ClearChoice IT Services Knowledge Base

Sometimes Microsoft Outlook will hang on a particular e-mail message and/or crash unexpectedly.  If this happens to you, it is sometimes useful to manually start Outlook in "safe mode" so you can safely remove a particular message or just see if a particular Outlook add-in you normally have loaded might be the source of your problems.

In any case, here's what you do to start Outlook in safe mode:

1. Click on the Start Button at the bottom left corner of your screen and click on click on "Run..."  (If using Windows Vista, simply click on the Pearl at the bottom left and don't look for a "Run..." option.)
2. Type the following case-insensitive text in the "Open:" text field (or the search field if using Windows Vista):  "outlook /safe"
3. Outlook should now start successfully in safe mode.  Delete the problematic message and/or experiment to see if your problem has disappeared.
4. Close and restart Outlook normally.