How to cleanup, maintain and repair Microsoft Outlook 2007/2010 using switches

Microsoft Outlook can sometimes be a strange beast. It often presents itself with strange errors and quirks that can be a real pain. Luckily for us Microsoft has built-in ways to deal with most of these issues.

- Close Microsoft Outlook.

- Press WinKey + R to bring up the Run dialog box.

- Type outlook.exe followed by a space and then the switch that you wish to run. (See example below)

Switches you can use to clean up your Outlook are:


/cleanfinders – to remove Search Folders from the Microsoft Exchange mailbox.

/cleanfreebusy – to clear and recreate free/busy information. (Note: To use this switch, you must be able to connect to the Exchange server)

/cleanprofile – to remove invalid profile keys and regenerate default registry keys.


/cleanreminders – to clear and recreate reminders.
/cleanrules – to delete rules on the client and server.


/cleanserverrules – to delete rules on the server only.


/cleansharing – to remove all subscriptions from Account Settings. (This will not remove any downloaded content)


/cleanviews – to restore default views, custom views are removed.

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