Outlook Express won't start up w/o errors

[isaacgrover]

Good morning from Wisconsin,

I have a client running Outlook Express 6.0 with Internet Explorer 7.0 on Windows XP Home w/SP2. When she starts Outlook Express, the top text menu and folders on the left appear but the message list, preview pane, and common task buttons won't appear. Outlook Express starts downloading a message or two, then I see the "this program has caused an error and needs to close" dialog box. The details of the error can be seen in a screenshot in the attachment to this post. Supposedly there was a virus on this computer that caused Outlook Express and other programs to stop working, but I found no evidence of such.

Following suggestions I have seen on other forums, I have reset Internet Explorer to its default settings, uninstalled and reinstalled Outlook Express through the Windows Components section of Add/Remove Programs, re-registered all the Outlook Express DLLs per a Microsoft QB article, replaced MSHTML.DLL with an older version. An attempt to install IE6 SP1 failed because this PC is running IE7.

An ideal tool to have would be an application that watches exactly what happens as Outlook Express starts up and red-flags anything that is amiss, but if such a tool does not exist, I am open to suggestions.

Thank you much in advance,
---
Isaac Grover, Owner
Quality Computer Services
Online at

http://www.qcs-rf.com

--
Isaac Grover, Owner
Quality Computer Services of River Falls, Wisconsin
Web:

http://www.qcs-rf.com

 

[goombawaho]

Did you already try to remove (and backup to a safe location) all the files in the OE data store folder and then try launching OE again?? This should prove whether it is OE/Windows DLL-related or something to do with the user's mail store.

Should be a folder with a path similar to this:
C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Application Data\Identities\{A85341F9-0683-40CE-AE30-FB7311AF7D3B}

If you did and still have the same problem and you're sure that there's no virus on the PC, I'd do an SFC /SCANNOW to see if that repairs things.

If not, you might have to do a repair install.