OL98: ErrMsg Opening "Welcome to Microsoft Outlook!" (179767)

SYMPTOMS

When you open the "Welcome to Microsoft Outlook!" message that is generated the first time you run Microsoft Outlook 98, 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

The video driver and video settings for your computer may contribute to this problem when using Microsoft 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.

Delete the Welcome Message

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.

Disable WordMail As Your E-mail Editor

To read the message without receiving the error, you can disable WordMail by following these steps:

Start Outlook
On the Tools menu, click Options, and click the Mail Format tab.
In the "Send in this message format" list, click to select a format other than Microsoft Word, and then click OK.
Open the welcome message.

Switch to the Standard VGA Video Driver

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".

Use More than 16 Colors

If your video driver supports more than 16 colors, you may avoid the error by setting the driver to use more than 16 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 98. 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.