I’m sure your users have encountered many times not being able to start their email programs. It can be very frustrating especially when you, as an administrator, are not in full control of software that gets installed onto end users computers.

Sometimes, after starting Microsoft Office Outlook, they get an error message that tells them that their MAPI32.DLL file is corrupt. The error message will also indicate that the DLL file is possible the wrong version. How can this happen?

Usually this happens after other message software has been installed. The error message will go on to suggest that Outlook itself be removed. This is when having well-known company policies in place can prevent such unwanted installs from occurring. Also setting up user accounts with limited privileges can stop end users from installing additional, unapproved software – such as beta software – onto company computers.

Now that you have a problem lets talk about how to fix it.

Let’s assume that the Beta 2 version of Outlook has been installed. If the end user tried it for a while and then uninstalled it they would probably run into problems so they called you, the administrator. The technical cause of the problem is that the MSMAPI32.DLL file was not removed from the folder:
C:Program FilesCommon FilesSystemMsmapiLocaleID

The LocaleID refers to the language of the locality. If using English – such as in the United States – then LocaleID is equal to 1033. Lookup the following website for more information about LocaleID’s: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/0h88fahh.aspx

Anyway, assuming LocaleID is 1033, you should open up the folder
C:Program FilesCommon FilesSystemMsmapi1033 and then right click on the MSMAPI32.DLL file and select rename. Next, you can type in MSMAPI32.OLD or MSMAPI32.something and then press ENTER. This procedure will rename the file. After that just restart Outlook and the program will be repaired.

In a related problem there’s a situation which can occur that can cause an incorrect version of Outlook to start up. This can happen if your end user decides that they want to run another version of Office on a computer with an existing version of Office installed. The end user selects an option to keep the earlier version of Office. What they end up with is that Outlook 2007 gets installed even though they wanted to keep the current version of Office suite installed. They won’t realize they have a problem until they fire up Outlook. That’s when they realize that their previous version of Outlook is no longer available to them – in fact, it’s been removed. So they call you, the administrator, to go back and help them get their previous version of Outlook up and running.
The reason why this happened is because you can’t have two versions of Outlook on the same computer. To fix this problem you’ve got a couple different options. One is you can keep the earlier version of Outlook. But you’re going to have to check with the end user if they did not installed the original non-trial release version of 2007 Office suite. If they didn’t do this then when they startup Office suite you can click on the Customize option and then on the Upgrade tab select the “Keep all previous versions.” Next click the Installation Options tab and then click the Microsoft Office Outlook icon. Select Not Available and then click Continue.
 
On the Upgrade tab of the Setup program your end user should have gotten a message warning them that “Before you install Microsoft Office Outlook 2007, you must remove any earlier version of Outlook. Two versions of Outlook cannot coexist on the same computer. If you want to keep an earlier version of Outlook, you must explicitly choose on the Installation Options tab to not install Microsoft Office Outlook 2007” when they tried to upgrade their Office suite version.

This may have been misleading to the end user because they didn’t have to remove the earlier version of Outlook before they installed Outlook 2007. Outlook is removed automatically when Outlook 2007 is installed.

If the end user wanted to keep the earlier version of Outlook after they installed the non-trial release version of a 2007 Office suite then there are some additional steps to follow which I will cover in a subsequent article.

Your end user might also have installed and then uninstalled Outlook 2007 onto a system that already had Outlook 2003 installed. If they did that then they probably received an error message when they tried to start Outlook 2003 that said their MAPI32.DLL file was either corrupt or the wrong version. They (you) will be asked to reinstall Outlook.

You can find out more information about this error message and how to resolve this problem by going to the article, 926196, in the Microsoft Knowledge Base.

Additionally, to find more information about what happens when a trial version of a 2007 Office suite is installed when another version of Office already exists check out the article, 930559, in the Microsoft Knowledge Base.