Cannot start Microsoft Outlook

Gareth wrote:

I'm getting the "Cannot start MS Outlook. Cannot open the Outlook Window.
The set of folder cannot be opened" error message. I'm using Outlook
2007.

I've tried all of the usual fixes including resetnavpane and so on, safe
mode, admin escalation and so on.

I've given up trying to fix the problem - the profile is obviously broken.
I'm not sure how this happened and it really should not happen.

No, the .pst file is corrupted. The mail profile is defined in the
registry and defines which messages stores (.pst files) belong to it.

Anyway, is there anyway that I can access a password protected personal
folder archive that was associated with this profile? I have the password
but obviously if I cannot start Outlook I can't access the opportunity to
open the archive.

What happens when you create a new profile, make it the default, load
Outlook using the new (and empty) profile, and then load the old .pst
file (File -> Open in OL2003; don't know the similar menu nav in OL2007)
as a separate message store? Still get the corruption issue? If the
.pst file is considered corrupted (and scanpst didn't work which is
presumably one of those "and so on" unmentioned other actions you tried
on a *copy* of the .pst file) then you may not be able to load it
separately, either.

Because "and so on" doesn't imply you tried repairing a corrupt .pst
file, try using scanpst (but save a copy of the original .pst file since
scanpst might truncate the file and you want to play with a copy of the
file but still have the original intact).

http://www.google.com/search?q=site:support.microsoft.com+scanpst

To get Outlook working, use the Mail applet in Control Panel (added
after installing Outlook) to manage mail profiles. Create a new empty
profile and specify it as the default profile (so Outlook tries to load
that one when it starts). You'll get a new [mostly] empty .pst file.

www.howto-outlook.com/faq/newprofile.htm
www.howto-outlook.com/faq/outlookdoesntstart.htm

Interestingly the error is thrown up just after Outlook
asks me for the password for this archive.

Because Outlook has yet to load the message store saved in the .pst
file. To open the .pst file means having to use the password for it.
So you load Outlook and it then finds the specified .pst file that is in
the default mail profile and tries to open that .pst file but finds it
is password protected so it prompts you for the password to open that
.pst file.

Hopefully I have not lost all of the archived messages/files.

Get an old good copy of the .pst file from your backups.