Microsoft Outlook Program not opening

One of the most common errors while using Outlook. when you click on the icon, or it takes a long time to open (30 seconds or more). Other issues with Outlook such as Out of Memory errors, Microsoft Error reports and other oddities can also be traced to this same issue. This simple fix that works most of the time.

Generally the problem can be traced to a corrupted OUTCMD.DAT file in your Outlook program. Outcmd.dat stores any custom changes that you make to your toolbar buttons. If the problem is resolved after you rename this file, you must make the custom toolbar button changes again. This seems like a minor file since its supposed to only monitor changes to your toolbars, however with the amount of spyware and adware that add toolbars, change toolbars, etc. it's understandable that this file could become corrupted quite easily and cause your Outlook program not to boot.


To remove the OUTCMD.DAT file, simply search your computer for the file and delete it. When Microsoft Outlook opens again, it will recreate the file.

1.Make sure Microsoft Outlook is completely closed.
2.Click Start, click on Find or Search, and then click Files or Folders.
3.Make sure that "Look in" is set to (C:\).
4.In the "Named" or "Search for..." box, type the following filename and click dll filename and click Search or Find NowOUTCMD.DAT
5.Delete any instances of OUTCMD.DAT and close the Search box. Generally this file is found in the Application Data/Microsoft/Outlook folder
6.Reopen Microsoft Outlook and it should behave normally