# Microsoft Office Outlook 2003



## mammabush (Feb 25, 2007)

I have used this program for several years with out any problems. This week, I suddenly can not open it. I get this error message: "Cannot start Microsoft Outlook. Unable to open the Outlook Window. The set folders could not be opened. The server is not available. Contact your administrator if the situation persists."
I have rebooted, defragged, rebooted again and no luck. How do I fix this and how did it happen? I would like to avoid this situation.


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## kiwiguy (Aug 17, 2003)

See if the MS solution helps:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/822503


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## myoops (Mar 1, 2007)

Interesting Kiwiguy! 
Mammabush - did this work for you? If not, and you don't mind, let me pass along an alternative. 
When I hit this, we were rolling out Outlook2003 and were implementing Cache Mode. The message that we were getting was very similar: "Cannot start Microsoft Office Outlook. Unable to open Outlook window. The set of folders could not be opened. The server is not available." This ended up being a corrupt OST. To get around it:
1. Right click the Outlook icon on the desktop and choose Properties. Click E-Mail Accounts, click View or change existing e-mail accounts, and then click Next. 
2. In the "Outlook processes e-mail for these accounts" in the following order list, click the Exchange Server e-mail account, and then click Change. 
3. Under Microsoft Exchange Server, UNselect the Use Cached Exchange Mode check box. 4. Finish up the wizard.
5. On your computer, search for and delete any OST files
6. re-opening outlook
7. Tools, Send Receive, Send Receive Settings, Define Send Receive Groups, Edit, then checking what folders should be available in the OST. It will also ask you to set up offline folders, so just follow the prompts. This recreates a fresh OST.
8. re-enable cache mode (Tools - Email Accounts - View or change existing e-mail accounts, and then click Next. Follow steps 2-4 above.
9) restart outlook


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## [email protected] (Feb 3, 2007)

Correct ! That should be the solution. Also make a note to backup any ost files you find.


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## snurfen (Jun 11, 2006)

Myoops, thanks for that diamond tip. I was floundering after a colleague "migrated" my Outlook from a temp domain to my future perm domain. When I wasn't looking.
Dunno what he was playing at, cos when I moved from old domain to temp domain 3 weeks ago, I did it sweet as a nut (following the procedures I wrote for a 500 plus user migration).

Moral of the story, don't let your UK manager "keep his finger in", especially when you aren't there to guide him!

On the strength of your post, I re-activated my account here. Thanks.


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## chipa_racing (Jul 20, 2007)

myoops said:


> Interesting Kiwiguy!
> Mammabush - did this work for you? If not, and you don't mind, let me pass along an alternative.
> When I hit this, we were rolling out Outlook2003 and were implementing Cache Mode. The message that we were getting was very similar: "Cannot start Microsoft Office Outlook. Unable to open Outlook window. The set of folders could not be opened. The server is not available." This ended up being a corrupt OST. To get around it:
> 1. Right click the Outlook icon on the desktop and choose Properties. Click E-Mail Accounts, click View or change existing e-mail accounts, and then click Next.
> ...


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## myoops (Mar 1, 2007)

I'm not clear on your question. Are you talking about multi-user machines (where one machine is used by multiple people on a shift or by multiple shifts)? Or are you talking about this working on more than one occasion/user?

Either case, yes, this works to resolve the posted error message. However, I do caution you if you plan on using cache mode with multi-user computers. I seem to remember that, if you use cache mode for Jeff and Dave on the same computer, and Jeff logs onto Outlook first in cache mode then logs off, when Dave logs on for cache mode he will first see the contents of Jeff's mailbox. I also remember some other issues, but this was enough for us. We considered this both a security and a privacy issue. In reference to this being a viable solution for the masses, we had to do this for at least 100 users during our roll out. One. At. A. Time. Our Help Desk staff hated us


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## Iorana (Nov 2, 2007)

Hi, 
I'm a somewhat beginner with all of this, been using outlook for years on this machine, didn't have a problem, then suddenly got the same issue as mammabush: 
"Cannot start Microsoft Outlook. Unable to open the Outlook Window. The set folders could not be opened. The server is not available. Contact your administrator if the situation persists."
I went through the thread, but got stuck at point 2, as I do not have a "Exchange Server e-mail account" under that list, just my att email account. 

can anybody help?
thanks
Iorana


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## too_old_for_this (Feb 7, 2008)

For me, the end of this message reads:

"one or more parameter values are not vaild"

Any suggestions?


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