Connecting to Outlook: Unable to connect to Outlook because of Invalid COM Registry Settings

Modified on Sat, 03 Jun 2023 at 11:21 AM

The cause of invalid COM registry settings

Invalid COM registry settings may occur as a result of uninstalling and reinstalling Microsoft Office in different configurations. For example, the following items may cause invalid COM registry settings:

Upgrading from 32-bit Outlook to 64-bit Outlook
Downgrading from Office 2016 to Office 2013

Resolving Invalid Registry Settings

To resolve these issues, open up Regedit and go to the following location:

Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib\{00062FFF-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}\

You will see a screen similar to the following:

Resolving a 32-bit/64bit issue

Inside the {00062FFF-0000-0000-C000-000000000046} folder you should see one of the following subfolders:

\9.6\0\
\9.5\0\

and inside of this folder you may see a "Win32" and "Win64" folder.

You should select the Win## folder that corresponds to the old version of Outlook and rename it to have __ in the prefix. For example, if you were running 32-bit Outlook and are now running 64-bit Outlook, you would rename "Win32" to be "__Win32" as shown in the image below:

Resolving an Outlook Downgrade Issue

Inside the {00062FFF-0000-0000-C000-000000000046} folder you see BOTH of the following subfolders:

\9.6\
\9.5\

This indicates that multiple versions of Outlook have been previously installed and not fully uninstalled.

9.6 - Outlook 2016/2019
9.5 - Outlook 2013

You should select the folder that corresponds to an uninstalled version of Outlook and rename it to have __ in the prefix. For example, if your computer used to have Office 2016 (9.6) installed but you downgraded to Office 2013 (9.5), you would rename "9.6" to "__9.6",

Once these items have been renamed, you will be able to connect to Outlook.