When you try to open Microsoft Outlook you may start getting the error "Cannot start Microsoft Office Outlook. Cannot open the Outlook window". This may only be happening under one profile; if you log into another profile, you may find that Outlook works fine.

This is because the file that holds the settings for Outlook has become corrupted, and will need to be reset. Perform the following steps carefully.

Vista:

Go to the start menu, and in 'Start search' type in:

cmd <hit enter>

XP:
Go to the start menu, click 'run' then type in:

cmd <hit enter>

For both, do the following:


A black box opens (this is the command prompt). In this box, type in:

cd / <hit enter>

At this point you should see just 'C:\>' as the prompt
Type in:

cd program files <hit enter>
cd microsoft office <hit enter>
cd office11 <hit enter>

dir <hit enter>

- at this point, a list of files will show. See if Outlook.exe is in the list. If not, then you need to look for the file in a different location:

cd .. <hit enter>
cd office12 <hit enter>

dir <hit enter>

- see if Outlook.exe is in the list.

If Outlook.exe is not here, then you will need to have a hunt for it and move into that directory with the command prompt, using 'cd ..' to move up a level and 'cd foldername' to move into a folder.

Once you have found Outlook.exe, type in:

outlook.exe /resetnavpane <hit enter>

This should then open up Outlook, with the error solved. Below is a screenshot of my attempt at fixing this error.