Previously installing Microsoft Office was a simple thing. If you didn’t have it installed the installer would run flawlessly and you’d have all your Microsoft Office Suite applications. If you did have the suite installed it would generally just upgrade the existing version.
With Office 2016 and Office 365 though – it’s not that simple. This instance of Office will allow you to install without removing the old version. Outlook will then show 2 Control Panel items – Mail (Outlook 2016) and Mail (32-bit). One is obviously for the newer version but the fact that both exist causes issues because the old version is not forwards compatible with the new version.
Users then add their information to the new version, which the old version can’t figure out, causing a conflict with Outlook configuration settings.
There is also an issue with Exchange “Primary” Accounts. Once a profile is set up with an Exchange account it becomes the primary account and cannot be removed unless it is the LAST account existing in the profile. Very annoying.
You can end up in a situation where you cannot access the profiles from the control panel in EITHER Mail applet, you can access from Outlook but can’t change anything.
First thing – remove the old Office install and reboot.
Now fix the Profile situation – Registry hack to the rescue:
- Export this key to a file (as a backup):
HKEY_CURRENT_USER | Software | Microsoft | Windows NT | CurrentVersion | Windows Messaging Subsystem | Profiles
- Delete all profiles listed.
- Export this key to a file (as a backup):
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Outlook\Profiles
- Delete all profiles listed
Open Outlook. You should now be prompted to create a new profile. I recommend you give the new profile a new name from the old profile so you don’t end up with a bunch of outdated configuration files warring with your new setup.
