The following articles were included in our Exchange Messaging Outlook (EMO) newsletter published on October 21, 2021.
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Today's Highlights
- Cannot start Microsoft Outlook
- Find Snoozed Reminders
- Outlook is sending Winmail.dat files
- Outlook.com’s Internet Calendars don’t update
Cannot start Microsoft Outlook
I’ve seen more users complain about an Outlook this week than normal. This issue: when they restart Outlook, they receive any error message:
“Cannot start Microsoft Outlook. Cannot open the Outlook window. The set of folders cannot be opened. An unexpected error has occurred.”
This is a fairly common error message and indicates the profile is corrupt. The usual solution is to create a new profile.
A client ran into this error and after running scanpst on all of his data files at least 3 times, he called me. When I looked at the Outlook profile in the Control Panel, I noticed Outlook did not have a default data file set. Setting one of the client’s data files as default fixed the problem, which was a lot a lot easier than creating a new profile with five email account.
My new advice for this error message: open Control panel > Mail and verify there is a default data file. If yes, or if setting a data file as default does not eliminate the error, you need to create a new profile.
Find Snoozed Reminders
When you snooze a reminder, Outlook doesn’t have a “Snoozed” column and doesn’t display the snoozed time. If you want to see the snoozed reminders, you need to use a macro to look for the snoozed reminders in the reminder collection.
The time for snoozed reminders is stored in the .NextReminderDate value, and you’ll use a macro to compare the value of the original reminder time, .OriginalReminderDate with the value in the next reminder time. If they match, the reminder was not snoozed, but if the times are different, the reminder was snoozed. Write the time and reminder subject (“caption”, in reminder lingo) to a new message form for review.
Get the code at
Outlook is sending Winmail.dat files
I’ve seen a few users affected with an old problem: attachments they send are being converted to winmail.dat files. This happens when the messages are sent using RTF formatting and the recipient is not using Outlook.
But what if you are using HTML and the messages are still received with the winmail.dat attachment?
That indicates the autocomplete entry for the address or contact group is set to use RTF format. This often happens if you send a meeting request to the address. Outlook sends it using RTF and the autocomplete entry remembers you used RTF to that address.
The fix is easy: start typing the address in the To field and delete it when it comes up. If you have a contact for the person, click To and select the contact, otherwise, retype the address in full.
For more information on preventing Outlook from creating winmail.dat files, including a registry key that disables RTF completely, see
Outlook.com’s Internet Calendars don’t update
Users discovered that Outlook.com calendar subscriptions (Add Calendar > Subscribe from web) are updating after the initial sync. This is a bug in Outlook.com on the web. Microsoft is aware of the issue and is working on solving the problem.
Microsoft is not deprecating support for .ics/ical calendars, holidays, and professional sports team schedules.
New & Updated Exchange Server KB Articles
Description of the security update for Microsoft Exchange Server 2013: October 12, 2021 (KB5007011)
New & Updated Office 365 KB Articles
October 2021 updates for Microsoft Office
Other Resources
List snoozed reminders and snooze-times
How to use a VBA macro to list all snoozed times for Appointments, Flagged messages, and Tasks.
Older Outlook version on Windows 11?
I know some consumers (and some businesses) can't afford to upgrade with every new Office version and want to make their purchase last as long as possible. But there comes a time when you need to say "Enough. Time to bite the bullet and upgrade."
Search your Contacts using PowerShell
Use PowerShell to search for Contacts with a value in a default or custom Contact field. While you can do a more complicated search within Outlook, you will need to use PowerShell (or VBA) if you want to search for a value in a custom field.
Using Outlook’s ‘View it in a web browser’ with Edge
How to enable Edge browser to view messages using Outlook's View in Browser command.