Hi.
Please do read through this. I have read many other posts about similar issues, but mine has uniquely-debilitating twists.
I have Outlook 2010, as part of Office 2010 Professional Plus, and I am running Windows 7, on my PC. I have a 64-bit computer, but MS Office 2010 Professional Plus is the 32-bit version.
Outlook 2010 is not recognized as a mail program. I need it to be recognized as a mail program.
I am able to send and receive mail through my Outlook .pst file. Yet this is not simply a nuisance issue since several other computer functions I use are dependent on a mail program's being installed and recognized by Windows 7. So here we go:
Example: Every time I open Outlook 2010, I get the following prompt:
After clicking OK, Outlook 2010 internally appears to work normally (except for when I try to back up - see below).
As additional evidence: When I attempt to use Save and Send in any of my Office 2010 applications such as Word or Excel, and I choose to have the document or worksheet as "Send as Attachment," I get the same error message as above.
In this case, when I click that error message's OK button, I get the following error message:
As a probably-related issue, when I attempt to use the Outlook backup add-in (which I used to use almost daily), I get an error message (I can't include it here because the posting limit is two images) that says:
Backup Options
Backup these personal folders files: (No personal folders files are currently open).
In the "Backup the files above to this location" area, the Browse button is grayed out since the computer thinks I do not have a personal folder file open.
Please note that my .pst file is Outlook.pst. It is stored, as it should be, in C:\Users\myusername\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\Outlook.pst. When I close Outlook and check, the file has the correct timestamp.
Additional background: Before all of this happened, Outlook 2010 worked fine for many months, then became problematic apparently spontaneously, unable to send or receive any mail. That's when I decided to reinstall (see below).
Keeping in mind that I now can send and receive mail to/from all of my mail accounts (but truly need to get this fixed), here are some things I have done, all to no avail:
1. Uninstalled and reinstalled MS Office 2010 professional Plus.
2. Created a new mail PROFILE within Outlook 2010 (a real profile, not simply additional e-mail accounts), re-creating within it successfully (error-free Tests) all the e-mail addresses I use. For reference, you may wish to look here: http://www.howto-outlook.com/faq/newprofile.htm. This is related to:
3. Created a new mail Account using the control panel's "Mail - 32 bit" method.
4. Had Outlook use the older and newer .pst accounts.
5. Cold-booted the computer multiple times.
6. Re-checked Default Programs and Outlook is listed as the default mail program.
The computer still does not believe I have an e-mail program. How can I convince it that I do?
I would be very grateful for an answer.
Thanks very much.
Dr. Steve Sachs
"SachsScient"
. . . Dr. Steve Sachs