You cannot open Outlook 2007 after you downgrade from Outlook 2010

After you uninstall Microsoft Outlook 2010, and you reinstall Microsoft Office Outlook 2007, you receive the following error messages when you start Outlook 2007.

Error message 1

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.

Error message 2

Cannot open your default e-mail folders. The information store could not be opened.

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Because of the changes in Outlook 2010 that allow for multiple Microsoft Exchange email accounts, Outlook profiles that were upgraded to Outlook 2010 will not work in the following scenario: 

• You remove Outlook 2010.
• You reinstall Office Outlook 2007.
• You try to start Office Outlook 2007 by using the same Outlook profile.

Common scenarios where this behavior would occur include the following:

• You install and use Outlook 2010 from the Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 Subscription, either as part of the Microsoft Office 365 offering or as a stand-alone version. Then, you decide to return to Office Outlook 2007.
  
• You install and use a trial version of Outlook 2010. Then, you decide to return to Office Outlook 2007 at the end of the trial period.

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

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To create a new email profile in Outlook 2007, follow these steps:

1.       Click Start, and then click Run.

2.       Copy and paste, or type the following command in the Open box, and then press ENTER:

control panel

Note If you are using a 64-bit version of Windows, double-click View 32-bit Control Panel in Control Panel to display the Mail icon.

3.       Open the Mail Setup dialog box:

For Windows 7:

o    If Control Panel is in either Large icons or Small icons view, click Mail. The Mail Setup dialog box appears.

o    If Control Panel is in Category view, under View by, click to select either Large icons or Small icons, and then click Mail. The Mail Setup dialog box appears.

For Windows Vista or Windows XP:

o    If Control Panel is in Classic View, double-click Mail. The Mail Setup dialog box appears.

o    If Control Panel is in Category View, under Control Panel, click Switch to Classic View for Windows XP, or click Classic View for Windows Vista, and then double-click Mail. The Mail Setup dialog box appears.

4.       In the Mail Setup dialog box, click Show Profiles.

5.       On the General tab, click Add.

6.       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.

7.       In the Add New E-mail Account dialog box, click the appropriate server type for your email account, and then click Next.

8.       Type your account information in the required boxes, and then click Next.

9.   Click Finish.

10.  To have Outlook always use the new profile when Outlook starts and not prompt you to select a profile, on the General tab under When starting Microsoft Office Outlook, use this profile, click the Always use this profile option button, and then select the new profile from the dropdown.

11.  If you have additional profiles from which to select, and you want to be prompted every time that you start Outlook, on the General tab under When starting Microsoft Office Outlook, use this profile, click Prompt for a profile to be used.

12.   Click OK to close the Mail Setup dialog box.

Note By default, both the Outlook Address Book and a new personal folders (.pst) file are automatically added to each new email profile. This does not apply for an email profile that was created by using only a Microsoft Exchange Server account.

If you have existing Microsoft Outlook data that is stored locally in Outlook data and personal folders (.pst) files, you can open them. To do this, follow these steps:

 The default locations for Outlook data and personal folders (.pst) files are as follows:

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\

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For more information about how to create Outlook profiles, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

829918 How to create and configure an email profile in Outlook 2010, Outlook 2007, and Outlook 2003

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