Unable to launch Microsoft Outlook after applying 17.1.0.14 patch

Norton Security | Norton Internet Security
1

Hi, all,

 

I'm running Firefox/3.5.3, MS Office Professional 2007 with Outlook 2007, Vista Home Premium 64 bit, and NIS 2010.  I received update 17.1.0.14 last night, requesting me to restart my computer.  I did so, and went to bed.  This morning, not only is the Norton toolbar, with IdentitySafe, gone from Firefox (but not from IE 8), but I cannot get Outlook to open at all.  I get a message "Cannot start Microsoft Outlook.  Cannot open the Outlook window."  I do a lot of my small business work by e-mail, so this is fairly serious.

 

After reading Ayiana's post about Outlook crashing, I opened NIS and disabled the e-mail anti-virus and anti-spam features.  I restarted the computer.  I still could not open Outlook.  I then tried getting into Windows and doing a system restore, which usually removes downloaded updates to installed software (such as NIS).  Windows announced, after restarting, that the system restore was unsuccessful, having encountered an unspecified error. 

 

I still cannot open Outlook.  I used Windows Explorer to go and look at the Outlook profile folder.  It seems to be intact, and in its proper location, but of course I cannot open it without using Outlook.  It also stated that its last modification was the most recent attempt to open it.  I do not know if it is damaged or not.

 

Then I tried to post to this forum, only to discover that Norton forums had forgotten my existence.  I re-registered, but had to use another computer (the only one in the house not running NIS) to go to my ISP's webmail site so I could verify the registration.

 

So, yes -- to answer your questions, here is another user whose Outlook program is affected.  My business correspondence is at a standstill, because I cannot reference older e-mail messages, though I can see and send new ones using webmail.  Does anyone have any ideas?  Can I uninstall NIS 2010?  Will that help?  I have my product key, so I can always download it again later.

 

[edit: changed subject to better reflect thread topic] 

Message Edited by Tim on 10-28-2009 12:13 PM
2
xiguasiamese wrote:

 ...Can I uninstall NIS 2010?  Will that help?....

Yes, that will help because the problem isn't with Outlook, it's with NIS. Your Outlook data file is fine.

 

I would advise you to wait a little while longer for Symantec to publish a fix. That's the best option. If Symantec doesn't publish a fix by the end of the day, consider other options. Uninstalling and reinstalling NIS is one of them, but it can be messy. Importing your email and contacts into another email program, or even Gmail, is another option, and it leaves your system intact for when a fix eventually materializes.

 

As for browsing...there's always Internet Explorer (spit). I can live without my Firefox add-ons for a while.

 

And while this won't help now, making regular images of your system partition would have saved the day, since you could easily roll back to a pre-Symantec patch image. System Restore does not help in this situation.

 

[edit: updated subject to reflect new thread] 

Message Edited by Tim on 10-28-2009 12:17 PM
3

In the meantime I have discovered another bug with the update. I could no longer get my Outlook starting. It always crashed. After several reboots and restarts I got it working again. Outlook says that this is due the Antispam Toolbar from Norton and recommends to deactivate it and tries to restore the program. Now all my folders are gone including the emails. Only a few ones remain in the Inbox. (Good that I have done a backup a few days ago!)

 

Nice. I have been very satisfied with Norton since Version 2009 but at the moment I am disappointed.

 

Anybody else experiencing such things?

 

Kind regards, Ayiana

 

 [edit: updated subject to reflect new thread]

Message Edited by Tim on 10-28-2009 12:17 PM
4

Sorry, I forgot to mentin my Outlook version. I am using Outlook 2007, a previously clean install.

 

I have a suggestion for my data loss: Outlook didn't reply any more, i tried everything. The mouse disappeared under the Outlook window and so I had to close the application through Taskmanager. 

 

When I restarted Outlook i got the message that outlook crashed because of Norton Antispam toolbar. I got the "order" to deactivate this addon and then Outlook will try to restore the lost/damaged data. That didn't work. CPU-Usage went up to about 50-70% for nearly 1 hour. I finally stopped this and tried to integrate my backup. That didn't work without problems. My tasks are gone and even the "Outlook-taskbar" is permanently damaged. 

 

I now decided to install my system again because there are too much problems. I will install NIS 2010 again but without Liveupdate running till i am sure the "bugfix" has been taken from the servers and will not effect my system again.

 

[edit: updated subject to reflect new thread]

Message Edited by Tim on 10-28-2009 12:18 PM
5

Hi, maybe it helps to delete the .pst file in the Outlook directory and replace it with a backup of your .pst.

 

I got my emails back, but there is still a problem with the outlook "taskbar". All my tasks are gone, the backup doesn't work. There is the message that there is something damaged. 

 

I deactivated the Norton Antispam Toolbar so there should no longer be an interaction between the two programs. I will try the system restore and when this doesn't work I will try a reinstallation of Outlook. 

 

When Norton has released a new patch I will probably reinstall my whole system. 

 

Hope you can get your Outlook working again.

 

Kind regards, Ayiana

Message Edited by Ayiana on 10-28-2009 08:21 PM
6

I have zero problems with Outlook 2007 [on Windows XP SP 3].  I rely on NIS to scan incoming and outgoing email, however, I do not use the Anti-Spam component. That might account for the difference in our experiences.

 

In any case, you can always use your email provider's webmail interface to send and receive email. You won't have access to the rest of your Outlook data file, but at least you'll be able to reply to people who send you email.

 

I have not tried this myself, but I know that Mozilla Thunderbird imports address books and email from Outlook. (Not sure about Outlook 2007, however.)

7

Thanks for your post. While we are looking at the issue, please try this to fix the problem:

 

1) Press the "Windows" button on your keyboard and press 'R' while holding the "Windows" button. That will open "Run" window.

2) Type outlook.exe /resetnavpane and click "OK"

 

Try to open your Outlook. The problem might be fixed.

 

You can see a Microsoft forum on the similar issue here: http://www.vistax64.com/microsoft-office/228496-cannot-start-microsoft-outlook-cannot-open-outlook-window.html

 

 

Please, post here whether it helped or not.

8
xiguasiamese wrote:

Hi, all,

 

I'm running Firefox/3.5.3, MS Office Professional 2007 with Outlook 2007, Vista Home Premium 64 bit, and NIS 2010.  I received update 17.1.0.14 last night, requesting me to restart my computer.  I did so, and went to bed.  This morning, not only is the Norton toolbar, with IdentitySafe, gone from Firefox (but not from IE 8), but I cannot get Outlook to open at all.  I get a message "Cannot start Microsoft Outlook.  Cannot open the Outlook window."  I do a lot of my small business work by e-mail, so this is fairly serious.

 


Uninstall NIS2010 using the Norton Removal Tool (NRT) unless you have other Norton products on your computer (in which case, just use ADD/REMOVE).

 

Then reinstall NIS2010.  The patches have been stopped until Symantec figures out how to fix this issue.  So your NIS will revert to the version you just previously had and (more important) stay that way until a better patch is available.

 

This should fix your Outlook problem.  Please let us know what happens; and if any folders in Outlook were irremediably damaged.

Message Edited by mijcar on 10-28-2009 02:27 PM
9

BTW, this is the second post I've seen noting this issue with Outlook.  I would expert a lot more people to be having this problem.  Is anyone having an issue with Microsoft Outlook or with Outlook Express?  If yes or no, please tell us

a) your windows version and build

b) the version of Outlook

c) if Norton Antispam is enabled

 

 I will start.

No, I have no issues with MS Office Outlook 2003.

My system is the XP one listed below.

No, I do not have Norton Antispam enabled

10

All,

 

We're investigating this issue. It doesn't look like this issue is 100% reproducible for all users. We're going to try and reproduce this issue here. If we're unable to reproduce this issue, we'll contact some of you to gather information on this issue.

 

Thank you for your patience! 

11

So, I solved the problem for me.

 

1. I am using Outlook 2007

2. under a newly installed Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit

3. with Norton IS 2010 (17.1.0.14)

 

I had problems as the Norton Antispam Toolbar was enabled. This caused, no idea why, a damage of my PST file (this was already the backup-file).

 

So, I deactivated Norton and then I remembered that I had another (a 3rd Backup of my old PST file) PST on another external HDD. So I deleted the "damaged" (assumed) PST from the Outlook folder and replaced it with the backup file. It worked!!!

 

No problems any more with Antispam disabled. Yippie!

 

It would also be enough to move the old (and damaged) PST to another location and then replace it with the backup file. So you still have the opportunity to restore the old one if it doesn't work. 

 

My luck was that I just made backups of my PST due to the installation of my new Windows. 

 

 

I hope you can also solve your problem. I know how hard it is to manually check all emails from various account. 

 

Kind regards, Ayiana

 

 

12

After some problems in attempting to run the command you suggested, I was able to do that, and Outlook opened with no trouble.  No e-mail files seem to be missing or damaged.  It lost my "Favorite Folders" and went back to Outlook's defaults in that area.  I manually reset them.  It also changed the order of the navigation bars I had at the bottom of the folders column on the left, while leaving my choices of which bars to display intact.  I reset that manually also.

 

Thank you.

 

Next, I am going to uninstall and reinstall NIS as another poster suggested.  (Thanks for telling me HOW to do it and giving a link to the Norton Removal Tool)

13

Please ignore this post - it was the result of a key-slip.  :smileyvery-happy:

Message Edited by mijcar on 10-28-2009 03:52 PM

14
xiguasiamese wrote:

After some problems in attempting to run the command you suggested, I was able to do that, and Outlook opened with no trouble.  No e-mail files seem to be missing or damaged.  It lost my "Favorite Folders" and went back to Outlook's defaults in that area.  I manually reset them.  It also changed the order of the navigation bars I had at the bottom of the folders column on the left, while leaving my choices of which bars to display intact.  I reset that manually also.

 

Thank you.

 

Next, I am going to uninstall and reinstall NIS as another poster suggested.  (Thanks for telling me HOW to do it and giving a link to the Norton Removal Tool)

Please let us know how that worked with you.

 

If it's not too late, you might want to try Nathan J's advice first, in the post preceding mine in time.  It sounds like they might be on to something.

Message Edited by mijcar on 10-28-2009 03:58 PM
15

xiguasiamese, please check your private messages List Private Messages at the top right of this forum page.  

 

Thanks,r

 

/Cheste

16

I am glad that helped.

 

Do you remember if Outlook was openned during the patch being applied?

 

Thanks,

 

Victor

17

@victor_k: I had the same or rather a similar problem with Outlook and Norton Antispam. Outlook was not opened during the patch was installed. I didn't even know about the patch because I wasn't informed about a reboot. When I got the patch I was just installing other programs and often had to restart my computer.

 

I installed Outlook the day after I have received the patch but before I found out about the patch. 

 

I hope that information is helpful.

 

Kind regards, Ayiana

18

Ayiana,

 

Could you please give me a little bit more information about your specific problem. I assume that you also couldn't launch Outlook at some point.

 

When a patch is being installed it would never reboot your system automatically. It will just tell you that restart is needed. 

 

Do you remember if before that happened Outlook was running when shut down occurred (either because you agreed to restart on the Norton Internet Security patch reminder, or on the Windows Update reminder or just the normal way)?

 

Thank you very much,

 

Victor

19

Hi victor_k,

I already described my problem the page before (in this thread), so I didn't mention the whole problem again. Actually I have been the first person in this forum reporting of this problem before this thread was launched and my posts were moved over here.

 

Yes, I also couldn't launch my Outlook. May I beg you to read my previous posts where I have explained my problem? :) If you have further questions you can ask me.

 

Concerning the reboot: I was never asked, nor was I with previous patches in NIS 2009, if I want to reboot. Norton installs patches and I find out about the new version when I start my computer the next day. Is there a option where I can adjust this in my Norton product?

 

I installed Outlook yesterday on my fresh Windows 7 Home Premium (32-bit) system and when I wanted to launch Outlook (for the first time) the problems occured ( i had already moved my PST file (from the old system) into the new Outlook folder). I managed to rescue my emails due to a further backed up PST file (on a 2nd external HDD; the original backup-PST file has already been damaged). 

 

Outlook itself identified the Norton Toolbar as causing problems and suggested to deactivate it. But at this time my PST file has already been "damaged". 

 

After a few hours I managed to repair my Outlook with Norton Toolbar staying disabled (although Norton says Antispam is enabled, but the toolbar does not occur in my Outlook panel). 

 

I hope the Informations are helpful and I am available for further questions.

 

Kind regards, Ayiana

 

 

 

 

20
Ayiana wrote:
... Concerning the reboot: I was never asked, nor was I with previous patches in NIS 2009, if I want to reboot. Norton installs patches and I find out about the new version when I start my computer the next day. Is there a option where I can adjust this in my Norton product?
Kind regards, Ayiana

 

Just so I understand clearly, Ayiana, when you say you "start my computer the next day," do you mean it was shut down and you booted up or do you mean it was in standby and you woke it?

 

If it's the former, then that explains your experiences.  Norton will update and put a patch like this in a kind of waiting stand for the installation to be completed.  It doesn't notify you of the need to restart because it isn't immediately necessary (although I do consider this a potential problem).  When you shut down for the night and then restart the following day, you complete the installation process, which has essentially taken place invisibly.