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Microsoft Outlook Not Responding Message

August 10, 2008 by Perry P Perkins

Okay,

Posting this hoping it saves someone else the three days of headaches I’ve just went through…

Outlook 2003 would open fine, and I could maniupulate one or two emails normally, the third would be very slow, and with any additional clicks the screen would grey out and the message on the top would read: “Microsoft Outlook (Not Responding)” Nothing to do at that point but shut down and restart.

I searched and searched and found all kinds of folks asking about this, but very few possible answers, and most of those were way over my head.

Finally, I found this one, and it worked like a charm on the first try.

Close Outlook. Find and rename outcmd.dat to .old. (If using Windows 2000 or XP, you will need to enable searching hidden and system folders.)

Once you have done so, reopen Outlook and it should open fine. You will need to rebuild any custom toolbars or customizations as the file outcmd.dat controls how the toolbars display.

When it becomes corrupted, it will cause Outlook to hang because it cannot create the toolbars that you expect.

I have Vista, but still had to use the advance search option, and check the “hidden folders” box. It was a slow search, and my results came right at the end.

Hope this helps!

-Perry

Posted in Misc Ramblings | Tagged 2003, freezes, freezing, Microsoft Office, not responding, slow | 14 Comments

14 Responses

on September 6, 2008 at 10:00 pm | Reply Michael

Hi. I searched my hard drive for outcmd.dat and it was not found. Where should I expect to find it?
on September 6, 2008 at 10:11 pm | Reply Michael

Sorry, you did say enable hidden (non-intuitive in Vista). I found it and tried what you suggested. I hope it works!

(Sometimes Outlook works fine for days w/o this problem. Other times it happens in frquent successon.)
on September 7, 2008 at 6:28 am | Reply Perry P Perkins

Michael,

Exactly, I forgot to enable hidden files the first time I tried, and found nada.

“Sometimes Outlook works fine for days w/o this problem. Other times it happens in frquent successon.”

Yep, that’s how it started for me too.

-Perk
on October 4, 2008 at 9:39 pm | Reply Roxane

Perry,

I was having the same problem with Outlook 2007. I could get thru a few emails and then it would just sort of “hang” or “freeze” then gray out and the Outlook not responding message would appear. Somehow, I figured it out. My problems was caused by the Google Desktop running in the icon tray. When I turned it off so Google search was not displayed in Outlook, the problem stopped. I think the Google Desktop came as a dowload.

So, if you have the Google Desktop running in your icon tray, turn it off and see if it works for you.

- Roxane
on October 5, 2008 at 6:42 am | Reply Perry P. Perkins

Roxane,

Yeah, I’ve had nothing but trouble with the Google Desktop (or any of the “desktop” programs) an finally went in a uninstalled it.

Many problems were solved right there!

Thanks!

-Perry
on October 5, 2008 at 10:14 am | Reply Roxane

After figuring out that Google Desktop was the cause of my problems with Outlook 2007 (running Vista), I uninstalled the Google Desktop and my Outlook fine. No more error messages! And Microsoft couldn’t figure this out, imagine that.

- Roxane
on April 2, 2009 at 7:08 pm | Reply Sinisa Mitrovic

Perry,
I’m not a Religious person but God bless you! Your solution worked like a charm. Although I’m so pleased and thankful that my issue was resolved but the reason I’m writing these words is to recognize your ‘style of writing’; so logical, precise, detailed but not overwhelming. Excellent!
Sinisa
P.S. When learned that you are actually a Writer, I was even more impressed …. by the way, Happy Birthday (did you say 30th …!!!???)
on April 14, 2009 at 2:48 pm | Reply FiveDiamondHospitality

Thank you! You are a lifesaver. My outlook was complete DOA before I found your fix.
on April 18, 2009 at 9:50 am | Reply Anonymous

Perry,
Thank you, thank, thank you. What little hair I have left I have been tearing out for the past few weeks. Now Outlook is back to normal with you fix and it onlt took a minute.
Thanks again Bern…
on April 30, 2009 at 9:28 pm | Reply Susie

Thanks, Perry! For the past ~30 hours, Outlook has been running just unbelievably slow & this fixed it!
on April 30, 2009 at 10:06 pm | Reply Perry P Perkins

Glad to help everyone!
on May 26, 2009 at 9:37 am | Reply Grandma Moses

My Outlook had the same classic symptoms, and your cure fixed it right up! Thank you so much.
on October 27, 2009 at 9:37 am | Reply Kris

I work on an exchange server, if I use this fix, will it mess up anyone else’s files on the exchange server or does it only effect my laptop?
Also will it effect custom forms?
on November 1, 2009 at 1:59 pm | Reply JesusJones

Hi Perry, I used this site before for ‘troubleshooting’ so thanks for putting this out there

Your fix for ‘Outlook not responding’ didn’t quite work for me directly, but I found starting it in safe mode (start, run, type ‘outlook.exe /safe’) can give you access to your mail, and selecting ‘help/detect&repair’ from the menu can fix things. It may ask for your office CD, but although I couldn’t find mine it resolved the problem anyhow

Good luck all in cubeville!