Follow the instructions on this page to repair your Office 2010, Office 2007 or Office 2003 installations to fix errors in Outlook.
For help repairing Office 2013 or Office 2016, see How to Repair Your Office or Outlook Installation
Outlook 2010
Because Office Diagnostics was mostly useless, it was removed from Office 2010. You'll need to use the repair process in Control Panel's Add or Remove Programs to repair Outlook.
To start the repair process, open Window's Control Panel and locate Add or Remove Programs under Programs and Features. If you are using Windows 7 Category view of the Control Panel, choose the Uninstall a Program link under Programs category. In all versions of Windows, you can also type add remove programs in the Search field to find Add or Remove Programs.
Once Add or Remove Programs is open, locate your Office 2010 or Outlook 2010 standalone installation in the list of installed programs and select it. Then click the Change button. In Windows 7, it's at the top of the list. In Windows XP, it will be to the right of the Office entry.
Choose Repair then click Continue to begin the process. It should take just a few minutes to complete the repair process.
Outlook 2007
Office diagnostics will repair some problems but is mostly useless for serious problems, however, you can use it as it does no harm and may fix your problem. just don't get your hopes up - it's not an "end all, be all" solution for all problems plaguing Outlook. Doing a repair is generally better although it takes longer and you may need the Office installation source handy.
Repair Office 2007 Installation
To repair your Office or Outlook installation, open the Control Panel and locate Add or Remove Programs. If you are using Windows 7 Category view of the Control Panel, choose the Uninstall a Program link under Programs category. In all versions of Windows, you can also type add remove programs in the Search field to find Add or Remove Programs.
Locate your Microsoft Office install in the list of installed programs. Select it, then choose Change. If you are using Windows 7, the Change button is above the list of installed programs (as seen in the screenshots for Outlook 2010 on the previous page.)
Choose Repair on the next screen and click Continue.
Run Office Diagnostics
Expand the Help menu and choose Office Diagnostics to start the Diagnostics wizard.
The Office Diagnostics wizard opens. Click Continue to begin.
The next screen shows you everything the diagnostic routine checks. Click Run Diagnostics to begin.
While the diagnostics are running, the dialog updates with the results:
Outlook 2003
To use Detect and Repair, insert your Office 2003 cd then go to Help menu and select Detect and Repair. Next, you'll choose whether to restore missing shortcuts and discard customizations. Click Start and the process will begin.
Run Repair from Control Panel
To repair the installation by reinstalling it, insert your Office 2003 CD then go to Control Panel and click on Add or Remove Programs. Locate the Office or Outlook installation in the list of installed programs and click Change. (If you are using Windows 7 Category view of the Control Panel, choose the Uninstall a Program link under Programs category.)
Next, you'll choose Reinstall or Repair option and click Next to begin the process.
When the process is complete, your installation will be repaired.
View Tutorial
This video tutorial shows how to repair an Office 2010 installation. The process is similar for Office 2007 and Office 2003.
CYNDEE LAWSON says
I've been trying for days now to get someone from Microsoft to help me with my Outlook 2010 issue which I recently bought, When I open up my email to read it and there's an attachment or someother thing that needs to be opened and read my computer says ( YOUR ORGANIZATION'S POLICES ARE PREVENTING US FROM COMPLETING THIS ACTION FOR YOU. FOR MORE INFO PLEASE CONTACT YOUR HELP DESK.)THIS IS A HOME COMPUTER I DON'T HAVE A HELP DESK AND I HAVE ALREADY GONE THROUGH THE ACCOUNT SETTINGS AND MADE SURE MY PROFILE WAS CORRECT. I'm LOST. DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY IDEAS PLEASE?
Diane Poremsky says
It might be this - https://www.slipstick.com/problems/this-operation-has-been-cancelled-due-to-restrictions/
David Johnson says
I am trying to repair my Office 10, specifically Outlook, but when I click repair it is unable to complete do to missing files, such as Office.en/Setup.xml. How can I repair it now.
Yves Fontaine says
Hi Diane. I have a problem with my Outlook 2010 on Windows 10: it seems I deleted the DNSAPI.DLL file and consequently cannot access either outgoing or incoming mail servers. Can I repair this or must I uninstall and reinstall MS Outlook or possibly the whole 2010 MS Office suite? I have tried to Repair the Outlook Connector as well as MS Office, but that has not made a difference. Thank you...
Diane Poremsky says
If its an Office file, repair will restore it.
scott willoughby says
Question
Applies to Office Unknown/other Microsoft Office Outlook
1834 views
Contacts in Outlook will not display in the "To..." window
MAMahaShiva asked on August 22, 2010See post history
My Contacts can be found in Outlook 2010's Contact tab, but they will not populate the dialogue box that arise in response to my pressing the "To..." button when creating a new email message. The search box comes up, but it does not list any contact so that I could simply click on the desired existing contacts.
Also, no contact information is listed in the "Windows Contact" program (i.e., C:\Users\[my name]\Contacts). How can I export en mass the information in my Outlook Contacts folder to my Windows contact folder, and would this help the above issue?
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The answered status icon Answer
Diane Poremsky MVP (slipstick.com)
Diane Poremsky MVP (slipstick.com) replied on August 31, 2010See post history
MVP Insider Community Moderator Completed Training MCC: Content Creator
If you have Contacts in the Contacts folder but they are not accessible when you click on the To button, check these settings:
Make sure the Contact folder is enabled as an email address book. Right click the Contacts folder, choose Properties then Outlook Address Book. Is the box to enable as email address book is checked?
If this is grayed out, you'll need to make a new profile as you can't add the Outlook Address Book service in Outlook 2007 or 2010.
how do you make a new profile?