Outlook98 will not open

[Robert]

There are no error messages. It just hangs after a small
number of screen elements have been displayed, with the
hourglass blinking.

I ran Inbox repair, which said it found only a few minor
errors. I had it fix these anyway, but this made no
difference.

I restored a 14-day-old backup which works fine.

But I'd like to recover that two week's worth of work if
possible.

outlook.pst is about 200MB. I run Win98 on a 600MHz AMD
Duron PC. No problems for the past years, although of
course Outlook98 hangs up from time to time.

Thanks very much for any suggestions.

 

[Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]]

Close Outlook. Find and rename outcmd.dat to .old. (If using Windows 2000
or XP, you will need to enable searching hidden and system folders.)

Once you have done so, reopen Outlook and it should open fine. You will
need to rebuild any custom toolbars or customizations as the file outcmd.dat
controls how the toolbars display. When it becomes corrupted, it will cause
Outlook to hang because it cannot create the toolbars that you expect.


--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. Due to
the (insert latest virus name here) virus, all mail sent to my personal
account will be deleted without reading.

After searching google.groups.com and finding no answer, Robert asked:

| There are no error messages. It just hangs after a small
| number of screen elements have been displayed, with the
| hourglass blinking.
|
| I ran Inbox repair, which said it found only a few minor
| errors. I had it fix these anyway, but this made no
| difference.
|
| I restored a 14-day-old backup which works fine.
|
| But I'd like to recover that two week's worth of work if
| possible.
|
| outlook.pst is about 200MB. I run Win98 on a 600MHz AMD
| Duron PC. No problems for the past years, although of
| course Outlook98 hangs up from time to time.
|
| Thanks very much for any suggestions.