The first step to fix a profile is to open the profile outside of Outlook. To do this, you need to "open Control Panel, Mail" but Windows hides the Mail icon in a Control panel group and many users can’t find it. For this reason, we recommend users open the Control Panel and type Mail in the search field, or switch to classic or Icon view.

Note: if you use a 32-bit version of Outlook 2010 or 2013 on 64-bit version of Windows, the Mail icon is labeled "Mail (32-bit)". In Outlook 2013 and above, the Outlook version is added to the applet name, using this format: "Mail (Microsoft Outlook 2016) (32-bit)". In Outlook 265, it's just "Mail (Microsoft Outlook)".

Windows 10

All builds: Begin typing control panel in the Cortana search field or in the search field in Settings. (It should come up before you finish typing 'control'.)

Either change the view to large or small icons (1) and look for the Mail applet or type mail in the search field (2) and let Windows find it. Double click on Mail to open it.

Windows 8

When you are using the classic desktop, press the Windows keys then type "mail" in the search field. Select Settings (under the search field) then click on Mail.

On a touch screen, slide your finger along the side to bring up the Charms, select the search charm and type mail in the Search field. Select Settings (under the search field) then click on Mail.

You can also type Control panel in the search field to bring up the Control panel, which looks very much like Windows 7.

Windows 8.1 with all updates installed has the control panel on the right click context menu. As seen in the Windows 10 screenshot above, simply right-click on the Start button and choose Control panel to open it.

Windows 7

In Windows 7, you can find Mail (or Mail (32-bit)) one of three ways:

1. Search for Mail (1)
2. Switch to Icon view (2) and look for it
3. Look in the User Accounts and Family Safety category (3)

My preference is using Search, in part because it works in all Windows versions. I can type Mail in the Start menu’s search field and if it’s not listed in the results on the Windows Start menu, I can click on the Control panel heading to find it.

Note: When you type Mail in the Start menu’s search field, if the Mail applet doesn’t come up, click the Control Panel heading to restrict the search to the Control panel.

After opening the Mail applet

After double clicking on the Mail applet, you'll see the following dialog.

• Choose Email Accounts to look at the account configuration for your profile (or the default profile if you have more than one profile.)
• The Data file button is used to change the Personal File (*.pst) that you use with your account or to add additional pst files.
• Use Show profiles to create additional profiles, or to manage multiple profiles.

When you choose Show profiles, you'll see the following dialog. From here you can add, edit or delete profiles (1). If you use multiple profiles you can configure Outlook to let you choose which profile you want loaded (2).

If you suspect your profile is corrupt or damaged or are told to make a new profile to see if your problems is fixed, do not Copy a profile. This will copy the problems to the new profile. Use Add and create a brand new profile. If you just need to make a second copy of a profile for some other reason, you can use Copy.

Vista

In Vista, you can either search for Mail on the Start menu, as you can in Windows 7, or open the Control Panel and use the Search box, look under the User Accounts category or switch to the Classic view.

1. Search for Mail (1)
2. Switch from Category to Classic view (2)
3. Click User Accounts (3) and then Mail

Windows XP

In Windows XP the Mail applet is under the “User Accounts” group and you can find it one of two ways:

1. Switch from Category to Classic view (1)
2. Click User Accounts (2) and then Mail