Outlook Express does not start after you upgrade your operating system to Windows XP Home Edition or Windows XP Professional Edition (873021)

RESOLUTION

Use one of the following methods to resolve this issue.

Method 1: Remove the corrupted Outlook Express Identity and then create a new Outlook Express Identity

To remove the corrupted Outlook Express Identity, follow these steps.

Warning If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit in the Open box, and then click OK.
2. In Registry Editor, expand the following registry subkey:

   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities\

3. Locate the user Outlook Express Identity that you want to remove, and then export it to a temporary folder. To do this, follow these steps:
   1. Click the Outlook Express Identity that you want to remove.
   2. On the File menu, click Export.
   3. In the Export Registry File dialog box, select the location of the temporary folder in the Save in list, and then type a file name in the File name box.
   4. Click Save.
4. Right-click the Outlook Express Identity that you want to remove, and then click Delete.
5. When you are prompted to confirm the deletion, click Yes.
6. Quit Registry Editor.
7. Restart Outlook Express.

Create a new user account and then import all e-mail messages and your address book to the new user account that you created.

Note You must create a backup copy of your e-mail messages and your address book before you import them to the newly created user account.

Method 2: Manually reinstall Outlook Express files

To manually reinstall Outlook Express files, follow these steps.

Warning If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit in the Open box, and then click OK.
2. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:

   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities\

3. Right-click Identities, and then click Delete.
4. When you are prompted to confirm the deletion, click Yes.
5. Repeat steps 2 through 4 for the following registry subkeys:
   • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Outlook Express
   • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\WAB
   • HKEY_LCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Outlook Express
   • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WAB
6. Quit Registry Editor.
7. Open Windows Explorer, and then click the following folder

   SystemDrive\Program Files\Outlook Express

   where SystemDrive is the drive where all critical operating system files are installed
8. Remove all files and folders in the Outlook Express folder.
9. In Windows Explorer, locate and then click the following folder:

   SystemDrive\Program Files\Common Files\System

10. In the System folder, locate and then remove the following files:
    • Wab32.dll
    • Wab32res.dll
      
      Note After you remove files and folders from the Outlook Express folder and System folder, Windows XP File Protection (WAP) uses the Dllcache folder that is located in the SystemRoot\System32 folder to restore the original files back to the Outlook Express folder and System folder from the cache.
11. Register the copied files in the registry. To do this, follow these steps:
    1. Click Start, click Run, type msimn /reg in the Open box, and then click OK.
       
       Note This will rebuild the Outlook Express subkey that is located under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft subkey.
    2. Click Start, click Run, and then type the following in the Open box:
       
       regsvr32 "SystemDrive\Program Files\Common Files\System\wab32.dll"
    3. Click OK.
       
       Note This will rebuild the WAB subkey that is located under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft subkey.
12. Restart your computer, and then log on to the computer using the same user account that you used to remove Outlook Express registry subkeys.
    
    Note This will automatically rebuild all the Outlook Express registry subkeys that you removed from the HKEY_CURRENT_USER subkey.