HowTo-Outlook

Getting Outlook to work again properly when receiving startup errors often is not that hard but does require some specific knowledge about the inner workings of Outlook. This guide explains all you need to know about that in order to get your Outlook to start without errors again.

Note: This guide can also be used as a base to troubleshoot other common Outlook issues.

We'll start off this guide with 3 easy questions. Depending on the answers, you could possibly skip large portions of this guide or even directly get a solution to your startup issue. Continue reading: Outlook doesn’t start

It isn’t very common that Outlook doesn’t close on it’s own. Practically always this is caused by an add-in or another program that integrates with Outlook. Once this add-in is disabled or updated or the program is closed the problem will be gone and Outlook will close normally again. Continue reading: Outlook Doesn’t Close

So you upgraded to Outlook 2003 and now are missing the Go-> News option? There are some methods to get the option back or open the newsreader in a different way;

• By editing the registry so it behaves like previous versions of Outlook
• By setting the defaults to use Outlook Express
• By starting the Outlook Express Newsreader from a shortcut
• Looking for a newsreader add-in?

Method 1: Edit the registry so it behaves like previous versions of Outlook

This method simply adds the registry key that machines running a previous version of Outlook also have. This will allow you to choose Microsoft Office Outlook as the default newsreader in Internet Options.

1. Download this zip-file and unpack the registry file
2. Double click the registry file to import it (you must be logged on as an administrator to do this)
3. Go to Start-> Control Panel-> Internet Options-> tab Programs and set the dropdown list for Newsgroups to Microsoft Office Outlook.
4. If you still don’t see the Go-> News option in Outlook you must reset your Tool Bar

Method 2: Setting the defaults to use Outlook Express

Make sure the options are set correctly in Internet Options

1. Go to Internet Options by using Start-> Control Panel-> Internet Options
2. In Internet Options go to the Programs tab
3. For Newsgroups set Outlook Express as the default Newsreader
4. Press OK to close Internet Options

Do not let Outlook or Outlook Express let themselves set to the default newsreader

1. Start Outlook Express like you normally do. When it asks whether you want to set Outlook Express as your default mail and news handler choose “No”.
2. Close Outlook Express
3. Start Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 like you normally do. When it asks whether you want to set Microsoft Office Outlook as your default mail and news handler choose “No”.
4. Leave Outlook open and continue to the next section

Setting the Toolbar

All is left to do now is adding the option to the Toolbar

1. Choose View-> Toolbars-> Customize
2. Select the Commands tab
3. From the Categories list select “Go”
4. From the Commands list select “News” and drag & drop it to any place you want on the Toolbar. The default location is in the “Go” menu.
5. Press Close to return to Outlook.

Not seeing the News option in Customize?

1. Choose View-> Toolbars-> Customize
2. Select the Toolbars tab
3. Select Menu Bar and press Reset
4. Start again from “Setting the Toolbar”

Method 3: starting the Outlook Express Newsreader from a shortcut

There is another way to start the Outlook Express newsreader besides using Microsoft Office Outlook and that is by using a shortcut.

1. Right click on an empty place of your Desktop and choose New-> Shortcut
   or
   Start Explorer and choose File-> New-> Shortcut
2. In “Type the location of the item:” type the path to Outlook Express and place /news or /newsonly behind it. The /news switch will start the Outlook Express with the mail inbox as well but instead of opening by default to the Inbox it will open to the newsgroups instead. The /newsonly switch will start Outlook Express without the mail inbox. When you don’t have any mail accounts configured in Outlook Express I recommend using the /newsonly switch.
   The shortcut should look like;
   "C:\Program Files\Outlook Express\msimn.exe" /news
   or
   "C:\Program Files\Outlook Express\msimn.exe" /newsonly
3. Press Next
4. Type a name for the shortcut like: Newsreader
5. Press Finish and your shortcut will be created. You can drag & drop this shortcut to anywhere you want like the Quick Launch toolbar or the Shortcuts section of the Navigation Pane in Microsoft Office Outlook

Looking for a NNTP add-in?

There are several add-ins you can use to use Outlook as a newsreader. One of them is MAPILab NNTP for Outlook. If you decide to order use “4PM76A8” to get a discount.

MAPILab NNTP for Outlook description;
MAPILab NNTP allows you to read and post messages to newsgroups from Microsoft Outlook 2007, 2003, 2002/XP and 2000. Microsoft Outlook users till now had no opportunity to work with newsgroups unless Microsoft Exchange Server was installed in the corporate network, so one had to use an external application to work with the news, most typically Outlook Express.The program interface is a very similar to Outlook Express, so we hope you won’t have the problems with switching to news handling with Microsoft Outlook. Now you can use the full power of “big” Microsoft Outlook while working with the news!

To start with; I’m a big fan of the MSN Outlook Connector. Aside from allowing you to connect to your mail folders it also allows you to connect to your Calendar and Contacts folder on Hotmail. The best feature I think is that it allows you to drag & drop messages from your local folders (pst-file) or Exchange mailbox to a Hotmail folder.

But enough of that; somehow I managed to get it broken and all I was left with was this message on startup of Outlook;

Since I hadn’t done anything to get the installation corrupted it had to be a (simple) configuration setting and didn’t feel much like contacting MSN support about it. After some minutes I managed to find the setting to turn this message off and more important; get the add-in to work again without loosing any of my cached Hotmail messages.

The setting can be found in the registry;
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Outlook\Addins\MSNCON.Addin.1]

Change the value of “LoadBehavior” from 2 to 3 and start Outlook and you’ll notice that the Outlook Connector will be loaded again.

Missing little things can be a big pain as well; like missing the new mail envelope in the Notification Area (also known as the System Tray). This guide explains when to expect an envelope and what to do if it does not show.

• When should the envelope show itself?
• Make sure the option is selected
• Make sure the envelope isn’t hidden in the Notification Area

When should the envelope show itself?

The behavior of the new mail envelope has changed a bit in the last couple of versions of Outlook. Below you’ll find an overview of when you can expect the new mail envelope to be shown in the Notification Area.

• Outlook XP/2002 or previous
  The envelope should show for every message that comes in; even when moved by a rule.
• Outlook 2003
  The envelope will show for messages that are delivered to the default Inbox only. When a message is caught by the Junk E-mail filter or moved by a rule, the envelope icon is not shown.
• Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2010
  The envelope will show for messages that are delivered to the default Inbox for each account. When a message is caught by the Junk E-mail filter or moved by a rule, the envelope icon is not shown. The icon is also not shown for additional mailboxes which have been configured from a single Exchange account.

Note:
For manual send/receive actions and the first send/receive action after starting Outlook, the envelope icon is often not shown either.

Tip!
If you want a new mail alert for messages that have been moved by a rule, you can create a New Mail Alert rule.

Make sure the option is still selected

If the envelope icon is not shown when you expected it to be shown, the first thing is to check if the option is still enabled;

• Outlook 2007 and previous
  Tools-> Options…-> tab Preferences-> button E-mail Options…-> button Advanced E-mail Options…-> option: Show an envelope in the notification area
• Outlook 2010
  File-> Options-> section Mail-> option group: Message arrival-> option: Show an envelope icon in the taskbar

Make sure the envelope isn’t hidden in the Notification Area

Since Windows XP, unused and inactive icons in the Notification Area are automatically hidden. In Windows 7, this hiding occurs a lot faster than in Windows XP and Windows Vista.

To view hidden icons, you can either expand the Notification Area to see the unused icons or configure the Notification Area to always show the envelope.

Customize your notifications in Windows 7

Windows XP
To customize the Notification area icon in Windows XP use;

1. Start-> Control Panel-> Taskbar and Start Menu-> button Customize…
2. Find the envelope icon and click on the dropdown list and configure it from "Hide when inactive" to "Always show"
3. Press OK twice to close the open windows.

Windows Vista
To customize the Notification area icon in Windows Vista use;

1. Start-> Control Panel-> Appearance and Personalization-> Taskbar and Start Menu-> tab Notification Area-> button Customize…
2. Find the envelope and click on the dropdown list and configure it from "Hide when inactive" to "Show"
3. Press OK twice to close the open windows.

Windows 7
To customize the Notification area icon in Windows 7 use;

1. Start-> Control Panel-> Appearance and Personalization-> Taskbar and Start Menu-> button Customize…
2. Find the envelope and click on the dropdown list and configure it from "Only show notifications" to "Show icon and notifications"
3. Press OK twice to close the open windows.

Note:
When using Outlook 2010 on Windows 7, the icon is also shown on the Outlook icon itself unless you’ve set your Windows Taskbar to show small icons.

Default icon	New mail icon	Small icon

Note:
The BETA version of Outlook 2010 running on Windows 7 only showed the new mail envelope on the Outlook icon itself and did not show the new mail envelope in the Notification Area at all. This behavior has changed in the released version of Outlook 2010.

It doesn’t happen too often but when a message is stuck in the Outbox it can be a real pain. Below you’ll find three methods to get the message out of the Outbox.

Method 1

Open the message from the Outbox and close it again. Now select the message and press DELETE

Method 2

Put Outlook in offline mode. To do this go to File-> Work Offline. Now restart Outlook and see if you can delete it (you can try this in combination with method 1). Don’t forget to put Outlook back On-line again.

Method 3

1. Create a new pst-file; File-> New-> Outlook Data File…
2. Set this pst-file as your default delivery location in your Account settings; Tools-> E-mail Accounts-> button Next
3. When you now restart Outlook your original pst-file will show up as the secondary set of folders where should easily be able to remove the file from or even the complete Outbox folder
4. Set the original pst-file as the default delivery location again and restart Outlook; the Outbox folder will be recreated and will be empty.

Method 4

Use the Microsoft MDBVU32.EXE tool to forcefully clear the Outbox. The instructions for this are the same for when removing a stuck read receipt but instead of choosing “MDB-> Open Root Folder” choose “MDB-> Open IPM Outbox”.

Some Knowlegde base articles about this subject in case the problem still persists;
KB291613: Sent Messages Remain in Your Outbox
KB293031: Message Copy Remains in the Outbox When You Send Through a Hotmail or IMAP Account While Offline
KB311001: You Cannot Send Messages if There Are More Than One Thousand Messages in Your OST Outbox
KB293038: A Copy of a Forwarded Message Stays in the Outbox
KB195922: OL2000: How to Troubleshoot Mail Stuck in the Outbox