anonymous
    June 11, 2009
    Thanks! Worked well for me as well, just had a user with the same problem and I'd never encountered that error message before.

  • Anonymous
    June 11, 2009
    Thank you so much for posting this fix. I have looked for hours and days on end and was amazed that this took 2 seconds to fix the problem. You are my hero. Thank you, thank you.

  • Anonymous
    June 11, 2009
    Thanks. This soluttion saved my day :)

  • Anonymous
    June 12, 2009
    you're the man, wish i'd found this soooo much sooner!  worked great, a few seconds and am up and running again.  

  • Anonymous
    June 13, 2009
    Just another thanks for posting this information.  The error popped up out of the blue so I hadn't a clue what caused it.  Found your blog post straight away and fixed it right up. Thanks much! :D

  • Anonymous
    June 14, 2009
    Thanks mate I've saved my time by using your great simple solution. :-)

  • Anonymous
    June 15, 2009
    Fixed my problem in less than 2 mins - thank you so much!

  • Anonymous
    June 16, 2009
    If only I had found this first, rather than running the Microsoft fix and having to rebuild all my accounts and rules. Fantastic work, many thanks

  • Anonymous
    June 17, 2009
    All I can say is !!! Thank You !!!

  • Anonymous
    June 17, 2009
    Thanks guys, amazing. I thought it was my Windows 7 RC killing my outlook. Super!  

  • Anonymous
    June 18, 2009
    This fault cost me a days work and it was my birthday). Finally found this solution (having tried various other switches) and finally got my Outlook open again at 5 to eleven at night. Sainthood awaits thee.

  • Anonymous
    June 18, 2009
    Ditto on the above comments - THANK YOU!

  • Anonymous
    June 19, 2009
    Anyone have any idea as to what may cause this error? I had never seen it before this week, but suddenly half a dozen laptops have gotten it in the past few days.

  • Anonymous
    June 20, 2009
    AAA+++ would Start-Run-outlook.exe /resetnavpane again. What a simple fix; would be handy to add to the error message. I'm leaving for a business trip at 6am and was close to tears thinking about using OWA for 5 days.

  • Anonymous
    June 22, 2009
    Great fix and much appreciated.  It saved my sanity because have to get on the phone with Microsoft tech support.  Thank you.

  • Anonymous
    June 22, 2009
    Thanks Matt & Dan, your comments were spot on for the error message that cma up on Microsoft outlook (outlook.exe /resetnavpane)in the 'RUN' pane cheers Mike

  • Anonymous
    June 23, 2009
    A 5 second fix......you are AWESOME

  • Anonymous
    June 25, 2009
    I had this same problem a month ago and had to restore a backup of my PST file because I couldn't find a solution. So when it happened again today I was so happy to find your post!!

  • Anonymous
    June 28, 2009
    Saved my bacon!!! Thank you so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Anonymous
    June 28, 2009
    After an hour or two undating, restarting etc, pulling hair out - I found this which did the job - many thanks!

  • Anonymous
    June 29, 2009
    This worked perfectly for me too.  Thanks for the tip!

  • Anonymous
    June 29, 2009
    Fixed it in less than a minute...Great find for a non-tech geek...Thanks!

  • Anonymous
    June 30, 2009
    Wonderful solution -- worked like a charm!

  • Anonymous
    July 01, 2009
    Spot on. You and the original source. Thanks.

  • Anonymous
    July 02, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    July 02, 2009
    Thanks for posting this solution. I would have never found it!

  • Anonymous
    July 06, 2009
    Thanks - after 5 hours of trying to uninstall and reinstall office / outlook and system restores back and forth - this was a lifesaver. I'm disappointed with Microsoft.  This problem appears to be fairly recent and happened to me after I ran a set of Windows updates one of which included an Outlook update.

  • Anonymous
    July 08, 2009
    Great fix - after hours of trying to resolve... error happened again after a reboot tho...

  • Anonymous
    July 09, 2009
    Adding to this because it saved my life.  Ok, not my physical one but certainly my professional one.  Thanks again.

  • Anonymous
    July 12, 2009
    awesome, on a business trip, and you helped me fix it! Lots of Karma points to you.

  • Anonymous
    July 13, 2009
    MANY MANY THANKS!!!!!! After several hours of reinstalling, repairing Outlook I found this article What a stupid error message. Descriptive value =0

  • Anonymous
    July 15, 2009
    Thanks for this lifesaver post outstanding JOB MANY THANKS

  • Anonymous
    July 15, 2009
    Great solution.  Just don't forget the space - outlook.exe/(space)resetnavpane

  • Anonymous
    July 16, 2009
    Thanks alot for the gr8 tip. save my day

  • Anonymous
    July 17, 2009
    this looks promising, I did all the normal stuff with no effect short or uninstall / reinstall outlook or re-imaging the hard drive.  I should have googled the problem first !  probably a hangover of the simpler days when I knew CPM and could fix just about anything myself.....

  • Anonymous
    July 17, 2009
    i dont know if anyone has realized this, but it might be a problem with shutting down the computer while office is still open, I've had to do this a couple of times now because of power outages....just a thought

  • Anonymous
    July 20, 2009
    THANK YOU VERRRYYYY MUCCCCHHHHH! IF I COULD, I WOULD TO KISS YOUR FOOT! Regards,       Daniel

  • Anonymous
    July 23, 2009
    When I try your,I get "Windows cannot find "outlook.exe/resetnavpane'. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again." I'm using Vista. Is that why?

  • Anonymous
    July 23, 2009
    Thanks men. Worked as promised but will investigate why when I am in need of some trivial pursuits. Although, I am surprised your site was not the first one on the google search list(made it to #3) given the number of satisfied respondents.

  • Anonymous
    July 28, 2009
    THIS WORKED! I'd like to break it again and run it again :) tnx!

  • Anonymous
    July 30, 2009
    Wow, this worked great.  Will it be permanent fix?  Henry

  • Anonymous
    July 31, 2009
    Worked first time. Many thanks. The Microsoft response was incomprehensible to me!

  • Anonymous
    August 07, 2009
    Was just about to unistall/reinstall Office 2007.  It seems as though the problem in my case had to do with the Windows Live Office and the WIndows Outlook Connector. Microsoft needs to fix this bug.  Thanks for your help with this solution, it worked.

  • Anonymous
    August 09, 2009
    mate, thank you so much for this fix!!!! This should be the top link in google search for this error!! cheers!! :D

  • Anonymous
    August 30, 2009
    WOW,forunately I picked this one first even though it was 5th on page, MS should hire you.

  • Anonymous
    September 12, 2009
    thanks man, my  CEO laptop has got this error, i google it and found ur site and it resolved. thanks again

  • Anonymous
    September 13, 2009
    Thank you very much for this excelent fix. Microsoft has a very complecate answer for this problem that, in my case, does not work at all.

  • Anonymous
    September 17, 2009
    Thank you this solution worked a treat.

  • Anonymous
    September 18, 2009
    AFTER A REBOOT I HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM. ANYONE HAVE A PERMANENT FIX?

  • Anonymous
    September 29, 2009
    THis worked lke a charm. Still don't know what caused it. MAybe if a read more of the posts I'll finndout. Does anyone know why it happened?

  • Anonymous
    October 19, 2009
    Same here unfortunately - have to use the resetnavpane switch every time outlook is started?   I'm thinking it's maybe a plugin causing the problem?

  • Anonymous
    October 28, 2009
    GEEEE..... Thanx man! You just saved me from a heartattack....

  • Anonymous
    October 31, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    October 31, 2009
    sAM v - if you email me your contact details I'll try and help further ... no promises;)!

  • Anonymous
    November 05, 2009
    Wow... Simple but Great solution, the official Microsoft solution to run Program Filesmicrosoft officeOffice12SCANPST.EXE did not do any help. Finally the search and the intuition to click on this link helped

  • Anonymous
    November 07, 2009
    While /resetnavpane may work, it's not a satisfactory solution. I've read elsewhere that a patch corrupts the XML file that controls the navigation pane, causing the issue; but it's been 5 months since you started this thread and Microsoft still haven't acknowledged the problem (at least, I can't find anything in the kb) let alone fixed it! Do we have the plot for the next Apple commercial?

  • Anonymous
    November 11, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    November 20, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    November 20, 2009
    DB - go to the command prompt an dchange directory to your office folder. In my case you can find it here ... cd c:program filesMicrosoft OfficeOffice14 but I'm on Office 2010 Beta ... have search for outlook.exe email me directly and I'll try and help more .. Good luck Matt

  • Anonymous
    December 01, 2009
    Whatever you do, DON'T follow Microsoft's solution found here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/252304 It wipes out your profile completely and trashes the registry entry so you will loose all email you have without importing.

  • Anonymous
    December 07, 2009
    THANK YOU!!! I was pulling my hair out trying to figure this out.  2 profiles, both using a single pst file.  One user profile worked, one didn't

  • Anonymous
    December 14, 2009
    Hi Matt I'm running Vista and I get the same message as joe garcia when i try the run-outlook.exe/resetnavpane it comes back that it can't find folder Any ideas please cheers andy

  • Anonymous
    December 16, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    January 09, 2010
    Thanks – This worked.   Wished I’d looked here before I reinstalled Office plus two  service packs  and got the same problem.    

  • Anonymous
    January 11, 2010
    Man man, this surely made a very bad day great. Thank you guys for this.

  • Anonymous
    January 12, 2010
    Are you serious?? this took two seconds...thanks guy

  • Anonymous
    January 13, 2010
    This was brilliant.  Saved me lots of time to go searching for this

  • Anonymous
    January 22, 2010
    I'm having no luck with this. I'm getting the dread error message "Cannot start Microsoft Office Outlook. Cannot open the Outlook window" I've tried the typing "outlook.exe/navpane and outlook/navpane" into run. I then get another error message "Window cannot find ... make sure you typed the name correctly and try again." I've tried multiple times - restarted and tried again - still no luck. Any other suggestions?

  • Anonymous
    January 23, 2010
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    February 07, 2010
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    February 16, 2010
    You star - once again nothing else worked found this last, just wish it had been first! Worked immediately...LEGEND!!

  • Anonymous
    February 20, 2010
    Thanks, the solution worked like a charm. I wonder how many years it will take Microsoft to fix this bug...

  • Anonymous
    February 20, 2010
    Thanks, the solution worked like a charm. I wonder how many years it will take Microsoft to fix this bug...

  • Anonymous
    February 20, 2010
    Thanks, this solution worked perfectly! I wonder how many years it will take microsoft to fix this bug...

  • Anonymous
    February 23, 2010
    Make sure you put a space between the exe and the /.  I kept typing command all together and it wouldn't work.  

  • Anonymous
    February 27, 2010
    Seams to you you add up the above hours spent trying to fix this error and it's a big bill. Why on earth is it occuring..! Why has M$ not fixed it. and do we collectivly have to put up with it!

  • Anonymous
    March 03, 2010
    Great solution. 'preciate it. Warm Regards.

  • Anonymous
    March 10, 2010
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    March 11, 2010
    running Office 2010 beta, tried running Outlook.exe /resetnavpane and Outlook.exe /safe , but still get the Cannot Start Microsoft Outlook err msg.  Tried Office 2010 repair, uninstalled & reinstalled Office 2010, but still no change.  Too bad Office developers can't let us know how to resolve this type of problem.

  • Anonymous
    March 23, 2010
    I too want to thank you for this post.   The First entries found on the MSDN site said nothing about "Outlook.exe /resetnavpane ".  One even said just restart.

  • Anonymous
    March 25, 2010
    Matt, This was simply a lifesaver! Thanks for bringing the solution to the top of a searchable blog. Once I navigated to the Office12 folder in my cmd window,    outlook.exe /resetnavpane  brought Outlook up clean and fully functional. Not sure but SLEEPing/WAKEing my laptop while Outlook was launched and on my home wireless network may have lead to file corruption.  I'll be much more careful about having net interactive programs shut down before sleeping my system in the future!

  • Anonymous
    April 06, 2010
    Hi Matt tried the Run Outlook.exe/resetnavpane but my computer tells me no such file can I download it or am I missing something here. regards Brian Hurst

  • Anonymous
    April 06, 2010
    Hi Matt tried Run Outlook.exe/resetnavpane but my computer tells me no such file, I am running Vista.  Can I download the file or am I missing something. regards Brian Hurst

  • Anonymous
    April 10, 2010
    Thanks for an answer that worked - much appreciated

  • Anonymous
    April 15, 2010
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    June 10, 2010
    This does not work for windows 7 only XP

  • Anonymous
    July 21, 2010
    I'm using win7 and it worked for me

  • Anonymous
    July 28, 2010
    Thanks, saved me hours of angst, and a pocketful of cash