Hi all,
Sorry if this is somewhere else on the site but I couldn't see anything.

In short, my PC crashed and wouldn't restart windows but displayed an error screen and froze so I ran the Windows XP Repair using the installation CD.
After going through the repair, the system froze on the screen showing the windows logo with "Please Wait...." below.

It was stuck like this for hours so we decided to restart the machine and all seemed OK but now I notice a few problems;

1. It will not let me open links in Outlook 2003 but just comes up with a box asking me to "Locate Link Browser". I've tried changing the settings in [my computer>tools>folder options>file types] as lots of guides say to but this has no effect.
2. It will not let me print anything from Outlook 2003?
3. Many buttons and links in Internet Explorer (6) come up with an error box saying "The requested lookup key was not found in any active activation context". This includes the home button and even the back button. It also comes up if I type a web address into the address bar and press enter or click on the go arrow.

It seems like I'm discovering more and more issues and I haven't got a clue how to sort it out?

Please help.

XP Repair is often less than great. The problem is the registry. The repair only replaces files that are different from what the repair disk has on it, and you usually have to re-update all of the files anyway. The registry, however, is usually not changed -- at least not very much. If it were, all of your programs would have to be reinstalled.

Which brings me to my point. When PCs crash, it's often because things are bad in the registry. It's a lot of work, but a clean reinstall will take care of these problems and your system will probably run a lot faster.

XP Clean Install (http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html)

Clean Install Windows XP (http://www.theeldergeek.com/clean_installation_of_windows_xp.htm)

Clean Install Windows XP - How to Perform a Clean Installation of Windows XP - Part 1 of 4 (http://pcsupport.about.com/od/operatingsystems/ss/instxpclean1.htm)

Repair Installation
A Repair Install will replace the system files with the files on the XP CD used for the Repair Install. It will leave your applications and settings intact, but Windows updates will need to be reapplied.

So you do need to go to windows update


At this point you will also have to repair Outlook
-Go to add remove and click Remove on office 2003
You should get the option to Repair - Choose the repair option
(If you did not save the installation files while installing Office, you may need to have your Office CD avail)

So, I would suggest to go to MS update and get all updates for windows and then try outlook.

If outlook still has issues, try the repair option for Office in add/remove.


-If that option does not come up and you have an Office setup disk, run the setup and you will also be given the option to Repair


Once exhausted these, post back

Hi all,
Thank you all for your help but I sorted the problem!

As I had a few issues popping up, I found all the tutorials were directing me to fix something in IE. I was running IE6 and could only find reference to this issue in IE7?

Anyway, the steps I took are as follows:
I ran a repair for IE6 using the guide from here; Repair Internet Explorer 6 (http://www.theeldergeek.com/repair_ie6.htm)
That didn't seem to do anything (but you never know?) so I managed to get a copy of Firefox onto the machine and downloaded an IE7 fix update from Microsoft.

Then I installed IE7, which wouldn't even start up?

Then I installed IE8 and now it all works OK!? The links in Outlook 2003 all work as they should and there's no more problems.

NOTE: IE8 refused to install on my machine before this due to updates not being installed as it couldn't launch my default browser?

I'm certainly no expert but just thought to update everything I could and it seems to have worked. Might help someone else in this situation.

Again, thanks for your help but no system wipe here!

I have an idea. Use the Firefox you got. :-) I have IE6 and have never upgraded it and don't want to. I use it for very little and use Firefox 95% of the time.

I use FIrefox now anyway. I had been using it on other machines but never bothered with this one. I may be very wrong but it seems much less problematic.

I'm told IE6 is part of XP Pro so I couldn't remove it, the only option was to fix it.

All working fine now, even solved the issue with printing from Outlook too.