Keep Getting "Outlook closed while you had items open. Reopen items from last session?" Even Though It's Not True

I continue to have erratic problems with this goofy 'Reopen...' pop-up message, so I'm not about to further mess things up with finagling registry keys. As I say, too many times I've put my finger in the dike to stop the leak only to find that I've dislodged another pebble that in turn lets loose the small rock that's holding the bigger stone in and... voila, a full deluge.

I added that ' /restore' last week and since then erratic behavior. Last Saturday, Outlook started into a window with no problems (yay!) but then Sunday it remained minimized and I had to click on it again to get into a window. Monday it opened in a window, re-opened (again!) an already opened/read email from the previous day, AND gave me the "Reopen...?" pop-up. Tuesday it opened in a window, no pop-up, no previously read mail - all fine. Wednesday and this morning again it stayed minimized.

Every night before I close Outlook, I do a send/receive and make sure the little message "synchronizing all folders" at the bottom completes/closes. Then I close Outlook. I wait anywhere from 5-15 minutes (Solitaire helps pass the time) and then check Task Manager to make sure Outlook is not still running, then close down my laptop.

It is the peak of lunacy to do the exact same thing and get varying results, but there is a name that describes this - 'chaos', which in physics is defined as "behavior so unpredictable as to appear random, owing to great sensitivity to small changes in conditions".

There is something unstable down there in the coding of Outlook and dmmit, I wish they would fix it.

Restating my conditions of operation: Dell Inspiron 5501 11th Gen i5-11320H; Win 11 Home, v22H2, OS 22621.2134, Experience Pack 1000.22659.1000.0; Outlook 16.0.16626.20170; "Save my settings in cloud" unchecked, Missing Outlook "Startup Options" selections; added ' /restore' to Outlook icon; no registry key changes/deletions/additions.

I am also using desktop outlook 2019. When Outlook opens It shows a message that it closed with items open. It appears that Options, general does not contain any settings under start-up settings.

This is most annoying please fix this issue asap.

Thanks Bill

What do I do with the registry key? HKEY_CURRENT-USER ............

Hi LarrY Vergon:

If you want to try Diane Poremsky's workaround and re-create the missing ReopenWindowsOption registry key then try the instructions in the MSOutlook.info tutorial Editing the Registry at https://www.msoutlook.info/question/290, which shows how to add a registry entry called "ShowBcc" at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Preferences (value type = REG_DWORD, value =1). If you follow those instructions just substitute the value name "ShowBcc" used in that example with "ReopenWindowsOption".

Once that registry key is created then monitor MS Outlook for a few days and see if this stops the “Outlook closed while you had items open. Reopen those items from your last session?” prompt from appearing when Outlook is started.

Dell Inspiron 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.3324 * Firefox v116.0.2 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.23070.1004-1.1.23070.1005 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.5.34.275-1.0.2102 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7279 * Microsoft Office 2019 Home and Business 2019 Version 2307 / Build 16626.20170 Click-to-Run

What do I do with the registry key? HKEY_CURRENT-USER ............