A mod in the Terminal Server forum thought that my issue was an Exchange problem and suggested that I post my question in this forum. The question was: Windows 2003 R2 SP2 Terminal Server with Outlook 2007 SP2 using Exchange 2007 SP2. 1 User gets the “Cannot start Microsoft Outlook. Cannot open the Outlook window.” error when trying to open Outlook. Seems to be a not so uncommon problem on client machines but not in a Terminal Server environment, so the 'no default gateway on client' and the /resetnavpane thing among others do not apply. On local pc, no problems. Any clues would be appreciated. http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winserverTS/thread/cc7e0e1f-fcca-4e58-8d20-b39cecac5b71 I hope you guys can help.

Can you open Outlook in Safe Mode?

You might give this a try if you haven't already. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/252304/en-us

I opened Outlook in safe mode from the local XP machine. Outlook is not running in compatibility mode and the problem is on a Windows 2003 Terminal Server, not XP.

What does opening Outlook on another computer have to do with the problem on the Terminal Server? Did you try opening it in Safe Mode under the affected user profile on the Terminal Server? There is a compatibility mode option even on Windows 2003 Terminal Server. Modify the shortcut for the user and see if it makes a difference for them. Why it would only affect one user is strange, but it's worth a shot.

What does opening Outlook on another computer have to do with the problem on the Terminal Server? Did you try opening it in Safe Mode under the affected user profile on the Terminal Server? There is a compatibility mode option even on Windows 2003 Terminal Server. Modify the shortcut for the user and see if it makes a difference for them. Why it would only affect one user is strange, but it's worth a shot. Outlook cannot be opened in safe mode from the affected user's profile on the Terminal Server because the GPO that locks down the TS desktop prevents use of "run" or cmd or access to anything else on the system drive on that server. That GPO includes everyone as in Authenticated Users so that user cannot be removed from it. Because of that and the fact that KB252304 states that problem occurs on XP machines, I gave it a shot and included the result here, however useless it turned out to be. Maybe Im just dense, but modify the shortcut to what, Outlook.exe? As I said, Outlook is not running in compatibility mode. I stated in the TS thread that I wanted to try this: "1. Open regedt32. 2. Select the root of HKLM, select the Registry menu and select the menu option "Load Hive" 3. Browse to where the users NTUser.dat file is stored and select it. 4. Regedit will ask you to type in a key name. Just type User Name as the Key name. 5. Select the users hive that you just loaded, Select Permissions menu option. 6. Make sure that the users account has Full Control. If they do not, add them in and then unload the hive and logon the user to test." but logged on as Domain\Administrator, access is denied to the NTuser.dat file even though the Admin account has full control of that file.

If it’s an exchange server issue, issue will occur on more than one mailbox; and according to your post, this issue won’t occur on the local machine for problematic user, right? I think the possible cause is related to the outlook profile files of the problematic user on the terminal server Have you tried to recreate problematic user’s profile on the terminal server for testing? James Luo TechNet Subscriber Support (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/ms788697.aspx) If you have any feedback on our support, please contact tngfb@microsoft.com

I suspect James is right and it is a profile problem for that user. You can grab a copy of their Outlook auto complete history and any other files you might want (PST files?) and then nuke their Outlook profile. And you confirmed that the user didn't somehow modify their Outlook shortcut and turn on compatibility mode? I know how click happy some users can be, and how they tend to forget making changes to things shortly before they break. With regard to the GPO you have that locks those settings down for everyone, you can create a 2nd GPO that unlocks them and only add that user to the policy, and modify the order of the policies so the "allowed" policy is first in the order (or towards the top of the list) above the "lock down" policy. At least that would help you have a little more room to troubleshoot by running commands you can't do otherwise with that policy in effect for that user. Ntuser.dat cannot be opened as it is likely locked, which is common, especially on Terminal/Citrix Servers. You can try installing UPHClean to see if that helps unlock the users registry hive and other pieces of their profile when they log out.

If you haven't already resolved this, you can try the following before blowing away the entire Outlook and/or User profile. Delete the Outlook cache files by: Delete C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Forms\frmcache.dat Delete C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\extend.dat Delete C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\outcmd.dat Delete the users Temporary Internet Files and check to see where their Outlook temp folder is located. You can go into the registry and find the OutlookSecureTempFolder string value. More than likely it is in the Temporary Internet Files folder, but it doesn't hurt to double check. Outlook 2000 HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Outlook\Security Outlook 2002/XP HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Outlook\Security Outlook 2003 HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Security Outlook 2007 HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\Security Outlook 2010 HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Outlook\Security

Any update on this case?James Luo TechNet Subscriber Support (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/ms788697.aspx) If you have any feedback on our support, please contact tngfb@microsoft.com

Gentlemen, my apologies. I know I typed this but apparently I got side tracked and didnt submit it. The resolution was intimidatingly simple - go to the user's profile and delete outlook.xml \\network share\user\application data\Microsoft\Outlook\outlook.xml Log back in as the user on the TS and outlook.xml is recreated. Which, I believe, is what /resetnavpane does. But logged in as that user, that wasnt an option. Thanks for your time.