OL2000: Outlook Desktop Icon Cannot Locate Outlook.exe on First Run

ID: Q218353

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Outlook 2000

SYMPTOMS

After running the Windows installer for Microsoft Office 2000, you double-click the Outlook icon on the Desktop and receive the following error:

Windows Cannot Find OUTLOOK.EXE This program is needed for opening files of type 'Microsoft Outlook' Location of Outlook.exe

Your choices are OK, Locate, and Cancel.

CAUSE

This behavior can occur if an element in the path you specified for your Office installation contained a single percent sign (%) character.

RESOLUTION

Open Outlook from either the Start menu or Windows Explorer. Once it runs correctly using this method, the shortcut on the Desktop should function as expected.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article.

MORE INFORMATION

The percent sign (%) is valid for specifying environment variables, but these variables should be surrounded by two percent signs.

Additional query words: OL2K

Keywords : kbdta
Version : WINDOWS:2000
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbbug