John C. Flackett

OK, so it’s been some time since my last post. I’ve been lucky enough to have an extended holiday and visit friends and relatives back in the UK. Since coming home I’ve been flat out at work and trying to get my liver back into some form of shape (although not succeeding very well!).

I’ve been meaning to share a little problem I had some months back, when for no apparent reason, Outlook wouldn’t run when I tried to start it.

The Problem

When starting, Outlook failed to open with the error:

"Outlook: Cannot open Outlook window"

Nothing I did with the settings would make it run, and no-one else on the network was having any problems. I even thought about removing my profile and re-creating it – there had to be a way around this?

The Solution

After much searching, I stumbled across a post (really sorry, I made a note of the source but I’ve misplaced it) that suggested the problem might have something to do with a screwed-up Navigation Pane (i.e., the window pane that displays the tree-view of your mail folders and includes the tabs for Mail; Calendar; Contacts; Tasks).

Outlook Navigation Pane

In the end the solution was easy: use the command line (Start->Run) to start Outlook with the /resetnavpane switch:

outlook.exe /resetnavpane

In fact, exploring the possible command line switches for Outlook throws up some interesting options. What about:

outlook.exe /sniff

which starts outlook, finds any new meeting requests, and automatically adds them to the calendar (pretty cool eh?).

Want more?

Check out Robert Sparnaaij’s “How-To-Outlook” site, which provides heaps of useful tips & techniques for getting the most out of (let’s face it) a mail reader you’re forced to use!

Of course, if you have the choice, then please, please, please dump Outlook altogether and get:

• Thunderbird – brilliant for your standalone PC.
• Zimbra – de facto Exchange replacement but also desktop version available.
• Zarafa – new kid on the block (relatively speaking) for a replacement/alternative for MS Exchange.