Mircrosoft Office Outlook won't open - and funny message coming up

[MaggieW]

I'm trying to open MOO and a message comes up "Cannot start MOO. Out of memory or system resources. Close some windows or programs and try again." However there is nothing else open on the computer. I've rebooted but it still continues like this. Was fine last night! Any advice on how to rectify please? TIa.

You can't always tell what has upset a computer!

Use CTRL+Alt+Delete to bring up Task Manager and see what the 'processes' tab shows you is running.
By clicking on Memory Usage, you can sort so that the greatest memory user is at the top, which may give a clue as to what is using all the resources.
It may not show you anything you don't already know but if nothing is running then nothing should be using system resources.
Sometimes Windows Automatic updates hogs the machine for no good reason and svchost can be the culprit. I must admit I have disabled automatic updates for that reason, just switching it on every now and again to gain what is necessary.
You may want to also download 'Malwarbytes' (mbam.exe) to seek and destroy and unwanted viruses/malware/spyware that may have found its way in to your machine.
Don't know if this will help and no doubt other wiser folk will also give you ideas.

What version of Outlook? Is it fully up to date (via Windows Update)?

Thank you both. It's Outlook 2003 so presumably not the latest version. Currently it looks as if it's open as it sits on the task bar, however if I click on that all it shows is the page with the outlook clock graphic on it and it goes no further. It's still opening the reminders part of outlook but nothing more than that. What do you suggest?

Try starting it in safe mode and see if it opens. Instructions are here:
www.outlook-tips.net/outlook-2010/start-outlook-in-safe-mode/

Most likely cause is an incompatible anti-virus plugin that has updated itself. Do as BP suggests to get closer to the problem.

Thank you. Will try that and let you know.

Right, it's opened using safe mode. Sorry for ignorance, but what is safe mode compared to normal please?

What should I do now please? Thanks again for your help.

When outlook starts in safe mode it ignores some configuration and any plugins that you have added, as MrA says it can often be badly written anti virus software that plugs in to Outlok. But it can also be a corrupted config file or some other extension.

So go here:
www.howto-outlook.com/faq/outlookdoesntstart.htm

Try the section called "Reset dat-files" first for outcmd.dat and then for the other file. Make sure outlook is closed each time you rename one of the files and then try opening it normally.

If that doesn't work then try the bit labelled "Disable add-ins".