OL98: Outlook Stops Responding on Start Up

MORE INFORMATION

You can use the Preview Pane feature to display the contents of messages without having to open them. When you open Outlook, the Preview Pane will display the first item in your Inbox. If this item is corrupt, it may not display so Outlook stops responding without completing the open process. To bypass the corrupt item, start Outlook with the /nopreview switch and remove the corrupt item without opening it.

To turn off the Preview Pane so you can remove the item, follow these steps:

1. Click Start on the Windows Taskbar and click Run.
2. In the Open window, type the path to your Outlook.exe file. If there are spaces in the path name, enclose it in quotation marks.
3. Following the last character in the path name, type a space followed by /nopreview, and click OK. For example:

   "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Outlook.exe" /nopreview

4. When Outlook opens without the Preview Pane, delete the first item in the Inbox or move it to another folder without opening it.

The /nopreview switch turns off the Preview Pane and removes the option from the View Menu. To display the Preview Pane, you must quit Outlook and restart without the /nopreview switch.