Jan 4, 2011 08:14 GMT  ·  By

Downgrading from Office Outlook 2010 to its predecessor might require a tad more effort from users in order for them to actually be able to open Outlook 2007 and access their emails. Microsoft has confirmed an issue in which customers uninstalling Outlook 2010 and reinstalling Outlook 2007 have found that they are no longer able to open the email client.

According to the software giant, in such scenarios as described above, the following error message will be presented:

“The Mail profile "<profile name>" was created with a newer version of Outlook and might contain information that is not compatible with the current version of Outlook, if you experience problems with this profile, you can create a new profile. In Control panel open Mail then show profiles then click Add.”

The result is that users can no longer access their default e-mail folders, as Outlook 2007 will refuse to open any existing information store.

The Redmond company informed that the cause of this problem is related to the way in which Outlook 2010 changes the users’ Outlook profiles when upgrading from Outlook 2007 in order to introduce support for multiple Microsoft Exchange email accounts.

These changes are not reverted when customers downgrade from Outlook 2010 to Outlook 2007. And Outlook 2007 will not open email folders for user profiles which are tailored to Outlook 2010.

Microsoft explained that a common scenario where this issue has been reported involves customers testing Office 365, installing Office Professional Plus 2010 Subscription, which includes Outlook 2010, and then reverting back to Office 2007.

“In these scenarios, the Outlook profile must be removed and re-created in Windows through Control Panel and Mail options,” Microsoft stated.

With Outlook 2010 removed and Outlook 2007 installed back in its place, users need to open up Control Panel in Windows, and make their way to Mail and fire up the Mail Setup dialog box. Next, they should select Show Profiles and click Add on the General tab.

“In the Profile Name box, type the name that you want to use for the new email profile, and then click OK. If you are a member of the logged-on domain, Outlook 2007 will try to automatically configure your Microsoft Exchange account.

If you are not a member of the domain, you do not have an Exchange account, or the automatic configuration is unsuccessful, check Manually configure server settings or additional server types, click Next, and enter your account information in steps 7 through 9.

In the Add New E-mail Account dialog box, click the appropriate server type for your email account, and then click Next. Type your account information in the required boxes, and then click Next,” Microsoft explained.

Users also have to make sure that the new profile is set as default for the email client, and this can be done via the General tab under When starting Microsoft Office Outlook, by selecting the Always use this profile option button, associating it with the new profile just created.

Of course, any existing Outlook Address Book and a new personal folders (.pst) files can be added to the new account. In Outlook 2007 customers can open the File menu, click Open, and then select Outlook Data File, make their way to the location where .pst files are stored and add them to their new account.

Location for Outlook 2010: On Windows 7: C:\Users\<username>\Documents\Outlook Files\

On Windows Server 2003 and on Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\My Documents\Outlook Files\

Location for Office Outlook 2007:

On Windows 7: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\

On Windows Server 2003 and on Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Local Settings\Microsoft\Outlook\.

Office Home and Business 2010 RTM Build 14.0.4760.1000 is available for download here.

Office Home and Student 2010 RTM Build 14.0.4760.1000 is available for download
here.

Office Professional 2010 RTM Build 14.0.4760.1000 is available for download
here.