OL2002: An Error Occurs When You Create a New Message When Outlook Is in Safe Mode (280555)

SYMPTOMS

When you try to create a new message in Outlook, you may receive the following error message:

This form requires Word as your e-mail editor, but Word is either busy or cannot be found. The form will be opened in the Outlook editor instead. Can't find this file. Make sure the path and file name are correct.

This problem may occur in the following situations:

You have Microsoft Word configured as your e-mail editor.
You start Microsoft Outlook in Safe mode (Press CTRL while you start Outlook).

WORKAROUND

Use one of the following methods to work around this problem:

Restart Outlook in normal mode.
Configure Outlook to use the Outlook editor as your e-mail editor. To do this, follow these steps:

Start Microsoft Outlook.
On the Tools menu, click Options.

Notice that the Options dialog box appears.
On the Mail Format tab, click to clear Use Microsoft Word to edit e-mail messages, and then click OK.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.