We have been experiencing a number of users having problems when opening Outlook 2010. 

At a first glance the problem appears that Outlook has simply not opened but with further investigation we have found this not to be the case.  What actually happens, is that Outlook is open and is even on the screen but the window is reduced to such a degree that it is ‘invisible’ or ‘zero pixels’.

We have found that whilst you can resize the window so it is very small, it is impossible to manually resize the Outlook window to such a degree that it can be made invisible on the screen.

The window itself is usually but not always at the top left hand side of the screen and there are two ways to get it back.

1.  It is possible to hover over the Outlook item on the taskbar then open the right-click menu and choose ‘Maximise’.  The Outlook window will spring out from wherever it was on the screen and display.  However, if you do this and subsequently click the ‘Restore Down’ button, Outlook will disappear back off the screen again.

2. The other way has been found to be more permanent but does not solve the problem as it does come back randomly.  Again, hovering over the Outlook item on the taskbar but instead of choosing ‘Maximise’, choose ‘Size’.  It is then possible to use the arrow keys on the keyboard to drag the Outlook window out so it appears on the screen.  Once done, you can of course use the mouse to change the size of the Outlook window however you like.  File, Exit from Outlook will make the window size save so next time Outlook is opened, it is visible.

We have seen similar forum posts suggesting to check the properties of the short-cut and to ensure that the Run: option is set to ‘Maximised’ which we have done but the problem still remains.

O/S: Windows 7 Enterprise

Office Professional Plus 2010 (14.0.4763.1000)

 

 

 

• Edited by COITSUPPORT Wednesday, April 13, 2011 10:19 AM Extra Info

Hi!

Sounds like you may have Outlook 2010 set to "Hide When Minimized".

To check:

   From System Tray, click "Show hidden icons" arrow.

   Right-click on Outlook 2010 icon

   Uncheck "Hide When Minimized" if selected.

If that doesn't help, then launch Outlook 2010 in safe mode and see if the issue reproduces. If the issue doesn't occur in safe mode, start checking what COM Add-ins and Exchange Client Extensions that you have loading when Outlook is started.

Hope that helps!

Jahawk MSFT 

• Marked as answer by Sally Tang Thursday, April 21, 2011 6:16 AM
• Unmarked as answer by COITSUPPORT Wednesday, May 11, 2011 10:24 AM

Delete the following reg key and restart Outlook: Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Outlook\Office Explorer]
'Frame'=

this resovled the issue on my machines.rob

• Proposed as answer by drdbkarron Sunday, October 02, 2011 4:32 AM
• Unproposed as answer by COITSUPPORT Tuesday, October 18, 2011 8:49 AM
• Proposed as answer by Machadix Wednesday, July 04, 2012 8:30 AM

Tried all those options, plus reinstalled, etc. Nothing worked. Then found the solution: Right click on the task bar and choose "Cascade Windows". Go figure

• Proposed as answer by Doctor Oreo Wednesday, October 05, 2011 8:24 PM
• Unproposed as answer by COITSUPPORT Tuesday, October 18, 2011 8:49 AM
• Proposed as answer by shawnrouse Thursday, March 22, 2012 11:43 AM

Tried all those options, plus reinstalled, etc. Nothing worked. Then found the solution: Right click on the task bar and choose "Cascade Windows". Go figure

Genius!!

• Proposed as answer by Darren Cutting Friday, March 08, 2013 3:59 PM
• Unproposed as answer by Darren Cutting Friday, March 08, 2013 3:59 PM

Ok, just my input and back to the original questions.

I arrived here because I was experiencing the problem desribed: Open Outlook, no problem. Opening New Mail or Inbox/Sent/Junk or any other email, it would only open "minimized".

What is my situation: New Laptop (Lenovo) running Windows 7 and Office 2010. The laptop is connected to a Replicator. (No additional monitors or other devices)

So here is my problem: I noticed from time to time since setup, that the pointer would disappear (actually was out of the laptop monitor viewing area). I tried the registry key modification mentioned above, did not work, (thankfully I saved a backup and restored it). But when I opened a New Email in Outlook, I noticed that the new email windows quickly sort of stretched to the right side of the viewing area until it simply dissapeared, like a flash. It looked awkward. And finally, after "reparing" Office 2010 without any success, the system prompted me to configure my graphic settings. I accepted and vioala!!!!

When I opened the graphics control panel, I notice that it detected two (2) monitors. (As I said before, I do not have any other hardware besides the replicator attached to the laptop, and yes the replicator does have a monitor port)  I attached an external monitor and there it was multiple New Email windows and the rest of the desktop space. This explained why the pointer was "disappearing" and the reason Outlook's New Email, Inbox, Sent, Junkbox and other messages were being "displayed". (well now I have to configure single display)

Well there is it! I am not sure this is the problem everyone is experiencing, but I hope it helps someone.

• Edited by student011 Friday, January 27, 2012 12:15 AM

At a first glance the problem appears that Outlook has simply not opened but with further investigation we have found this not to be the case.  What actually happens, is that Outlook is open and is even on the screen but the window is reduced to such a degree that it is invisible or zero pixels.

We have found that whilst you can resize the window so it is very small, it is impossible to manually resize the Outlook window to such a degree that it can be made invisible on the screen.

[...] there are two ways to get it back.

1.  It is possible to hover over the Outlook item on the taskbar then open the right-click menu and choose Maximise.  The Outlook window will spring out from wherever it was on the screen and display.  However, if you do this and subsequently click the Restore Down button, Outlook will disappear back off the screen again.

2. The other way has been found to be more permanent but does not solve the problem as it does come back randomly.  Again, hovering over the Outlook item on the taskbar but instead of choosing Maximise, choose Size.  It is then possible to use the arrow keys on the keyboard to drag the Outlook window out so it appears on the screen.  Once done, you can of course use the mouse to change the size of the Outlook window however you like.  File, Exit from Outlook will make the window size save so next time Outlook is opened, it is visible.

I just had this problem occur on a non domain connected ThinkPad T500 running Windows 7 Ultimate and Office 2010 Professional Plus. Unlike many posters, the affected computer in this case is not using any third-party Outlook add-ins. Problem is as described by original poster and definitely NOT a case of "Hide When Minimized" being set (this is an option I am familiar with that works quite differently than these symptoms):

1 - Outlook opens to icon on taskbar but is invisible on screen. It is not off the screen (moving it does NOT bring it onto the screen, though I am familiar with this solution for different problems when a window has been opened off screen).

2 - Window may be made visible by maximizing (#1 in original post, but doesn't solve problem for next Outlook startup), cascading all windows, or by resizing and using keyboard (#2 in original post).

3 - If you simply maximize the window (#1 in original post), and then click and drag the title bar (which would normally move the window and change it to not maximized), the window vanishes most of the time, but on rare occasion shows up as a title bar at minimum width. This can then be resized, but shows up weird with a title bar ABOVE the quick access bar, and more often than not the ribbon and quick access toolbar will be frozen/unresponsive. Outlook will also likely generate an AppCrash pointing to kernelbase.dll.

In short, it appears something (not just the third-party add-ins suspected by other posters) sets the Outlook window width and height to zero and this appears to result in strange behavior depending on how it is dealt with, as noted in #3 above. At this point, solution #2 from original post has done the trick. The registry entry deletion noted elsewhere may be related (don't know and have not tested).

• Edited by Northern Tech Wednesday, June 27, 2012 10:03 PM Cleaned up quote - cut out excess

Thank you Rob Kubben, that's fixed it for me

• Edited by rje_dobbin1 Thursday, November 29, 2012 3:00 PM

Press alt + spacebar then click 'maxamise'.

Thank you for your great solution. 

This helps me a lots.