MS Office update 2000 -> 2003 killed Outlook Express
in [Windows XP]
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From: Peter Foldes on 16 Jun 2010 16:17 Also W2K SP3 changed OE5 to OE6. Which Service Pack is installed -- Peter Please Reply to Newsgroup for the benefit of others Requests for assistance by email can not and will not be acknowledged. http://www.microsoft.com/protect "John H Meyers" <jhmeyers(a)nomail.invalid> wrote in message news:4C18FB94.2040208(a)nomail.invalid... > Someone in my office has just had precisely the same experience > as in the two reports below, where, on XP Pro/SP3, > following an update of MS Office from "2000" to "2003," > Outlook Express is never again functional, > first complaining upon every launch > "Unable to open the Address Book, > The Address book may not be installed properly" > and then also unable to create any outgoing message > (whether new or a reply), always declaring > "There was an error opening this message. An error has occurred." > > The following previous reports of identical incidents > failed to produce any solution for OE, nor have I been able, > after as much searching as I'm capable of imagining to try, > to find any solution mentioned anywhere else. > > Identical previous reports: > > "Install of Office 2003 Pro killed Outlook Express" [Jan. 2004] > http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.office.setup/msg/1dc5f9c6bf0f975a > > "Can't create message in Outlook Express" [Feb. 2006] > (after upgrading MS Office from 2000 to 2003) > http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/55096/ > > Since this problem seems to involve three things: XP, OE, and Office, > should I also try other newsgroups (which?) > > Thanks! > > --
From: John H Meyers on 16 Jun 2010 16:57 On 6/16/2010 3:15 PM, Peter Foldes wrote: > If you think a bit then you would realize that Windows 2000 came with > OE5 and IE5. Of course if you do not know the Update that you are > installing and which you never mentioned then obviously this issue will > happen if you already had OE5 updated to OE6 On 6/16/2010 3:17 PM, Peter Foldes wrote: > Also W2K SP3 changed OE5 to OE6. Which Service Pack is installed I already identified the system on which this problem occurred as being XP Pro/SP3; both of the postings to which I referred were also reporting the same problem on Windows XP, one on XP Pro and the other on XP Home. It is MS _Office 2000_ which is being updated to _Office 2003_ _Windows 2000_ has absolutely nothing to do with this case. Why, by the way, would updating to _Office 2003_ "obviously" wreck OE6, since "Outlook Express" and "Outlook" are supposedly completely independent programs? It is indeed OE6 which has been wrecked, but neither the cause nor the solution are yet apparent -- an upgrade to _Office 2003_ has managed to do some damage, and the reports already found seem to suggest that this must be a known issue, unlikely to have affected only three people who have ever updated Office 2000 to Office 2003 on Windows XP. Thank you for trying to help. --
From: Peter Foldes on 16 Jun 2010 18:29 My bad. I read Windows 2000 instead of Office 2000. Sorry about that John -- Peter Please Reply to Newsgroup for the benefit of others Requests for assistance by email can not and will not be acknowledged. http://www.microsoft.com/protect "John H Meyers" <jhmeyers(a)nomail.invalid> wrote in message news:4C193AA5.1030809(a)nomail.invalid... > On 6/16/2010 3:15 PM, Peter Foldes wrote: > >> If you think a bit then you would realize that Windows 2000 came with >> OE5 and IE5. Of course if you do not know the Update that you are >> installing and which you never mentioned then obviously this issue will >> happen if you already had OE5 updated to OE6 > > On 6/16/2010 3:17 PM, Peter Foldes wrote: > >> Also W2K SP3 changed OE5 to OE6. Which Service Pack is installed > > > I already identified the system on which this problem occurred > as being XP Pro/SP3; both of the postings to which I referred > were also reporting the same problem on Windows XP, > one on XP Pro and the other on XP Home. > > It is MS _Office 2000_ which is being updated to _Office 2003_ > > _Windows 2000_ has absolutely nothing to do with this case. > > > Why, by the way, would updating to _Office 2003_ > "obviously" wreck OE6, since "Outlook Express" and "Outlook" > are supposedly completely independent programs? > > It is indeed OE6 which has been wrecked, but neither the cause > nor the solution are yet apparent -- an upgrade to _Office 2003_ > has managed to do some damage, and the reports already found seem to suggest > that this must be a known issue, unlikely to have affected only three people > who have ever updated Office 2000 to Office 2003 on Windows XP. > > Thank you for trying to help. > > --
From: John H Meyers on 16 Jun 2010 18:29 On 6/16/2010 12:12 PM, Don Phillipson wrote: > A solution worth trying is System Restore, to turn the > calendar back to a date prior to the update of MS Office. > The Office software will remain unchanged, although you > might lose any Shortcuts/Hotkeys configured since the > update; WAB (address book) and OE ought by this > System Restore to be reconfigured as formerly i.e. in > good working order. I was saving System Restore for a "last resort" sort of thing, but the user having the problem was not so patient, so we went ahead and did it, without waiting to see whether a solution exists to fix the OE damage that had been done by upgrading to Office 2003. Outlook Express then functioned again, for sending mail, but although it did not complain again about its address book (WAB), we think that there is something still wrong with it (see below). Meanwhile, the Office update was undone -- Access was gone, Word refused to start (would only start an installer, as it tends to do for new users), and only Excel would open an existing spreadsheet, with "Help" > "About" identifying it as being back to the Office 2000 version. We downloaded Windows Live Mail and imported everything from OE, but the address book failed to import. Every time we tried to force it to import username.wab the attempt simply immediately returned to displaying a completely empty "Contacts" window in WLM. The purpose of trying to move everything from OE to WLM is that WLM has its own, completely new storage system, AFAIAA completely independent of the original OE files (or programs), so I hope that re-installing Office 2003 might leave WLM unscathed, even though it had crippled OE the last time. This is where we leave things as of today. Thanks for trying to help. --
From: John H Meyers on 16 Jun 2010 20:43
On 6/16/2010 11:28 AM, I wrote: > Someone in my office has just had precisely the same experience > as in the two reports below, where, on XP Pro/SP3, > following an update of MS Office from "2000" to "2003," > Outlook Express is never again functional, > first complaining upon every launch > "Unable to open the Address Book, > The Address book may not be installed properly" > and then also unable to create any outgoing message > (whether new or a reply), always declaring > "There was an error opening this message. An error has occurred." > > The following previous reports of identical incidents > failed to produce any solution for OE, nor have I been able, > after as much searching as I'm capable of imagining to try, > to find any solution mentioned anywhere else. > > Identical previous reports: > > "Install of Office 2003 Pro killed Outlook Express" [Jan. 2004] > http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.office.setup/msg/1dc5f9c6bf0f975a > > "Can't create message in Outlook Express" [Feb. 2006] > (after upgrading MS Office from 2000 to 2003) > http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/55096/ Now here's a curious coincidence: Quoting http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917288 Error message when you open the Windows Address Book or you open Outlook Express after you install cumulative security update 911567 (MS06-016) After you install cumulative security update 911567 for Outlook Express that is described in security bulletin MS06-016, you may experience the following symptoms when you try to open Outlook Express or the Windows Address Book: You may receive an error message that resembles the following: 'unable to open address book. Address book may not be installed correctly' When you open Outlook Express, you may be able to receive e-mail, but you cannot send e-mail or reply to e-mail. [End quote] Why, those are _exactly_ the same symptoms as in the problem which we have just experienced, and others have reported in the past. Could it be that the Office 2003 update happened to include essentially the same update as the above-referenced "security update"? The symptom is said to be potentially due to a previously undetected address book corruption, which the "security update" subsequently detects; might this be why Windows Live Mail also refuses to import the original address book? -- |