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Outlook Express 2002 not working properly with Vista

When Windows Vista was released, at January 2007., everyone expected the best software ever. Expectations were high; everyone wanted to have Vista installed on their PCs and laptops. Vista is XP’s inheritor and by that it was suppose to be a better operating system than XP. But, unfortunately, that wasn’t the case here. Many Vista users are disappointed with its usability because it’s not user friendly at all. Some may say that Vista is the worst product ever made by Microsoft.

A problem that bothers most of the users is Vista’s incompatibility with software that was normally used and without any problems on Windows XP. That problem was found at the begging of Vista and a year after that problem is still here. If some things don’t change soon, Vista will not be popular in near future either.

One of the problems back then and one of the biggest problems with Vista today, that really bothers Vista users, is a problem with Outlook Express 2002. To work with Outlook you first have to set up your account, type in all of your user information, e-mail addresses, passwords and servers. Then, you check for your password to be saved. Once completed everything works perfectly. The problem starts when you close your Outlook and then re-open it. When a send/receive takes place, you get an annoying Network Password pop-up that shows the server name as well as your user ID and a blank password. You enter the password but it will fail your send/receive. And than, when you go into your account settings in Outlook, it doesn't show your password that you saved in the initial setup as saved. In other words, you have to type all of your passwords each time you close/open your Outlook Express.

Since many users use Outlook Express you will see a lot of discussion related to the problem on various forums and even blogs. Luckily there are solutions all around the net. You can find a few at Microsoft’s official Help & Support page. There are also a few on some forums. The important thing is that not all of this solutions work the same for everyone. In other words, one specific solution can be helpful for one user but not for the other. That’s why you should check few of them (if not all) and try to find the one that will work for you.

Here is one solution to help you solve this problem:

Start Outlook in safe mode

To start Outlook in safe mode, follow the steps for the version of Windows that you are using.

For Windows Vista
1. Click Start, type outlook.exe /safe in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.
For Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, or Windows 2000
1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. In the Open box, type outlook.exe /safe, and then click OK.

In safe mode, Outlook runs without any other non-Microsoft service. If Outlook runs correctly in safe mode, chances are that the issue is caused by a third-party service that is working with Outlook (for example, add-ins, antivirus software, or firewalls). In this case, you may have to contact support to help you identify the add-in or third-party service, and then work with the respective vendor.

To troubleshoot possible problems that are caused by COM add-ins, disable any COM add-ins that you do not use regularly. Then, restart Outlook. If that does not resolve the problem, disable the add-ins one by one. If that does not resolve the problem, disable all add-ins. To disable COM add-ins, follow the steps for the version of Outlook that you are using.

For Outlook 2007
To disable COM add-ins, follow these steps:
1. On the Tools menu in Outlook 2007, click Trust Center.
2. Click Add-ins, click COM Add-ins in the Manage list, and then click Go.
3. In the COM Add-Ins dialog box, click to clear the check boxes for any COM add-ins that you want to disable.
4. After you disable the add-ins, click OK, and then restart Outlook.

For Outlook 2002 and Outlook 2003
To disable COM add-ins, follow these steps:
1. In Outlook 2002 or Outlook 2003, click the Tools menu, and then click Options.
2. Click the Other tab, and then click Advanced Options.
3. Click Add-In Manager.
4. In the Add-In Manager dialog box, click to clear the check boxes for any COM add-ins that you want to disable, and then click OK three times.
5. Restart Outlook.

Important: This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs.