Jay Hornsman, you wrote on Mon, 28 Dec 2009 02:12:04 -0500:

[a novel...]

Could you explain the problem you have with Outlook sententiously? I
don't think that anybody here will read your posting entirely ;-).

--
Best Regards
Christian Goeller

MVP - MS Outlook
http://www.outlookfaq.net

On Mon, 28 Dec 2009 10:20:15 +0100, Christian Goeller
wrote:

Jay Hornsman, you wrote on Mon, 28 Dec 2009 02:12:04 -0500:

[a novel...]

Could you explain the problem you have with Outlook sententiously? I
don't think that anybody here will read your posting entirely ;-).

It was not intended for lazy or slow readers in the first place, so
the filter is working. And it wasn't something that requires a
response, since it is not only the problem but the solution.

While you don't want a reply, I will comment for the benefit of others who
find the long missive... a corrupt outcmd.dat is rare (and will become rarer
as outlook 2010 doesn't use it). It happens most often during upgrades -
either in-place upgrading from an older version of outlook, or if easy
transfer is used to move outlook to a new machine. It is one of the 4 files
that doesn't upgrade from Outlook 2003 to 2007 well.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Outlook Tips: http://www.outlook-tips.net/
Outlook & Exchange Solutions Center: http://www.slipstick.com/

Outlook Tips by email:


EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:


Poll: What version of Outlook do you use?
http://forums.slipstick.com/showthread.php?t=27072


"Jay Hornsman" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 28 Dec 2009 10:20:15 +0100, Christian Goeller
wrote:

Jay Hornsman, you wrote on Mon, 28 Dec 2009 02:12:04 -0500:

[a novel...]

Could you explain the problem you have with Outlook sententiously? I
don't think that anybody here will read your posting entirely ;-).

It was not intended for lazy or slow readers in the first place, so
the filter is working. And it wasn't something that requires a
response, since it is not only the problem but the solution.

On Mon, 28 Dec 2009 15:21:00 -0500, "Diane Poremsky [MVP]"
wrote:

While you don't want a reply, I will comment for the benefit of others who
find the long missive... a corrupt outcmd.dat is rare (and will become rarer
as outlook 2010 doesn't use it). It happens most often during upgrades -
either in-place upgrading from an older version of outlook, or if easy
transfer is used to move outlook to a new machine. It is one of the 4 files
that doesn't upgrade from Outlook 2003 to 2007 well.

I didn't find it to be particularly rare, bing or google around a bit
and I think you'll find lots of folks have had the problem. I also
did not upgrade, this is the first install of Outlook I've ever had on
my home system, and it's been working pretty well for the past few
months. As I mentioned in my long missive, I went from being a long
time user of Eudora to this.

The real reason for the original post is to make the point that from a
software engineering standpoint, it is unexcusable to have an entire
application simply freeze up; completely locking the user out of an
application as critical (to most) as their e-mail client.

Particularly since outcmd.dat is apparently an optional file of little
consequence if deleted and recreated. All it takes is a little
defensive code to detect when something is out of whack with
outcmd.dat, and boycott loading that particular file but allowing the
user to continue so they can get to their e-mail. I think we could
all agree this seems a bit more elegant than resulting in a frozen
splash screen and a process that sits there and burns CPU cycles doing
nothing.

outcmd.dat is the toolbar customization file. It's only created when you
customize a toolbar in Outlook. While outlook will recreate it, its not
inconsequential or of little value to most people who have one.

There are other files that get corrupted more often - some are replaced by
outlook automatically, others are not. Users do not like it when outlook
deletes customizations, even if the file is bad. If they replace it
themselves, they can see that it really was corrupt and not just outlook
deleting files willynilly.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Outlook Tips: http://www.outlook-tips.net/
Outlook & Exchange Solutions Center: http://www.slipstick.com/

Outlook Tips by email:


EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:


Poll: What version of Outlook do you use?
http://forums.slipstick.com/showthread.php?t=27072


"Jay Hornsman" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 28 Dec 2009 15:21:00 -0500, "Diane Poremsky [MVP]"
wrote:

While you don't want a reply, I will comment for the benefit of others who
find the long missive... a corrupt outcmd.dat is rare (and will become
rarer
as outlook 2010 doesn't use it). It happens most often during upgrades -
either in-place upgrading from an older version of outlook, or if easy
transfer is used to move outlook to a new machine. It is one of the 4
files
that doesn't upgrade from Outlook 2003 to 2007 well.

I didn't find it to be particularly rare, bing or google around a bit
and I think you'll find lots of folks have had the problem. I also
did not upgrade, this is the first install of Outlook I've ever had on
my home system, and it's been working pretty well for the past few
months. As I mentioned in my long missive, I went from being a long
time user of Eudora to this.

The real reason for the original post is to make the point that from a
software engineering standpoint, it is unexcusable to have an entire
application simply freeze up; completely locking the user out of an
application as critical (to most) as their e-mail client.

Particularly since outcmd.dat is apparently an optional file of little
consequence if deleted and recreated. All it takes is a little
defensive code to detect when something is out of whack with
outcmd.dat, and boycott loading that particular file but allowing the
user to continue so they can get to their e-mail. I think we could
all agree this seems a bit more elegant than resulting in a frozen
splash screen and a process that sits there and burns CPU cycles doing
nothing.

On Mon, 28 Dec 2009 15:54:11 -0500, "Diane Poremsky [MVP]"
wrote:

outcmd.dat is the toolbar customization file. It's only created when you
customize a toolbar in Outlook. While outlook will recreate it, its not
inconsequential or of little value to most people who have one.

There are other files that get corrupted more often - some are replaced by
outlook automatically, others are not. Users do not like it when outlook
deletes customizations, even if the file is bad. If they replace it
themselves, they can see that it really was corrupt and not just outlook
deleting files willynilly.

But would you agree that a simple pop-up letting the user know the
file is bad, and either giving them the choice to continue, or the
choice to exit and go fix it themselves, or the choice to erase it,
would be better development decision than to simply let the process
freeze up, requiring manual termination of the process and a lot of
head scratching wondering what went wrong? A freeze on start-up that
does not occur in safe mode first sends one down the path of looking
at add-ins, antivirus issues, recent windows updates and such. There
is no good excuse for just leaving them guessing due to a corrupt file
which is really inconsequential in itself anyway.