A lot of people get the error message “Cannot start Microsoft Outlook. Cannot open the Outlook window” As soon as they install windows 7 on their computer.

This error is caused by the fact that windows Outlook cannot display the navigation pane which means it cannot open the main outlook window.

There are always switches that can allow you to control exactly how an application starts up but because we have lived in the point and click world for so long most computer users are totally unaware that there is a way to open application besides clicking on an icon.

Clicking on an icon just runs a command that tells the operating system where the application is located on the hard drive and how to open the application. If only the link to the executable file is provided, the application will open using the default settings. Default settings, as the name implies, can be changed and that is how you can get around the problem with opening up outlook in windows 7.

To run outlook from the command line in Windows 7, click Start and type the following command into the text box.

outlook /resetnavpane

then hit enter.

You should only have to do this one time and then the program should open properly when you double click on the icon.

What is the cause of the problem?

Simple, Windows 7 doesn’t have a driver that resets this default value for Outlook. Perhaps one eventually one will be provided.