Are you subject to this Outlook error “Cannot Start Microsoft Outlook”? Or have you ever encountered it? In this article, we will explore 5 working techniques to eradicate this error.
“Cannot start Microsoft Outlook” error message often appears when you double click Outlook icon but it hangs a long while. There are assorted reasons, such as corrupt navigation pane settings file, conflicted add-ins, corrupt profile and data file, etc. All in all, depending on different reasons, we can take corresponding solutions to solve it.
1. Mend Navigation Pane Settings File
In most situations, this error results from compromised navigation pane settings file. Thus you should fix this file. Head to “Start Menu” and type “Outlook.exe /resetnavpane” in search field. Then click on the shown program to run it. Later you need try to restart Outlook application. If the error persists, consider other approaches.
2. Disable Outlook Add-ins to Verify if Add-ins Result in this Error
- To start with, you need to start Outlook in safe mode. Go to “Start Menu” and type “Outlook /safe” in search field and press Enter.
- Then in Outlook, go to “File” menu and click “Options”. Switch to “Add-ins” tab and click “Go” button at the bottom. In the popup dialog box, you should disable all add-ins.
- After disabling all of them, you should restart Outlook. If it starts successfully, then this error must be caused by add-ins. You can enable add-in one by one to check which add-ins is the criminal. But if Outlook still fails to open, you should try other methods.
3. Exit Compatibility Mode
- Still in Start Menu, type “Outlook.exe” in search field.
- Then right click on the shown program and select “Properties”.
- In the new dialog box, switch to “Compatibility” tab, and check if the option “Run this program in compatibility mode for” is selected or not. If selected, clear the checkbox at once, and restart Outlook. If not, you don’t need to restart Outlook, just resort to other techniques.
4. Create a New Outlook Profile
Outlook Profile contains your account settings. Undoubtedly, if your profile is damaged, various errors will occur to Outlook. Therefore, we should create a new profile.
- At the very outset, go to “Control Panel” and click “Mail” icon.
- Then click on “Show Profiles” button in the new dialog.
- Next click “Add” button to create a new profile. You would be required to configure your account then, just fill in all information as usual.
- After creating successfully, you need to restart Outlook and select the new profile in the prompt dialog. If it starts in normal manner, corrupt Outlook profile must be the source of the error. If not, you can need to examine your Outlook data files.
5. Examine Your Outlook Data Files by Inbox Repair Tool
Given that errors frequently occur to Outlook, developers have designed an inbox repair tool within Outlook. But it is usually hidden deeply. You need to search it in Windows Explorer to open it. After repairing via it, if Outlook can open normally, the problem must be eliminated. But if not, you can also resort to other tools.
6. Apply Other Repair Tools
Though inbox repair tool, Scanpst.exe is free and handy, it cannot make effects if the file is compromised seriously. Hence it is time to resort to other repair tools, such as DataNumen Outlook Repair, which is also specially designed to repair Outlook files. Besides, it has a much higher than Scanpst.exe. If the error is exactly triggered by damaged Outlook file, this tool must be able to solve it.
Author Introduction:
Shirley Zhang is a data recovery expert in DataNumen, Inc., which is the world leader in data recovery technologies, including sql recovery and outlook repair software products. For more information visit www.datanumen.com
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