damn compaq machine came with Office installed on a time lock. The lock
went off. I (and everyone else on the machine) could recieve mail, but not
use any other capability.

I unistalled Office that was installed and installed Office XP and went
thru the patches, and fixes and "stuff"

the outlook.pst, archive.pst files were still there containing all the
messages, contacts that have accumlated over the last three months (since
installing the replacement machine) as well as the imported data from the
previous machine via pst import.

I can't make outlook work anywhere close to proper. and I'm more and more
frustrated with the process.

after everything else, I thought to try to delete the directory that
contains the outlook files (after backing the files up/copy the files)
and reset outlook to a fresh view. Now outlook won't even start


I've tried search/google for information, but with obvious results
I have no idea what the MS gobbldy-geek terms would be used for this
type of situation

where do I start looking. I've read the Exchange documentation
including the cert guides, but these don't tell me squat about fixing
the office product outlook.

Simply how do I reset a user to a fresh start condition?
What registry keys need to be set?

(and why didn't the unistall procedure clean up the old stuff, and the
new install and service packs set the right keys?)

Try selecting Detect and Repair from the Help drop down menu.
"Kermit P Tensmeyer" wrote in message
news
damn compaq machine came with Office installed on a time lock. The lock
went off. I (and everyone else on the machine) could recieve mail, but not
use any other capability.

I unistalled Office that was installed and installed Office XP and went
thru the patches, and fixes and "stuff"

the outlook.pst, archive.pst files were still there containing all the
messages, contacts that have accumlated over the last three months (since
installing the replacement machine) as well as the imported data from the
previous machine via pst import.

I can't make outlook work anywhere close to proper. and I'm more and more
frustrated with the process.

after everything else, I thought to try to delete the directory that
contains the outlook files (after backing the files up/copy the files)
and reset outlook to a fresh view. Now outlook won't even start


I've tried search/google for information, but with obvious results
I have no idea what the MS gobbldy-geek terms would be used for this
type of situation

where do I start looking. I've read the Exchange documentation
including the cert guides, but these don't tell me squat about fixing
the office product outlook.

Simply how do I reset a user to a fresh start condition?
What registry keys need to be set?

(and why didn't the unistall procedure clean up the old stuff, and the
new install and service packs set the right keys?)

On Wed, 29 Mar 2006 15:03:51 -0800, Chuck Davis wrote:

Try selecting Detect and Repair from the Help drop down menu.
"Kermit P Tensmeyer" wrote in message
news

well if I could start outlook and get to a point where that option would
be available, that would be a step in the right direction. but I can't..

outlook doesn't start because it can't find the files that it wants.
I'm assuming that some registry keys are telling outlook what pst files
to look for. How do I reset those keys and tell it to recreate the files
in the default format?

kermit tensmeyer wrote:

well if I could start outlook and get to a point where that option
would be available, that would be a step in the right direction. but
I can't..

Then do it from Control Panel's Add or Remove Programs by running the Office
startup wizard.

outlook doesn't start because it can't find the files that it wants.
I'm assuming that some registry keys are telling outlook what pst
files to look for. How do I reset those keys and tell it to recreate
the files in the default format?

You can manipulate Outlook's data files from Control Panel's Mail applet.
--
Brian Tillman

thank you for the help, it makes things so much easier
[and less frustrating...]

On Thu, 30 Mar 2006 08:41:03 -0500, Brian Tillman wrote:

kermit tensmeyer wrote:

well if I could start outlook and get to a point where that option
would be available, that would be a step in the right direction. but
I can't..

Then do it from Control Panel's Add or Remove Programs by running the Office
startup wizard.

outlook doesn't start because it can't find the files that it wants.
I'm assuming that some registry keys are telling outlook what pst
files to look for. How do I reset those keys and tell it to recreate
the files in the default format?

You can manipulate Outlook's data files from Control Panel's Mail applet.

On Thu, 30 Mar 2006 08:41:03 -0500, Brian Tillman wrote:

kermit tensmeyer wrote:

well if I could start outlook and get to a point where that option
would be available, that would be a step in the right direction. but
I can't..

Then do it from Control Panel's Add or Remove Programs by running the Office
startup wizard.

outlook doesn't start because it can't find the files that it wants.
I'm assuming that some registry keys are telling outlook what pst
files to look for. How do I reset those keys and tell it to recreate
the files in the default format?

You can manipulate Outlook's data files from Control Panel's Mail applet.

As you suggested I deleted the Outlook profile, and created a new
profile (which I called "outlook" as well and created my first email
account. At which point I could start Outlook and read basic mail. I
added the other accounts by hand. but ran into problems trying to import
the old pst file (wrong version)

but it's a problem that I can work with...

thanks again for the help it's not broken anymore

Kermit P Tensmeyer wrote:

As you suggested I deleted the Outlook profile, and created a new
profile (which I called "outlook" as well and created my first email
account. At which point I could start Outlook and read basic mail. I
added the other accounts by hand. but ran into problems trying to
import the old pst file (wrong version)

but it's a problem that I can work with...

I'm glad things are working again. However, never import a PST. While you
can't open an Outllook 2003 PST with any earlier version of Outlook, with
compatible PSTs, always use FileOpenOutlook Data File. Importing can lose
data.
--
Brian Tillman