OL97: ErrMsg Opening "Welcome to Microsoft Outlook!" (165885)

SYMPTOMS

When you open the "Welcome to Microsoft Outlook!" message that is generated the first time you run Outlook 97, you may receive the following error:

This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down. If the problem persists, contact the program vendor.

If you click Details, you may receive an error message similar to the following:

Winword caused an invalid page fault in module mso97.dll

CAUSE

Your system's video driver and video settings may contribute to this problem when using Word as your e-mail editor in Outlook. This problem is more likely to occur with video drivers that support only 16 colors.

This problem is known to occur with an ATI Graphics Ultra Pro (Mach 32) video driver with the video options set to 1024x768 resolution with 16 colors.

RESOLUTION

To work around this problem, use any of the following methods.

Delete the welcome message without reading it.
To read the message, disable WordMail as your e-mail editor.
Switch to the standard VGA video driver.
Set the video driver to use more than 16 colors.

Method 1

You can delete the welcome message without reading it by following these steps:

On the Outlook Bar, click the Inbox.
Click the header of the welcome message: "Welcome to Microsoft Outlook!" to select it.
On the Edit menu, click Delete.

Method 2

To read the message with out receiving the error, you can disable WordMail by following these steps:

Start Outlook.
On the Tools menu, click Options.
On the e-mail tab, clear the "Use Microsoft Word as the Email Editor" check box, and then click Close.
Open the welcome message.

Method 3

Switch to the standard VGA video driver supplied with Windows. For more information on changing a video driver, look in the Windows 95 Help Index under "display, driver, adding or changing".

Method 4

If your video driver supports more than 16 colors, you may help to avoid the error by setting the driver to use a greater number of colors. For more information on changing a video driver, look in the Windows 95 Help Index under "display, resolution, changing".

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Microsoft Outlook 97. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

Graphics Ultra Pro (Mach 32) is manufactured by ATI, a vendor independent of Microsoft; we make no warranty, implied or otherwise, regarding this product's performance or reliability.