How Can I Manually Start Outlook in Safe mode?

Sometimes you do need to manually start Outlook in Safe mode. Perhaps Outlook did not detect an error on startup or you think that a particular extension or add-in is making Outlook unstable. If Outlook is misbehaving, it might be worth manually starting in Safe mode to see if that resolves the issue. This process can aid you greatly in isolating various problems. Whatever your reason, starting in Safe mode manually is easily accomplished by doing the following:

1.	Locate the Outlook application. The simplest way to do this is to hold down the Ctrl key clicking the Outlook icon. (An Outlook icon is installed on the Windows taskbar.)
2.	Outlook determines that the Ctrl key was held down and displays a message confirming that you want to start in Safe mode
3.	Click the Yes button to start in Safe mode and the No button to start in normal mode.

You can also start Outlook in Safe mode using a command-line switch, as follows:

1.	Click the Windows Start button and select Run.
2.	When the Run dialog box is displayed, type outlook /safe into the Open text box and click the OK button. Outlook then starts in Safe mode.

NOTE

Outlook does not prompt you to confirm whether you want to start in safe mode, as it does when you hold down the ctrl key. You can find out more about starting outlook from the command line in the command-line switches section of this chapter.