Anyone out there had the problem with a .pst file that just wouldn’t go away? I had one that everytime you right-click and then close it, it would report “The Operation Failed. An object could not be found.” You know, your typical nicely described Microsoft error message. Ugh…

I told myself tonight that I would finger this damn thing out and report to the masses what the miraculous fix for this buggy problem was. Unfortunately, all I have for you tonight is a couple links to not very helpful suggestions, and my final solution to the problem. The links below seemed mildly helpful and seemed to have helped a few folks out, but not me… Give these a look see before you do what I did. ;)

Getting Rid Of PST Files Outlook Thinks You Still Use

Delete Ghost PSTs

Computing.Net – Outlook Duplicate Personal Folders

There’s nothing elegant or magic about what I did. I just went in and deleted the Outlook profile from the mail control panel. It will likely be the only one there. Then navigate to your real .pst file at C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook and rename Outlook.pst to Outlook.old. Then start Outlook back up and it will ask you to create a profile. Name it Outlook. Create your first email account with the wizard. Then close out look.

Navigate back to C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook and delete the Outlook.pst file there, and rename Outlook.old back to Outlook.pst. Start Outlook back up and it should all ‘look’ familiar. You still have to enter in all your email accounts — which may or may not be a horrible pain for you. Then Send/Receive, and then go to Tools -> Rules and Alerts to fix your broken rules.

That’s it. Hope this helps someone! :) Night night, gang!