I recently came across this problem on a customer’s computer and tried everything I could find via Google. Naturally, none of the solutions worked. When you click on the icon to start Outlook, the window shows up briefly and then disappears, popping up that extremely meaningful message: Cannot Start Microsoft Office Outlook. Cannot Open the Outlook Window .
If you google this problem, one of the first sites that shows up with a solution is Microsoft’s site, so you assume that the solution must be a good one. Actually, it didn’t work for me. The Microsoft page is this one. The solutions that they give probably work in many cases, but I tried both of their solutions and I was still at the starting line.
The solution? simply run: outlook.exe /resetnavpane
basically, this is the same as deleting your profilename.xml in your user directory. It did the trick for me and if I can save someone the trouble of looking for that solution for hours.. then I’m happy!
Thanks alot, it works instantly.
My pleasure! I tried so many things to figure this one out!
cheers, worked first time and saved lots of hassle. best wishes
mark
I wish I’d found your advice sooner. Would have saved me an entire day (and some money) trying everybody else’s solutions.
how do I get to this resetnavpane option??
Thanks – I was freaking out but this worked immediately.
Michelle:
it is a command-line option, not an option that you’ll find in the menus. You need to locate the folder where your outlook is installed, usually something like c:\program files\Microsoft Office\Office11 and run the command “outlook /resetnavpane”, without the quotes.
This is all done from a command prompt.
Thank you very much, you saved me lots of of time. it works from the first try. :)
Always happy to hear that I could save time for someone! Wish I had found my own article when I had the problem :-)
Amazing, thanks so much!!!
Glad this is working for others, but maybe I’m not doing this right, because this didn’t work for me. Any thoughts or suggestions?
Wow! That works! It’s better for Microsoft to put this solution instead of stupied “add registry keys” solution, that doesn’t work actually…
Thanks a lot, it was a perfect solution!
Ray:
What happened after you ran the command-line? did Outlook start or try to start?
Have you also tried the solutions listed on microsoft’s site?
Thanks for this. It worked perfectly and is much better than Microsoft’s solution of deleting the profile.
Works wonderfully. Thanks.
(PS: I am running Office 2010 Tech Preview)!
Thank you so much! This worked for me and I was freaking out without my Outlook! Great advice and very helpful!
You Rock!! Thanks. Worked like a snap.
It works . Thank you
You are amazing, i’ve been sitting with this problem fot three days!! Why did it take me so long to get to your solution! Thanks, thanks, thanks!!! You saved my career!
Genius – many thanks
Great quick fix! Microsoft could have never done it better. A 24 character fix. Very Nice!
If I could rate this out of five stars, it would be a 6! Have to hammer one more star in there for simplicity.
Your way of fixing it: 5 seconds.
Microsofts way: 5 minutes to 5 hours.
I did type Outlook.exe /resetnavpane
but outlook does not respond when it opens. Also if I shut down and reboot then try and open out look I get the same message as before
Louise:
If I understand correctly, Outlook starts when you type in the command, but is frozen? And when you launch it through the icon, you get the error message that this post is about? I would have to say that maybe Microsoft’s solution w ould be a better bet, the one that has you re-create your profile. So you have the latest service pack installed as well?
Thanks mate
worked like a dream first time
Great fix, I was stunned at I had nowhere to turn. Thanks, may the Gods be kind to you, your friends and family.
DrRenShen
Fantasic worked for me first time been pulling my hair out for 3 days trying to fix
Did the
outlook.exe /resetnavpane
Thanks
Brilliant. I thought it was going to be another call to my IT guys so they could huff and puff and shake their heads like modern day plumbers, but it worked instantly. Thanks
Thanks so much…it really worked for me. Thanks
Oh gosh. Got it fixed in a few seconds. Thank you so much. I was without Outlook for a couple of weeks now.
hi there maybe im being stupid but can someone explain exactly hoe to do this from a start to fin as im having real problems getting my head round this.
many thanks
Thanks,
i had run “outlook.exe /resetnavpane” command and it solved “Cannot open Outlook window” problem in MSOffice2007Enterprise.
Thanks! This worked right away, saved me so much time!
Many thanks it worked for me fine !!!
mana from heaven! thanks very much for sharing! and yes… you have saved me from a whole morning of agony :D
thanks! thanks! thanks! :d
Thanks, it worked for me.
Thanks. Where do I send the Check?
I followed the path c:\program files\Microsoft Office\Office11 but I don’t understand how to run the command “outlook /resetnavpane”…help!
Also when I figure out how to run the command, will my outlook contacts and calendar be safe or will they be overwrited?
Worked instantly. Thanks heaps!Tried all the others and had no luck.
JessBWSC: When you run the command, your emails/contacts/calendar will all remain intact. Nothing gets deleted through this command.
To run the command, there are two ways you can do it. The best way is through a command prompt. the second way, uses the mouse:
using Windows Explorer, navigate to the outlook.exe, just like you did before.
click “start” and “run”
drag the outlook.exe file to the run window you just opened.
at the end of the line that appears on the run window, add the “/resetnavpane” command and hit Enter.
outlook should then start properly.
Hope this helps!
Thanks alot bro. you truly are a genius. God bless you man!
Daniel
Hello
I tried all of this on my Vista machine but this does not work.
Is it different on a vista machine?
Thanks
Alan
sweet man!!!
Alan: This should work on vista the same way as XP.. I’ve even tested this with Outlook 2007 with success. The only thing that may vary is the path to the outlook.exe file.
Bless you and all your works!
It had been so long since I was in Dos that it took quite a few runs, but I persevered and all appears to be ok. Many thanks
btw, from something above, I presume you do work like this for a living.
Do you give any low cost advice online – I am looking for work, but have encountered some computer issues.
Hello again
I’ve tried doing exactly what you say and get the following message:-
Windows cannot find ‘C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\OUTLOOK.EXE /resetnavpane’. Make sure you typed the name correctly and then try again.
I initially dragged the outlook.exe file into the run command prompt and then typed the /resetnavpane part so hopefully I’ve not made any silly typing errors which is what you would assume.
I’ve done it several times just in case I did is it wrong.
The annoying thing is I sort of work in IT but I can’t sort this one. The strange thing is my outlook worked for ages then just stopped, I assume after a windows / office update!
Thanks again for you help
Alan
Alan: I think that the problem is that you placed the parameter INSIDE the quotes.. it needs to be outside the quotes:
“C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\OUTLOOK.EXE” /resetnavpane
You are the man.
Thanks for your help.
Alan
Youre a champion! Thanks for the fix!
Thank you very much, you saved me lots of of time. it works from the first try. :)
Om Shanti.
Amazing! Many thanks.
More nice things
wish I had tried it earlier and saved a lot of sleep
Thanks
Thanks – worked in 2 secs! Fixed the problem immediately… and now i am sorry to have wasted 5 hours trying to fix it with other downloads, fixes, purchases… THANKS
Worked like a charm! I did the repair function on Office…that took like a half hour…didn’t do anything.
I did this and it took 5 seconds and all is well!
AMAZING! Thanks for the tip!!!
Thank You. It worked. The Microsoft support site was useless.
After trying new updates of both Vista and anti-virus software, and almost re-installing Microsoft Office from scratch, I came across your suggestion. Thanks so much, it worked like a charm!
OUTLOOK.EXE /resetnavpane worked like an absolute dream for me – excellent advise. THANKS !
Thank you, brilliant!!!!
That was the quickest problem-to-solution ever. Thanks very much. Less than three minutes from encountering the problem to finding your solution and fixing it.
thanks so much…works on Vista and XP…
Thank you for sharing! I didn’t even have time to get all worked up and upset before outlook.exe /resetnavpane did the trick :)
THANKS!
Worked like a bomb :D
Worked instantly! YEAH
holy crap it worked right away i tried for hours. thanks so much maybe you should get a job at microsoft and straighten them out too.
Many thanks – spent hours like other people, my problem started after Microsoft did a upgrade! going back to the restore point and inserting original Outlook disk and running “fix” did nothing, just searched for “outlook.exe /resetnavpane” double click and it was fixed.
simmply highlite and copy outlook.exe /resetnavpane
click thw windows icon in the bottom left of your screen and paste outlook.exe /resetnavpane
into the search box at the bottom then hit the enter key
job done
Pascal. thanks loads. great solution.
You’re awesome. THANKS A LOT!
Worked!
I did try it in Vista; I assumed that I had to use an elevated command prompt. After I ran it, an empty profile came up (aah!!).
However, it turned out that was admin’s profile; not the user’s profile.
Once I ran it on a non-elevated prompt everything worked perfectly.
Cheers!
brilliant – thanks – this error occurred following Microsoft updates automatically installed yesterday. I had been considering trying a system restore so really glad I found this.
Simon – THANKS. That worked a charm! These “idiosyncrasies” are dementing.
Bang on!!!! instant fix, great to see people that know how to fix things and not bogus MS fixes!!!
excellent solution. Like others my problem started after an auto update on the 16th August. I was about to threaten my computer with a screwdriver when I found your tip. Thank you very much.
Hi, Thanks the fix worked a treat! However i have to run “outlook.exe /resetnavpane” fix everytime i want to start outlook. Is that to be expected? Is there anyway i can do a ‘one time’ fix?
Thanks
Great – got me going again on Outlook 2008 on Vista Ultimate 64.
Many Thanks
HOW: you shouldn’t have to do this more than once… after running the command, the regular icon should work just fine.
Hi Pascal Roy
i keep having to run the command to open outlook, which then works perfectly????
thanks for the help
We’ll after spending 2 hours on the websites I finally found this one.
The key to getting the “outlook /resetnavpane to work is that you need to first be in the right directory on your hard drive: Here’s my recommendation:
1. Launch RUN
2. type CMD so it puts you into the DOS screen
3. Change directories till you get back to the root directory by typing cd c:\
4. then change directories till you get to your Microsoft Outlook folder. On my vista PC that was: c:\program files\microsoft office\office12
5. Once you’re in the right office directory then type: OUTLOOK /RESETNAVPANE
It should launch your outlook and you should be good to go.
Thanks for pointing out that you need to get to the correct directory before this command works.
Cheers
You are the man… Awesome workout!!! Excellent. thanks.
Many, Many thanks, for this, having spent over 6 hours scanning and fixing the PSTs OSTs etc, this just worked!!!
Thanks
J
found your solution and worked instantly thanks
Great Information!!!!!!! I was also having the same problem with Outlook and was ready to do a reinstall. Thanks again!!
Great!!!! It worked for me, many thanks!
Thanks for the great information. It works fine but I face this problem again and again.
I am an IT guy and we have this problem in 3 out of 100 machines. When they get the message, “Cannot Start Microsoft Office Outlook. Cannot Open the Outlook Window. Corrupted XML file”, they call me and I use the /resetnavpane switch. But when they restart outlook or restart computer, this problem re-appears. How can we fix this permanently?
Please help. Thank you.
Aneesh: in the cases where the problem re-occurs over and over, it may be a problem with the user’s profile. You could try to re-create the problematic profiles to see if that will fix your problem permanently. An easier fix, but one that is not really a solution. is to create an icon with the resetnavpane switch and have your users click on that icon to start outlook everytime.
I sm still facing this problem with the following message:
>>Cannot start Miscrosoft Office Outlook. Cannot open the Outlook window. The set folders cannot be opened. The information store could not be opened.<<
Please help. Thanks
Thanks mate it worked first time.
Worked first time. Thanks!
Pascal: I created a new profile but the same problem happens when he restart outlook! Is this a virus/worm? So create an icon with resetnavpane switch is the only solution? Thank you.
Thanks a lot. Fantastic solution! I was about to re-install my whole office suite!
I couldn’t work out why it wouldn’t work until I saw that I hadn’t included the space between the ‘e’ and the ‘/’
Immediate fix, thanks v much
Brilliant – this worked a treat for me – NB , as previous messages have stated when in the ‘run’ command you need to ensure the /resetnavpane is outside of the speech marks
Saved me from running Diagnostics and a reinstall. Thx so much!
Thanks alot, worked instantly.
No problem at all.
Thanks alot, worked instantly.
No problem at all.
thank u been on this problem for 3 hours
I’m having the same problem that Dejan is having. When I first tried outlook.exe /resetnavpane, it opened outlook, but it wouldn’t send receive. I closed Outlook and when I tried to open Outlook, I got the same original error message, so I ran outlook.exe /resetnavpane again.
When I did that, the Outlook window opened for a second and then I got the message, “>Cannot start Microsoft Office Outlook. Cannot open the Outlook window. The set folders cannot be opened. The information store could not be opened.”
Please help!
Thanks. Problem solved in 5secs. Have kept this website in my favourite list.
Legend
Directions for the less sophisticated (like me) and on a Vista PC with office 2007.
Check your outlook shortcut target by right clicking on the icon and on the shortcut tab you will see the Target line (yours may be different than mine). This is what is in my box including the quotes “C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office12\OUTLOOK.EXE”. Go to the program start button and in the “Start Search” box type “run” and the command prompt icon with run next to it, select that or just hit enter twice.
On the command prompt black screen Type the follwoing (enter your shortcut target here, use cd and a space first to change the directory) cd C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office12\ and press enter
Type outlook.exe /resetnavpane
Outlook will launch and you are done!
Perfect! thank you for publishing this solution. Really appreciated.
Another big thank you! Worked right away!!
Thanks man i av been struggling since morning to get ma outlook running searchde high and low but ur solution worked like a charm…
cheers
Thank you so much! I use my outlook for my work emails on my personal laptop, and I was freaking out! Your posting really helped!
Insane. I had doubts this would be so easy, but it was. All e-mails intact, and it immediately began receiving new ones. Thanks much!!
Outlook started fine with this fix but all previous emails and settings are not there, hope I havn’t lost everything.
Thanx alot, you saved my day….. :)
Genius. Thank-you!
It worked for me man, thanks a lot
bless u
A big hug to mate
Thanks heaps,you have saved my computer from becoming a boat anchor.
great fix, first time, thanks very much.
Huge thanks…..you should be on commission at Microsoft.
I have no tolerance left for anything IT related or anyone who works in IT simply due to gross incompetence and there ALWAYS being some issue.
Thanks – if you do work in IT – come work for me.
Pat, let’s see what you have to offer ;-)
Wow, this worked instantly! Thanks so much!
Thanks very much for this fix – I don’t make a habit if replying to forums like this – however, this was so useful I wanted to let you know how much it is appreciated – it is only with people like you sharing your expertise that people like me get by – especially with this problem, as Microsoft wouldn’t help as I couldn’t find my product number (as Outlook wouldn’t start!). Thanks very much, Duncan
Thanks a lot, this fixed Outlook for me too. Thought it was a problem with the VPN and spent nearly a day messing about with the configs! :(
Thank you very much it worked within seconds.
Pascal Roy, I think I love you!
Thank Man! It works!!!!!
I like many others have spent an absolute age going through all the Microsoft options to get Outlook going again, and of course, none of them worked. Just ran the prompt and it worked instantly, great stuff, thanks.
Same here, tried every tricks in vain before jumping into this post and poof, everything’s back to normal.
You’re absolutely amazing, pal!
Thanks & peace to you.
Man this worked like magic. thanks a bunch
Wow, thank goodness this was my first stop…. Fixed it in a jiffy!
Brilliant. Worked immediately. Agree, glad it was my first stop. Thanks
I am very impressed & grateful!!
worked 1st time & that’s not happened
in a long time, remarkable.
You rock. Thank you soo much. Life is good.
Great Fix, Thanks
Fantastic. This has got to be a first I found something on Google that actually works. Thank you
What can I say, after so many fantastic comments. It worked like a charm, luckily I didn’t waste my time on the other “solutions” I saw.
Thanks Pascal!
People like you make Internet a better place!
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Worked!
eu nao consegui, tentei de tudo mas o meu correio electronico nao abre a mensagem permanece… ja estou de cabelos brancos… Me ajude por favor.
LEGEND, this happened before and I repaired the path via outlooks suggestions but had to refill my contact reconnect my blackberry…all very time consuming!!
This way was instant!
Thanks….this is third time this has happened over the last 2 months. I have now saved the path to a doc, so I do not have to google it everytime.
thanks again
I have this:
Server: Exchange 2003 running on SBS Server 2003
Clients: 1 x Outlook 2007 running on Vista Ultimate. 2 x Outlook 2007 running on Vista Business.
When connected to the server works fine.
When disconnected Outlook won’t start and displays the error (for absolute clarity):
“Cannot start microsoft office outlook. Cannot open the outlook window. The set of folders cannot be opened. The information store could not be opened.”
Having tried the outlook.exe /resetnavpane solution above, when disconnected, it now comes up with a box first: “Microsoft Exchange is unavailable. Retry, Work Offline, Retry” options. Choosing Work Offline it then redisplays the error above (again for clarity): “Cannot start microsoft office outlook. Cannot open the outlook window. The set of folders cannot be opened. The information store could not be opened.”
Have tried both using the normal outlook icon and also running the outlook.exe /resetnavpane when disconnected each time but neither work.
Seems this solution won’t work for us. Any other ideas anyone please?
Many thanks
DS
hello… thanks for the nice tip..
I would not regret to use it.
The fix worked for me using Vista Home Premium 64x edition.
Make sure you change the directory in start–>run–> cmd
cd: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office12
Only then invoke the outlook.exe/resetnavpane command
B-R-I-L-I-A-N-T !!
Worked like M-A-G-I-C !!!! Thanks!!
Thanks! I changed my dpi back to 100% and I got this error. Now it works fine again.
THANK YOU!
Thank you!
I tried everything said above. Still its not working. Iam getting the same error message
can you walk me through this from the desk top. Im using xp pro and office 2003 xp
I love the simple answers :-)
You deserve a knighthood for solving that one for me! Thanks a lot!
You hero you!
It worked perfectly. Thanks !!!!
Many thanks!!!
It worked for me too.
Thanks, worked for me.
Thanks for that, worked a treat :)
Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!
Solved my problem instantly…and my upset stomach thinking I may have lost my data…Yikes!!
I keep having to run the resetnavpane to correct Outlook 2007. Do you know what could be causing the fault in the first place ?
Thanks
Worked for me too!
Thanks a million!
Dan
Thanks so much! I really appreciate you thinking to let everyone know!
Thankyou very much. This worked a treat!
Hey, also thanks from my side! I just got this message this morning and googled it. your suggestion came up on top…
THanks so much for saving me a lot of hassle!
All the best from Australia!
Marc
Well it got outlook 2007 working again but….. all of my data has disappeared, contacts emails everything, eeeeek. Major panic. can anyone help with this
My message is: “Cannot start Microsoft Outlook. The information store could not be
opened”
I don’t use Outlook! I use Thunderbird and just recently this message pops up! Any answers please
YOU ARE MY GOD !
thank you !!!!!!!!!!!
worked in 2 seconds !!!
Thankyou so much, worked a treat :)
THANKS!!!! been annoying me for days, even moved to thunderbird
I really needed to get info from my old messages! Thank you! thank you! thanks you!
cheers – first google search – tried this worked straight off ta
thanks so much for this, what a simple fix
The resetnavpane did not work for me. Still getting the same error.
Ran the fix from the original install disc and still nothing.
Re-installed, still nothing.
Any other ideas?
Wow! I also wish I’d found your advice sooner. Would have saved me an entire day of uninstalling and reinstalling applications.
Followed simons post 15th Aug 2009
Appears to have worked OK, haven’t restarted yet (fingers crossed)
Hello
I have found this fix but seems I have to do it every time I start windows so it turns out to be a temp fix any idea for a long term fix?
Win Vista outlook 2007
Thanks
Bud
I was just about to reformat my drive, when I came across your post. Thanx Dude!!
Thanks – worked like a charm!
works great for me too,
thanks
Thanks a lot for this post. I helped me imediatly.
Thanks also from my side. This problem appeared out of nowhere and got fixed within minutes thanks to your hint!
That was so simple, worked instantly. Many Thanks.
Thnx mate…
U made ma day…..
u did save ma whole day……
Thanks! Wish Microsoft were smart enough to add this to their help page!
Great – thanks for the tip, I will get a good nights sleep tonight.
John
Isle of Man
Thanks a lot!. Worked great for me too!
going like a boeing, it worked.
Thanks for the advice, worked first time and helped to save some time
Thanks!!! works like charm!
Thanks. I had tried deleting registry etc but problem continued. Your solution restored my Outlook but all messages before this week have been deleted.
Any solution?
Brilliant!! I had looked all over for an answer. Microsoft’s own advice was well off the mark.
Thank you very much!!
Perfect! Hey — I just cut/pasted it to the Start Run command and ran it. Worked instantly. You’re a genius!
Thanks a lot, worked like a charm.
Thanks a million for this simple fix.
Thank god for google. wasted hours on mircrosoft help and diagnostics were as useless as always then stumbled across this.
thanks for the quick and easy fix.
windows update in vista stuffed up my machine. time to turn updating off
many thanks !
Ah, Thanks dear! you have saved a lot of time…… Really appreciatable
Many many thanks – worked perfectly. One good turn deserves another -
Completely different but almost as annoying – Moles….
try this site
Cheers
THANK YOU SOOO MUCH!!! I am a college student, and I didn’t have access to my email for a couple days…and it was VERY hectic not being able to access it. I tried calling Microsoft, and they were very rude and refused to help me unless I paid a $80 fee!! Screw that!!
I am soo greatful I found this website!!
Thanks a lot. Its much better than changing registry as given on Microsoft site.
Thank you very much for the information! I have know stopped cussing at Outlook for the time being.
Thank you very much… very grateful that this was the first I looked through!
Thanks, when outlook refused to start I reckoned on a registry rewind or long morning scratching about.
Fixo pronoto.
Many thanks,
I thought I was in for another long painful trawl through google, but came upon this straight away and fixed in seconds.
Owe you a beer,
John
Hey, I know this seems to be a permanent solution for many, but whenever I restart my computer, I have the same problem.
It’s getting annoying having to run this script every time I turn on my computer. Do you know any possible solutions for a recurring problem like this?
I cant believe after a month at sea without outlook and trying every solution via the MS website that a 5 minute fix under your direction that I could be up and running again.
Thanks for the help!!
Where do I reciprocate?
Respectfull Submitted,
Rick Sundance
You’re a hero. Thanks so much!
Legend. Thank you! Now to get that 30minutes of my life back from Microsoft lol
Many have said it already, but again thank you – an instant cure after a couple of hours of messing around!
brillliant – you are my hero
Thanks so much for this fix. After several frustrating hours on and off the last day or so with unsuccessful scripts, registry adjustments, etc, I finally realized that there was a SPACE between the outlook.exe sand the forward slash (/)resetnavpane.
This is a testimony to the KISS principle. Thanks again!!!
Worked for me perfectly too, was going beside myself.
Thanks a lot.
THANK YOU! Thank you for posting this – enabled me to overcome a major panic when Outlook wouldn’t open. Worked like a charm, thank you!!
brilliant! thanks
Thanks a bunch… what a star!
I have windows 7 and outlook 2007 and this fix did not work. any other ideas?
Greatly appreciate any feedback.
Matt
Worked for me ! Thanks !
Man, you rock. :o) The first line in Google and works perfectly. I thought I would need to reinstall the whole Office. Thank you very much for this post.
Amazing! Many thanks
Perfect, worked first time. Just ran outlook.exe /resetnavpane from the run command, Thankyou Regards
Worked a treat. Many thanks – was just about to go reinstall having spent an hour plus failing to get anywhere with Microsoft’s “solutions”.
Thank you thank you thank you! Worked perfectly, everything is intact.
Like everyone else, I’m SO grateful for your guidance and expertise – enabled me to have a relaxed evening. Best wishes for you.
Graham
Thanks very much, worked a treat!
Mate, you’re a champion! I was getting so frustrated with all the other solutions not working.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many positive responses.
How come Microsoft don’t mention your solution.
you are a star, thankyou so much
I had the problem after desinstalling MacAfee and thought it was connected to that. Your run: outlook.exe /resetnavpane
it worked immediatly !!!
Thanks a lot !
Mi
Thanks so much! I’m glad I remembered my DOS commands – you are wonderful!
give this man a medal – worked first time and saved so much hassle….
Yes – thank you! I was so frustrated and nothing was working and just ran what you suggested and it worked instantly. Thank you.
Damn, you are my Hero.
Office 2007 SP2 on Windows 7 Pro.
I’ve had the problem for 3 days and I was contemplating a reinstall..
Used your method and it’s now fixed!
Thanks so much.
Oh..for other people who might be troubled to run outlook with the additional argument…
Best to create a shortcut to the outlook.exe, then edit Properties of the shortcut. Place the /resetnavpane after a space after the double quote of the regular outlook fully qualified path.
eg. On Windows 7:
“C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office12\OUTLOOK.EXE” /resetnavpane
Can I just add another thumbs up, it worked on our Vista, Office 12 (2007) installation just fine.
Thanks,
Ian
It seems as if you have a gift that keeps on giving! Thank you so much for this solution. This had the potential to become a major headache… but your post kept me from going there.
Thanks again.
John
This works brilliantly, even with Office 14 . Thought MS would have sorted this out by now – but it’s profits rather than perfection as usual
Thanks
DW
Working, Many thanks!!!!!!!!!!
thanks…worked immediately…you’re the man!
This is excellant, just wish id gone to this link earlier to save me a heap oftime also.
Godsend……………..
Outstanding
thanks very much for sharing! and yes… you have saved me from two days of distress, my wife was makiong my life miserable !
thanks!
Thank you a lot – i owe you a beer:)
Office 2007 SP2 12.0.6425.1000
Win XP SP3 with latest updates up to 12/2009
hi there,
Two thumbs up from me, it worked like a charm.
had done this a while back and it worked…had the problem again and found this post, tried it…no luck…scratching my head for quite a while and by chance checked task manager and found an “outlook.exe” process listed even though I didn’t have outlook running. So I killed that process…ran the command prompt and voila, outlook started up with the default settings for all the folders were back.
Mike
Hi Pascal,
Absolutley Brilliant, worked like a charm
Thanks alot
Thanks a lot mate, worked like a charm
Got the error message for the first time ever this evening, found this page, typed the command in the “Run” box (not a command prompt), and Outlook started up just fine. Thanks!
God bless the Internet, huh?
Worked first time on Windows 7 HP 64bit.
Cheers!
FANTASTIC! I join the vast list of grateful users who have recovered thousands of emails and other data.
By the way, I just ran the command in the ‘run’ command box without bothering to change to the outlook directory. It worked just as well.
Yes it worked, got back into my outlook, however now send/receive is throwing me errors and not downloading emails
can you also help with that you brilliant man/woman??
Great stuff (maybe the ones having problems letf the space in between e and /. One little problem – all my data has gone. Regards Dennis
Pascal you are the man!!! This works perfectly and quickly.
I am definately going to inform my IT Support team you saved us time!
Thanks
Thanks a million worked first time,was thinking would have to reformat the entire pc.Thanks to this solution saved lots of time.
Wow. I wish everything was this easy! BIG THANK YOU for sharing :-)
Great tip! Perhaps the Outlook team could run that internally instead of throwing the error message.
Booyeah! Worked like a charm. Glad I didn’t follow other websites which instructed to create a new profile … I knew it was something simple. Thanks!
Roy,
Many thanks bud. This saved me! You’re a star.
Gary
You are a good person, thank you Kindly
That was the simplest way to solve. Thanks man!
depends on what the errors are.. I will need a little more details than that!
A simple solution which works. Would that manufacturers’ software support teams would employ people to provide that type of fix. Many thanks.
Great worked for me. Thanks.
Thank you!
You saved me from a lot of timewasting and frustration.
ps: Why the hell are we using Microsoft products anyway?
You are a genius. Instant fix :-) Thank you!
I tried outlook/resetnavpane and it worked. The problem is that I’ve now lost all my old emails. Is there any way I can get my old mails back?
Thanks!
Thanks a lot. Works!!!!
Brilliant solution. Thank you. I just clicked Start > Run, pasted outlook.exe /resetnavpane into the “Open” field, and clicked OK (on XP).
Hi,
This fix works for me but I have to do it rather frequently – about 3 times already this week.
Any idea what I can do as a permanent fix? I have tried to re-install outlook but this didn’t resolve the problem.
Cheers,
Steve
You are my hero! Thank you!
worked for me! thanks
Thanks a lot. You’re officially the top banana! Worked a treat.
I can see you’ve helped a lot of people including me – I thought i was in for a long night to resolve this one, thanks a ton.
Mate you are CLLLLAAASSSS… I am a top rookie who didn’t even know how to access ‘RUN’ but from everyones enquiries and your answers it allowed me to get it working again. Thank you!
THANK YOU! Worked in 2 seconds! There is a special place for you in comuter heaven!!!
Thanxxxxxxx
Had the same Pb with a client on a TSE (was getting crazy to have some users working and others not for no reasons ;-)
Great work thanks mate
THANKS!!!!!!
Absolutely brilliant … thank you. Microsoft is worse than useless!
Wonderful!! It worked instantly for me too – thanks a lot!!
Thanks! Your the man!
THANK you so much! You just saved me hours of wasted time on solving this problem … your solution worked instantly!!
Worked first time MANY tanks
Just wanted to add my thanks to the long list. Was just about to uninstall/reinstall office and restore pst from backup but decided to do a quick google first. Glad I did! Saved me lots of time and lost emails. Cheers.
Thanks – 5 mins and this was fixed.
SUPER especially as the “official Microsoft Solution” did not work
I’d just like to say my boyfriend is completely computer illiterate, and he typed in those magic words and it completely fixed his outlook.He hasn’t stopped going on about for about 3-4 hours. Really appreciate your help and i hope you are very well =].
Thank you so much for posting this! This worked for me but I had to run it from the command line C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\resetnavepane.
I made a mistake this is what I typed in the command line C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\outlook\resetnavepane
I made a typo C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\resetnavpane. I accidentally typed resetnavepane. I’m just trying to be helpful in case some people don’t know that sometimes you have to type the path that the file is in.
Fantastic – great effort and thank you for this – solved a headache for me
Hi, you’re amazing, it works! Saving me from over 5 hours’ fighting, oh, can have a relaxing weekend! Thanks so much! A wonderful weekend to you, genius!
Lynn from China
Thanks man, works just fine
Cheers
100% works.. had me tearing my hair out.. TY
Not working for me. I’m getting the same error message “Cannot start Microsoft Office Outlook. Cannot open the outlook window” .. I’ve tried the suggestion typing outlook.exe/navpane multiple times with no result. Restarted and tried again – no luck. Also tried typing outlook/navpane too – no luck. I’m running Windows 7
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” After typing that into run I get the 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?
i would also like to say thanks had me worried for a time
Thanks a lot Works excellent.
As u said , you saved me hours.
WOW! Thanks!
Saved my day!
As with so many other users here, this worked first time from the start/run command line option. As with so many users here, I am really grateful you took the time to post. I have been looking at all sorts of time consuming options and have tried repairing installations amongst others. None of these worked but yours did. Just wish I’d read a few more articles before trying to sort it as yours was a few down the list. I could have saved an hour plus !
WOW!!!!
Thanks you very much….
It works for me too…..
I cannot get outlook.exe /navpane to work. It comes out with the same error message as when I try to open Outlook. I am so pleased that you have helped so many, but feel I am missing out somewhere.
Well thanks.
It did work for me but now I have lost all my saved emails and contacts. Does anyone know how to get these back?
Tried the microsoft solution – that lost all emails ( of course they werent backed up !)
Tried this solution and bingo – instant success – Thanks heaps !
Thank you for that. Fixed it within 5 mins of initial problem.
Thanks Ray. You rule. Saved me hours. I also found that Microsoft article first.
Debbie: I notice you have not put a space between .exe and /res. Try copy and paste command directly from the article above and paste into the ‘run’ command box
Bravo!!!!…thanks a lot, you saved my life.
Quite Brilliant worked first time thank
you
Awesome! Thank you!
Wasted my whole day trying to get my outlook working without any result. Don’t know why I didn’t googled the problem in the first place, this solution worked on the ery first attempt
Hi
Worked instantly.
Thanks you saved me a lot of time.
Alhamduillah its is working , thanks a lot
Amazing…I’ve been trying for days to get Outlook to work, and within seconds you have given me the solution…thank you soooo much.
Thank you very much!!! You are awesome :)
Cheers, Saved me hours of hunting, I was just about to try the microsoft solution then saw your suggestion :-)
thank you thank you thank you, so simple
Wasted hour on this problem then saw the fix
outlook.exe /resetnavpane
works instantly
Thanks
thanx buddy..you the man. I wish everyone were like you in this crazy world…all the best wishes to you and your family.
thanks again and peace
Thank you very very very much!!!
you are awesome, this was such a simple solution and has saved me alot of time!!
PERFECT!! Thanks SO much for this. Clean, simple, working answer. What more could we want! :)
Seriously, thanks.
thanks alot – it was a great tip and saved me alot of time
thank u;
u saved my life :)
Thank you, it worked perfectly. I had to enter the full path for outlook.exe, though:
“C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\OUTLOOK.EXE” /resetnavpane
Perfect!
Thank you very much for a “simple” and perfect solution for my Outlook to open again.
Thanks mate! This happened before and I had to reinstall – lost all my emails but your solution worked great!
Thanks
:)
Where do i put this command line? outlook.exe /resetnavpane
Thanks in advance!
Thanks…..It worked instantly …Many thanks
Thanks a lot, mate!:)
God bless you! I was about to trust the MS ‘knowledge base’ article but then something in me prompted me to open your page in google search results and it worked smoothly! Thanks for saving me all the trouble.
You are the man. Saved me the hassle of opening up a ticket with IT. Thanks!!!
OMG was stuffing around for days wondering how to fix it and found nothing ….. Finally came accross your solution and it worked first pop and even opened faster than when it was working ok.
Am not very good with computers and wasn’t sure how to run the outlook.exe /resetnavpane command then worked out to go to start – run and then paste the command and enter.
No loss of information or contacts or nothing ……. FANTASTIC and many thanks !!!
thank you for your insight. i too started receiving this message and no one seemed to know what I was talking about. tried reloading office 2007 – did not work. tried restoring to a previous date – did not work. your guidance WORKED.
you do have to make certain that you include the spaces before and after the / or it does not work….
outlook.exe /resetnavpane
Fantastic fix! Pity Microsoft can’t publish simple solutions like this. Owe you a pint mate!
Thank you very much it saved me a bad headhacke
Great tip, bur I must use this command every time I start Outlook, what is the problem?
Worked a treat, many thanks :)
Thanks great tip worked straight away
Thanks Worked straight away
Awesome! It worked! Thank you very much!
Wow, I am really not an IT person but your solution is fantastic! A big thank you for sharing it with us…
Wow! Good work, thanks! Why can’t a multibillion corporation like Microsoft provide its users with the right instructions? Thank God for people like you! Cheers
Bril! thanks man, big help to me too
)-]
Thank you! Very much.
Finnaly found the solution, i had been searching for while but didn’t works. This is really help me out…
Thanks a lot!
Thanks man…Worked for me too.
you, sir, made my day. thanks a lot!
You helped so many people without getting anything in return. However small, if more people exercised this positiveness – the opposite of starting a malicious virus, the world would indeed be a better place. Thanks for your help.
I have used the reset successfully a few times but I have to use it each time I reboot. How do I fix Outlook so I don’t have to run the reset each time?
Thanks
That was great advice & worked fine. Judging by all you comments here, this is a wide ranging problem for users. Thanks so much !
Put me out of my misery.
Thank you Thank you very much.
I couldn’t do it at first because my Windows 7 had the Run… command hidden. To add it to the Start menu, right click the Start Button, select Properties, then Customize…, then scroll down and check the Run Command box. Click OK twice. Now whenever you click the Start Button, Run… will be on the menu.
I cannot thank you enough. This happened to me last night after my system jammed and I spent 4 hours trying “everything”. I have also just spent another hour and a half trying to fix the problem. I can’t express my jubilation just after I run the command and Outlook appeared. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks! Running that (”outlook.exe /resetnavpane”) worked. Microsoft are a bunch of criminals. They could put that in that error message, or, better still, make the program run that itself.
Works great, but I have to do it every time I reboot outlook. Any idea how to fix this?
New Outlook user, on Windows 7 laptop. The whole system less than 1 mo old, but updates on shutdown on Friday, cause a Monday morning “cannot open window(…)” error. Googled, and found this site and several others, a variety of fixes. Typed “ouloox.exe /resetnavpane” from just the “search programs and files” box under the start window. It opened Outlook, which is a heck of a lot better than it was doing before. Will have to see if I have to go through the whole “run cmdbox from correct working directory” activities, but that’s just a mere annoyance at this point compared to no email access at all.
You star! It worked for me.
Thanks Roy.
Like you mentioned, I jumped onto MS proposed solution and it did me nothing.
Your solution worked quick and easy.
Many Many thanks.
Faihan Otaibi
thanks a lot man..It really worked. Saved a lot of time, actually.
Excellent! Thanks a million!!
thanks guy! i saved alot of time. i have this problem after update Trend Micro. be your information.
Worked like a charm.
Experimenting with the same problem, I’ve found out that if I power down the computer with outlook open, the problem re-apepars and it requires the fix again. However, if you close outlook before powering down, everything works. I’m running outlook 2007 on Windows 7 ultimate 64 bit.
Another happy customer. Worked for me, once I got into the correct directory.
Why dont Microsoft have this on their help pages?
I have read many, many of the comments above and tried the various things including changing case and putting in spaces etc. I still am getting the same message….It won’t fix….After it says cannot open… it says the set of folders cannot be opened and then errors have been detected in the file. Is there a fix for this?
Works perfectly! And indeed, the Microsoft link did not…
Thanks!
this is the second time this has happened to my outlook, the first time I ended up losing everything and had to re input everthing, all my email addresses and settings etc. This time I simply followed the instuction above and it worked. Many thanks. However I am unsure on what else I may have to do as new user above mentions. Any advice anybody.
Thanks for the tip it work beautifully.
Awesome
You are a champ mate, all sorted , worked instantly..thankyou :)
Thanks a lot. I had tried just about everything else, including all of the Microsoft solutions. This one did the trick and took only a few seconds.
Many thanks! It’s briliant…… I was planning for 2 days for our IT people to fix it, but it only took a minute to fix including searching through google!
Perfect – did the job instantly!! Thanks
worked great on vista what caused it ?? as i did nothing before it happened
Fantastic!
Searched all over the internet for a working solution.
This one did it all!
Great!
Worked a treat! Thanx! :o)
quality mate , thanks
Dude – you rock! Tried Mickysofts advice with no luck whatsoever, same problem.
Initially I had red crosses against the users name on the exchage server which normally indicated orphaned mailboxes. I ran the “Run Cleanup Agent” on the Exchange System Manager which cleared up the red cross issue but still wouldnt open Outlook.
Ran your command and bidda bang bidda bing – worked a charm!!
Thanks dude!!
thanks! fixed it for me!
Awesome. Took me a while to figure out how to do it in Vista, but worked instantly when I did it right! Thanks
Hi all.. I need help… this happened to me before and I fixed it following your instructions but….. it seems that now I cannot find the full instructions… I am LOST and SO need to fix this…. Can anybody HELP me?
Thanks
Monica
Did the trick, nothing else I tried work. you should go work for microsoft.
Please can you help I have the same problem as listed but when I run outlook.exe /resetnavpane in my search field thsi only brings me back to Outlook and prompts me to create a new profile, I have also followed the actions under Microsoft which have also bought no joy, can anyone help, I need to access urgently my historic emails?????
For Vista/Windows 7 users this (outlook.exe /resetnavpane) can be simply entered into the “search” line after you select the start menu icon, select “outlook.exe /resetnavpane” on the list.
Thanks, it work perfectly for a while but happend again (the notification window)
awesome
lucky me, when I googled this problem, the first page that showed up was this one! Worked as a charm! thanks man!
Dude you rock! way easier than what microsoft suggested.
Thank you so very very much!!!
Thanks a million times!!!! this worked in a second after I had 3 weeks without access to my outlook!
I’ve been breaking my head all day with this and it took all of 2 seconds after following your tip to get it back working, thanks.
I don’t know why or how but when I read your message it worked – you’re awesome. I tried several times yesterday to run outlook.exe /resetnavpane and it didn’t help but for some reason it worked today. Thanks for posting the answer – I’m not sure I would have tried it again but you reminded me!
Thank You so very much, it work perfectly. You better than Microsoft.
Thanks! Thanks! Thanks! I Love you!
Works instantly!
You are a legend! Thanks for solving this problem! ty ty ty
You’re a star. Thanks for sharing
Excellent, worked a treat!!!
It works!!!
Thank you so much!
Worked right alway
thanks
Ohh my God
I have been trying all what i can do to bring this error down but still was nothing i can produce but at last you made it work by running the that file. THIS HAS WORKED FOR ME AND I DONT KNOW WHAT MY CLIENT HAS TO BE HAPPY MORE THAN I CAN SAY TO SELF.
Thanks for the help problem solved
thank you so much for posting this information. It saved my life today!!! Especially the information of putting the restorenavpane outside the quotes of the command line!!! Brilliant!
Thanks a bunch! You are a genius!! This thing frustrated me no end and I just gave up a few months ago!!
Worked in 2 secs. Fantastic.
Worked a treat. Thanks for posting your solution.
worked like a charm! Thank You!
Thanks for the help. Drove me nuts for several days.
AWESOME! Worked like a charm. Thanks so much! You da man
works prefectly …thanks
Thanks a million. I have been without my Outlook for a while due to moving around and finally have it back.
been dealing with this for several weeks but not motivated enough to make tie to figure a fix for it … though it would need to clear a fairly big chunk of time to check for the problem – then decided to do a search wondering if was a common glitch and sure enough just had to execute the rest-nav command and OutLook is back up and running in mere seconds!!!
thanks for the quick-fix
Worked in 30 seconds, I couldn’t believe it! I had to leave a space between .exe and the forward slash. Thank you
tried it the 1st and it worked, tryd 2day and same error popd back up…intially ran it in command prompt(worked) but now it does’nt…tryd..search box and run…no luck
yes this work instantly…. great..
I’d about given up on getting Office Outlook running again, when I ran onto your remedy and I have to tell you I sure wish I”d have found you early today. I’ve spent the entire day working on repairs, first ont effort, then another and all the time, you had this fast answer. You sure ought to talk to Microsoft~your advice works, they had none for me. I can’t telll you thanks enough, but I’m grateful. I’m just one of those little ole ladies trying to save bucks and you did that for me today. Thanks, thanks!
Thank you so much! The MS tips were useless, running the outlook.exe /resetnavpane worked instantly!!
Awesome!! Thank you SOOOOOOO Much!! Ron
At first I also missed the space between the e /resetnavpane. Seems a very easy mistake to make! Just typed outlook.exe /resetvavpane into the search box, hit enter and problem solved instantly.Thank you very much.
Running Vista Ultimate Service Pack 2, fully updated, Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007.
You da man! Saved me a lot of time trouble shooting.
Thanks. worked a treat and I have just spent about 3 hors trying to get it to work.
Amazing how Microsoft can’t post such a simple solution. Had me very worried as I conuldn’t find a solution and was afraid that I was going to lose all my business email. What a disaster that would habve been. Did have an initial problem findingthe Run command in Windows 7. It is hidden by default.
Thanks for sucha simple answer.
Dang ur good u saved me loads of time glad I found your tip. Thank You Very much
Many, many thanks for this – I was getting nowhere!
supper, got fiexed it in a second, best and fast, thank you
Microsoft site useless, your tip worked instantly. Thanks very much, saved me a lot of time and bother.
Wow Roy, amazing solution. No wonder why I had scroll down to Rep you for this. So many people replied and I think all of them saved their time. I never believed in Microsoft’s Help though they are the makers. Kudos.
Fantastic, worked immediately. I had tried the Microsoft fixes and they did not work. Your solution should be the first to be listed on a Google search.
Top geezer, was just about to reinstall outlook and found your suggestion. If only the guys who wrote the software would share the secret runes. Well done Ron… and just to mention, as you say the Microsoft suggestion is absolutely useless…
thanks a lot man ! instant peace of mind !
OMG thank you soooo much – worked in a split second – after I’ve spent a whole week without Outlook!! Thank you so much – Microsoft’s site help was as much use as a chocolate teapot!
GREAT! Excellent advise. Fixed the problem right away. Thanks.
Awesome… worked instantly!
Another source for doing this is: http://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/commandlineswitches.htm
Thanx alot that was a great tip. Now I better get back to work…already lost half a daybecause of this.
Thanx alot that was a great tip. Now I better get back to work…already lost half a day because of this.
Great advice. Worked like a lucky charm. Thanks.
Excellent, i had trouble initially trying to run the file but i tried putting a space
in outlook.exe/resetnavpane
and it worked fine and instantly thank you so much. i have been experiencing problems with office 2007 for a while now and there always seems to be something new to fix on it. i run my business from it and it is quiet daunting knowing it could stuff up at any moment. is there a better program or is this it
Hi again, just to clarify i had to type in
outlook.exe (then hit the space bar)/resetnavpane i guess i should have just copied your text and put that in.
Thanks so much again
Peter
Thanks mate, saved me a lot of time and works like a charm!!
Thanks a lot!!! Saved a lot of time for me.
Thanks, fixed it straight away.
You are the best! worked for me!
I was really struggling!
you are the best, thanks a million… actually make that a zillion billion trillion. thanks again,
Awesome. Thanks so much to the one who suggested that Win 7 users can simply type outlook.exe /resetnavpane in the “Search Program” field in the “Start” menu. Ta!
Super – worked much better than the useless Microsoft suggestion. Only problem is that I seem to need to do it every time I open outlook.
You’ve restored my faith in the human race!
You saviour, I had this problem and unsuccessfully tried the microsoft solutions. I tried restore points and other solutions. It worked straight away. Thank you very much.
fantastic, worked first time! I thought I was going to have to dig up the company’s installation disks and go through a re-install.
Simply 3 steps:
copy the text outlook.exe /resetnavpane
click start > run
past the text from the clipboard
enter
et voila Outlook starts up, albeit with a bit of a delay, at least at first.
So grateful that you shared this with us. Thank you thank you thank you.
Jules
It worked instantly. That raises the question of why Microsoft don’t have this as a solution. That company is an increasing worry.
oarsome worked great
Thanks for this advice, saved my customer a days labour charges :-)
Thanks a lot. It is really an amazing and in one second solution for a horrible problem. I tried all the tools and recomendations even Microsoft offers, and nothing happened. Again: Thank you very much for the tip.
I have XP and Outlook 2007. This issue came about apparently as a result of attempting to backup to an external drive.
Anyway…I went Start>Run > and dragged Outlook.exe to the run window and added /resetnavpane after the ” , hit OK and the Device Manager window opened.
What now?????
OK, I got there thru the command prompt…
Thanks
Thanks a million – perfect!
thank you!!!
couldn’t get it to work the first time then i put a space before the forward slash and wallah!
Good shout- worked a charm!
Thank you. i have tried several other things but this one worked right away.
Thanks a lot . Hurray. Worked like a charm.
Fixed the prob. right away! Thank you very much!!
THANK YOU! I was in panic mode, until I found your simple solution.
Absolute legend. your advice was the first one i clicked on and it was spot on. took me 1 minute to fix this issue thanks to you.
Thanks so much – it worked instantly
Thank you so much
solved the problem in a second
Thank you! This works very well and quickly.
Forrest
Thanks!! This saved me hours of searching. I had actually tried the MS solution that comes up first in search engines!
Thank you very much, as you said Microsoft solution did not work. Your solution happenedf instantly.
Thank you so much – I’m so glad I found this
WOW, Thank you very much. I have been working on this issue for 2 days with no results. I’m so glad I found your information. Thank you.
Thank you–it took awhile to figure out the instructions, very slightly different on Vista but it appears to have worked.
Thank you again!
Great Help
Thanks
Absolutely WONDERFUL!
You’re proof positive that Support Services at Microsoft needs to be improved. Just think what would happen if they included this type of Q&A, Trial and error within their own ranks! In any case…TAHNK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!!
Wow thanks alot. This worked. I’ve been using Outlook via Citrix for the last 4 months because of this problem on my local machine. Now i don’t have to anymore…..
Thanks! I was lucky enough to stumble upon your solution first time!
Really appreciate it :D x
Thanks a bunch! Your solution was the first one I tried and it worked like a charm. Saved a lot of aggravation for me.
THANX!!!!!!!!!!!! it works!
Worked first time. You’re a genius, thanks!!! Although now I have to do some work, hahaha!!
That was lovely man… Cheers!
Thanks a lot. Worked first time.
Cheers
Worked first time – good job I could remember my way round DOS commands!! Thanks a lot.
Fantastic advice. Worked first time.
Thanks very much
Regards
Mark
Thank you so much – it worked straight away
May 2010
Wow i spent 3 not so fun hours searching for a fix – nothing worked until – I found you and your fix and BAM on back on-line THANK YOU ! A novice but daily e-mail / Outlook user.
I tried this after wasting an hour on doing other stuff. Worked in one second. All I did was copy the phase
outlook.exe /resetnavpane
into my windows explorer and let it search a file came up on the top of the window with the same name. I clicked it and problem solved. excellent and I am surprised why Microsoft doesn’t put this in any of their forums or help guides?
THANK YOU SO MUCH! It took me awhile to figure out that the little window below the start menu list was where I typed the command. I am new to Windows 2007 (LOVED XP but expensive to buy when 2007 came on my new pc).
It worked instantly. I would still like to know why this happened all of a sudden after I had a Skype crash and rebooted, but I’m more than satisfied just to get my email back.
THANKS, AGAIN!
Thank you soooo much!!!! I was at work and I couldn’t get my dang email to pull up. After fighting with my proxy settings I was able to find your article and it worked perfect!!!
Worked first time- thankyou so much!
Work like a charm. Wasted an hour before stumbling on this.
Magic !! Thank you so much.
Thanks so much for this. It has saved me hours of time. It didnt work for me at first until i followed your additional instructions which were:
think that the problem is that you placed the parameter INSIDE the quotes.. it needs to be outside the quotes:
“C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\OUTLOOK.EXE” /resetnavpane
worked like a charm on outlook 2010 beta. thanks for your help!
Thanks for the info. Worked great for me on the first try. very nice to have people like you helping others. Many thanks!!
Works like a charm – had this issue on a few machines already. Would love to know why it suddenly goes haywire!
Thank you
OMG! You are amazing – I’ve been trying to fix this problem for over 2 weeks. I just happened to come across your post a few minutes ago. I tried and it is working fine now. Thank you so much – you have helped so many people.
Thank you ever so much – this has so helped me out!
Brilliant! Quickest fix ever and it actually works.
Excellent. You saved me a whack of time.
I’ll add my thanks as well. Yours is the top result that came up when I searched for this issue and your fix worked instantly. Much appreciated!
Thanks. You just saved me hours of work. Fixed in 10 seconds.
Wow! Thanks for this solution – conscise, precise, and more importantly, EFFECTIVE!
You rock! It worked! Thanks for the help!
Thanks a lot. I was getting worried about this problem.
Thanks a lot after 3 days of trying to solve this problem, It only works in your way!!!
instantly indeed
You are simply the best. I looked at the Microsoft page and they didn´t help me. Your post worked in 1 second. Thank you very much. Antonio from Portugal.
Many Thanks.
Much time & trouble saved.
You are a freaking genius. I wasted 2 days trying to find a solution. Can someone at MS actually provide some useful info on their help menu?
Thanks – Worked instantly
It works! Thank you !!! =)
Many thanks. It worked on a Windows 7 machine runing Office Enterprise 2007.
Thank you thank you thank you……. It’s been a long time since I entered a command line instruction. It worked a treat, I have E-Mail again.
You’re a GENIUS! On Windows 7 the directory was c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office12. It worked! I was prepared to have to uninstall office and reinstall. We all know what a hassle that can be! This saved my day!
One would think that stupid Microsoft would post easy solutions like this. I guess stupid or don’t care are the operative terms.
You rock!!1
You rock!!
Thank you very much for this tip. It worked immediately. Much better then re-installing stuff eh!
Thank you! This worked great!
thanks so muchthanks so much :D
thanks so much :D
Hi There
Outlook.exe /resetnavpane has not worked at all for me. What should I do. Please help out. I am using Windows Vista 64 bit and office 2010
Thank you very much. It worked perfectly!!!
I almost lost money because of this problem.
Running Win7/32t with Outlook 2007 when this suddenly happened. Why does this happen all of a sudden? OK, fix worked but now my outbox doesnt work, all settings seem to be the same. Any clues? Thanks.
thankssssss so much. You saved me from a lot of trouble in the work hours :)
Saved me a lot of time!!
thanks a lot!!
Thanks a lot. It ran instataneously. You’re a lifesaver!
Outstanding – days of grief solved in seconds!!!!
Incredible. Well done and many thanks, worked in seconds
Wow! Thanks!
Thanks a million – you are a star!
I didn’t need the Command Promt DOS panel, I just typed it into the Run panel in the Start menu.
Done in seconds.
I can stop sweating now!!!
Thanks again
Works perfectly well for me !!
thanks a ton… This saved me hours of running around to get my mailbox fixed.
Regards,
Madhu
Thank you thank you thank you! Anyone who’s ever had to sort out any Microsoft issues should know that Microsoft’s help sites should not be their first port of call.
The solution worked perfectly! I think I would have still been reading through Microsoft’s article on how to fix the problem!
Thank you =)
Thanks a lot :)
Many thanks, saved me hours of fun!!
this worked for me instantly! Thanks!!
Dear all,
I had the same problem with my wife laptop, OS: vista Outlook 2007 didn’t open. Took me 5 seconds. I went to the control panel, mail, create new account (only shows outlook) create new account, copy… Worked smoothly got the outlook working and all the hundreds of messages were there.
Hope it help
Thanks a ton! Saved me a reinstall and hours of time.
ang galing!!!! That is so helpful. I thought i need to reinstall my microsoft office… THANKS!!!!
Thank you Pascal! You saved my day, I am so grateful, thank you so much for sharing!
Thankzzz a LLLOOOTTT! It works for me.
Thanks – worked for me second time but had to put a space in after the exe bit before the forward slash ‘outlook.exe /resetnavpane
hope that helps. Cheers
How can I thank you enough, you unknown cybernet St George.
many thanks – that solved it for me too.
Thanks. You’re a genius!
Thanks, worked instantly in win7
Thanks a million. I won’t forget that one. Now why doesn’t MSDN mention this?
worked for me first time
well done!
I love you! And owe you about £50!
thanks alot….instantly work when i tried it. saved me alot of time and possible money.
A lifesaver. Worked perfectly on W7/64 with Outlook 2007. Thanks.
Running the command line switch /resetnavpane from the Outlook directory works on 64 bit professional xp office 2007. Thanks for the stress relief tip. Everything including calendars, file structures, categories and data are available again.
Thanks mate. You are a star!
Brilliant. I thought I was going to have to delete and reinstall. Thanks.
THank you very much top man helped a out treat, first go. Many thanks
Worked great, thank you so much!
Saved my ass! Thanks
Thanks! worked straight away
Worked perfectly, once i figured out the pace between .exe and the “/”. Cheers!
Its perfectly possible I am just not seeing the bleeding obvious but how do you get the run prompt in Vista? (I dont get a lot of the thinking behind Vista, e.g. the file SEARCH thing defeats me everytime, it often seems at least to me as if the bods at Mircosoft went a bit doolally and decided to really quadrupple X things up.)
On the prompt thing am I a bit of div to be looking for something, or looking to activate something that says something, or that might just contain the word “run” in it? Or is that just a wee bit to logical?
As it stands I only appear to have a double click option to run the outlook.exe (which incidentally does not actually have a file extension attached, instead it has a wee yellow thing on the left with a down arrow in it. Only by looking in properties of this file can I actually see that it appears to be the relevant .exe file. Of course as is the way of these things I guess it might not be even related to where I really need to be.
When I do double click the apparent .exe file, the Outlook logo briefly appears then disappears to be replaced with the box saying Cannot… etc.
Thanks a lot!!! t works very well
best regards
Thanks! all working fine again….
Roy!!
You’re a MASTER!!!
First time in my life that I sorted a promblem this easily!! If ever you’re in South Africa, give me a shout, I owe you big time!!
Thanx
Hello All,
ave tried almost everything in this forum but nothing seems to be working. Am running vista and i got outlook 2003 installed. please help
you are awesome, you really save me lots of trouble. thanks…cheers
Thanks, That was a great help. It worked instantly even with Outlook 2007. I appreciate the time you saved me.
Absolutely excellent suggestion, this outlook.exe /resetnavpane command.
Days of waiting for computer support folks to no avail and a few more perforations of the ulcer all resolved in five seconds.
Thanks much, Mr, Roy, truly a king in the tech support world.
Awesome!! Works instantly!
AAAAHHHHHHHHH i have wasted days on this and all i needed to do run that cheers for that i wish i looked for an answer that didnt involve asking micosoft days ago!!!
Thank you so much! Instant fix after a really frustrating time!
Hi Mr. Pascal,
I have tried the fix for 2 days and well over 10 times, but it doesn’t help me. Let me give you the entire message I am getting and perhaps my problem is deeper than all the others. Here is what I am told when my Outlook shuts right down again each time, even after trying outlook.exe /resetnavpane: Cannot start Microsoft Outlook. Cannot open the Outlook window. The set of folders cannot be opened. The file C:\Users\Charlie\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\Outlook.pst is not a personal folders file.
I am remebering to put the space after exe so I know that is not the issue.
I am completely baffled. Any help you could give me would be greatly appreciated!
Best,
Charlie
Brilliant
you are a star….instant fix
saved me hours of worry!
Thanks a ton…
it really helped :-)
sweet!
Left for the weekend. Came back on Monday and had this problem. Your fix worked right away.
Thanks so much.
Thank you – You saved me a lot of time!
Charlie: The error message your are getting is different from the one this post aims to resolve.
It seems that the .PST file you are trying to open is either corrupt or the wrong format.
Always Confused: in vista, like in XP, the run command can be hidden from the start-menu. In this case you can type the command directly in the prompt on the start-menu if its available.
If it is not, this could be a policy preventing you from running things manually. You coul simply create a shortcut on your desktop with the command-line.
you save my life^_^ thanks alot
Brilliant – M$ are such tossers !
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
I’ve been using Outlook for years, and never encountered this problem. I was in a big hurry this afternoon, and forced Outlook to close so that I could shut down my machine. When I rebooted, I received the error. Your tip worked perfectly. Thank you!
Thank you so much!
thanks so much…like with all tech glitches I was running crazy and this was immediate
friend, thanx a lot. u are perfect..
Thank you! I’ve been pulling my hair out ever since Office 2007 Service pack 2 was installed – and this worked. But I had to copy and paste the command. There’s a space in there that I did not recognize.
Thanks lot!! saved my day.. :)
I have tried the “OUTLOOK.EXE /resetnavpane” several times and get the SAME message that Outlook cannot be opened. Can you help me?
I hadn’t been using my Outlook forever – to think that there was a solution that took 1/2 a second. Thank you!
Thanks! you da man.
THANKS for the resetnavpane!
Thanks for that script: Outlook.exe /resetnavpane
It worked very quickly. Now I found that when I turn off/turn back on my computer, I still encounter the same problem of not being able to open my Outlook. How do I save the change after I run the: Outlook.exe /resetnavpane and get it open again w/out running the script all over?
Sam
dude, you rock! thank you so much.
Thanks mate,
Microsoft shortcut solution didn’t work for me, but your solution solved my problem in a flash.
Thanks a lot.
Brilliant tip. Had to figure out ‘how’ to run the command but with some trial & error (just type the second command after the first) it worked instantly. Save my day as well :-)
Thank you so much for this. My computer skills are limited so it took me a few tries but it worked brilliantly. Very grateful!
Greate PAscal!!!
Your arcticle has saved my day.
You have saved me lots of money and time and stress. Thanks!
Thanks for that – instant fix!!
Thank you to works for me.
“Outlook.exe /resetnavpane”
Thank you very much. 10/10. Have tried almost every thing. And at last……….
Merci, Pascal ca marche tres bien en windows 7, vous etais un genie!
ThankS!!!!!
It’s very worrying to loose your email program for no reason. This worked perfectly. Like everyone else – A huge thankyou!
Thanks, worked great… much easier than doing a full restore which is how I solved it the last time it happened.
so, I have the same problem – however, in my office11 folder I don’t have the outlook.exe – I have an office12 folder with outlook.exe and when I click on it I get the same error message and am unable to open the file – what to do?
OK – I got it!!!! I read through some of the most recent emails and found my solution! AWESOME!!!!!
Such a simple solution that has saved further hours of searching – thank you -thank you -thank you!!!
when I type the command, an error message shows: “Cannot start Microsoft Office Outlook. The command line argument is not valid. Verify the switch you are using.”
Can you help, please?
Thanks,
OMG! ignore the last comment! it has just worked!!!
THANK YOUUUUU!
Great stuff. Finally got it to work when inserting the space in the right place !!
Ohh Thank you so MUCH! I just had this error recently. And did a google search and this website came up
Life f**king saver you are!