FAQ

Can I view shared calendars in OotD? At the present time, no. However, I am looking at adding the ability to do this if it's possible.

How do I change positioning, sizing, opacity, etc. of the window on my desktop? All of the configuration for Outlook on the Desktop is done through the tray icon for the program. That is the white icon with the day of the month on it in the bottom right corner of your screen. Right click on it to access all the configuration options.

How do you get the month view to "stick" the next time OotD loads? Close OotD, then open Microsoft Outlook and set up the calendar the way you would like to see it in OotD and then close Microsoft Outlook. The next time you start OotD it will load with that layout.

I like to use month view, but every time I click on a day in the calendar, it changes to day view. How can I get back to month view without closing OotD, opening outlook, changing the view, and re-opening OotD. The easiest way to go back to month view is to right click anywhere inside the OotD window and click "Goto Date" then select "Month View" from the pull down.

I want to uninstall Outlook on the Desktop, but it complains that it's running. To uninstall, you have to first close the program. To do that: Right Click on the tray icon for Outlook on the Desktop (the small white icon with the day of the month on it in the bottom right corner of your screen) and click "Exit" You can then proceed with the uninstall from Add/Remove Programs.

I would like the ability to show the Outlook Today page in OotD, is this possible? Unfortunately not. As far as I can tell, Microsoft has not provided any way of hosting the Outlook Today page inside of of the Outlook View Control (which OotD uses). In fact, it was meant to be used the other way around. Outlook Today is meant to contain the outlook view control to customize it.

I'm using Outlook 2010 and I can't click on the Calendar when using OotD This was a bug in Microsoft Outlook in the original release of Office 2010.  Installing SP1 of Office 2010 fixes the issue.  Please use windows update to get SP1.

I've found a bug, how do I contact the author? First check to see if the issue was already report here. If not, please create a new issue and I'll have a look as soon as possible.

OotD crashes on startup. What's wrong? A symptom of this is the following error message on startup:

Error HRESULT E_FAIL has been returned from a call to a COM component

or

Unable to cast COM object of type 'Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.ApplicationClass' to interface type 'Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook._Application'

There is no one definitive answer for this. In most cases it is caused by an incorrect or partially corrupt installation of Microsoft Office. Doing a complete uninstall and reinstall of Office usually fixes it.

If uninstalling did not work, you can also try the Microsoft Office Cleanup Tool to wipe any traces of Office before reinstalling.

If you get this error on startup:

Show Desktop in Windows Vista and Windows 7 hides Outlook on the Desktop as well. How can I fix this? Unfortunately, there is no way to fix this.  Microsoft decided to strip this functionality from Windows Vista and above.  However, there is a trick that still works:

Hold the "Windows Key" and press M to minimize all windows.  It will minimize everything except Outlook on the Desktop, essentially achieving the same effect as Show Desktop.  "Windows Key" + Shift + M will restore your minimized windows.

When using OotD, an error pops up that says: "Could not read the Calendar" This is usually due to an issue with either your PST/OST file or with your Outlook Views. Try the following steps to resolve it:

1. Press your Windows Key + R and then in the run dialog type: Outlook /cleanviews and press enter.
2. If that didn't work, try following the instructions here to repair your OST/PST

Which versions of Windows does OotD run on? OotD runs on Windows 7 and up, including 8.1 and 10 in both 32-bit and 64-bit variants. If you are still on Windows XP, you can use version 3.1 or lower, which can be found on the Release Notes page.

Why does OotD become unresponsive after I open an item and then close the window? This is due to a recent change Microsoft made in Outlook 2007 SP2 and Outlook 2010.  Microsoft has changed the shut down procedure for Outlook to ensure it shuts down in a more timely manner.  In the process, I believe they introduce a bug.   The outlook view control creates an instance of Outlook, but the instance shutdowns when open and then closing an item from the view control, even though the outlook view control itself is still running. 

One simple workaround that seems to work is to launch Outlook and leave it running before launching Outlook on the Desktop. I am in the process of trying to find a better workaround that doesn't require user intervention, but have not been successful yet.