The Old Joel on Software Forum: Part 4 (of 5) - OUTLOOK 2003

OUTLOOK 2003 - help: how to cleanly re/uninstall?

Hi all!!

I'm struggling with Outlook 2003 (used to Mozilla Maill, OE and similar), but finding it more useful every passing day. I've installed Office 2003 and find it OK (Word is _much_ slower than Word 2003, but that's the only quibble).

The thing is, on my "early experiment" days, I did quite a lot of experimenting with Outlook (first on Outlook 2000, then I installed Outlook 2002, and then I moved to 2003). The result, as you can imagine, is a less-than-satisfactory config. For instance, I have the "folders" for a .pst that does not exist, but I can't get rid of them; "Send/Recieve" using F9 does not work, but I have another "send and recieve" entry that has the exact same config, and clicking on either of them on the popup menu _does_ work...

So, I'd like to be able to _completely_ uninstall Outlook so that I can re-install it and start from the default config, now that I am more confident on the setup I want to have... But there seems to be no way of saying "uinstall and wipe the config, please".

I've tried looking for .pst files lying around, and pruning the \outlook key on the Ofiice key on HKCU\Software and HKLM\Software, but the config is still around when I install again...

Any tips / pointers to articles / how-tos / KBs about "Outlook hacking"

Thanks a lot.

Javier Jarava

Javier Jarava
Monday, February 16, 2004

try just creating a new profile instead of reinstalling. quit outlook, right click on properties on its icon (opens the mail control panel), show profiles, create a new one. then either set the new one to be the default or make it prompt you at startup.

a good resource site is http://www.slipstick.com/

mb
Monday, February 16, 2004

in the start menu, under microsoft office tools, choose Microsoft Office Application Recovery. it will reset your office setting (unfortunatelly not just outlook). but in the same menu there is one called "save my settings wizard", maybe if you run the before...

Monday, February 16, 2004

The "create a new profile" trick seemed to work!!

Thanks a lot!!

Now I only have to wait for the 30+ MB of Mail (IMAP) to get here through the DSL ;)

Javier Jarava
Tuesday, February 17, 2004