Outlook 2007 Configuration Errors in Windows XP/Vista

While Configuring Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 to Microsoft Exchange Server, you may experience any one of the following Errors.

• The action cannot be completed. The connection to the Microsoft Exchange Server is unavailable. Your network adapter does not have a default gateway.
• Your Microsoft Exchange Server is unavailable
• Outlook cannot log on. Verify that you are connected to the network and are using the proper server and mailbox name. The connection to the Microsoft Exchange Server is unavailable. Your network adapter does not have a default gateway.

This solution resides in the following registry key

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\RPC

With the creation of the key DefConnectOpts (set to DWORD = 0).

The DefConnectOpts registry value helps to turn down some connection optimizations added in Outlook 2007.

The Registry Entries can be made manually by following Steps - 

• Click Start, click Run, type regedit in the Open box, and then click OK.
• Locate and then click the following subkey:
• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\RPC 
•  On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value. 
•  Type DefConnectOpts, and then press ENTER. 
•  Right-click DefConnectOpts, and then click Modify. 
•  In the Value data box, type 0, and then click OK. 
•  Exit Registry Editor. 

Alternatively you can make .REG file to make these entries, Steps for making Reg file is :

• Open Notepad
• Add Following Texts :
• Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
• [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\RPC]
• "DefConnectOpts"=dword:00000000
• Save this file with .reg extension.
• Now Double click to Run the file. You will be prompted to add registry entries into system.

In some version of Vista you may also need to add  another dword value of EnableRPCtunnel with a value 1.


-Prashant