Windows Mail won't load from the Dock

I had the same issue when reinstalling Dell Dock. Finally settled on downloading Object Dock from stardock.com which is the company who designed dell dock, i understand.

 

Once you adjust the settings a little, it can look just like Dell Dock, plus you can add cool icons, weather and clock. then you can turn off windows sidebar alltogether. It's much better

I have the exact same problem.

 

I just got this computer on October 20, 2008. I have  dell inspiron 530s with Vista Home Premium. On the 20th when I received the computer and got it up an running , opening mail from the dock worked fine. It was shortly after, after several updates and rebooting, that I could no longer open mail from the dock and I would get that error message " Windows Mail could not be started because MSOE.DLL could not be loaded." 

 

There was an odd thing that did occur between the time it worked perfect and then didn't work. I had clicked on IE from the dock, I think maybe a couple times because multiple windows opened. One window opened over part of the dock in the area where the mail icon is. I could not get this window to close or move. Not even by clicking on end task. I had to shut down the computer by pushing the button on the computer.

 

After trying several things myself I decided to call dell support. They didn't seem to know anymore than I did about computers. I am a total idiot when it comes to computers. Not to mention the language barrier. I had a hard time understanding them and they had a hard time understanding me. I would have been just as lucky to a have dialed a random number in a country far away where English is barely spoken.

 

So 4 hours I was on the phone with them. They had access to my computer while I watched them search sites like this one forums looking for this particular problem.

 

Because as I mentioned it worked fine when I first started up the computer the tech person suggested I do a system restore setting the computer back to the way it was when it arrived to my home. I was reluctant at first. After all, I spent an hour setting up and fixing things to my preferences. So I agreed to do the system restore. Which meant I lost all that work I did setting things up.

 

IT DIDN'T WORK!!!!!!!!

 

So after being on the phone for over 4 hours with tech support, they too were over tired and said they would look into the problem and call me back in a few days. It's been a few days they haven't called yet.

 

That day I decided I didn't care for the dock anyways. I was used to my icons on the desktop and was happy with that. So I closed the dock.

 

I don't mind not having it. But still, it's an option I paid for I should be able to use it.

There are a couple of reasons that I can think of for getting the msoe.dll not loading error: (1) the msoe.dll file is corrupt and needs to be replaced and (2) the msoe.dll file is conflicting with another driver which is keeping it from loading. The fix for the first possibility is pretty simple (although Vista may make it tougher than it should be) and the fix for the second option is a little tougher to nail down. I'll discuss the fix for the first option here and if that doesn't work then we can talk about the second. If any of you have tried what I am going to suggest already let me know. Sometimes it's tougher to troubleshoot when you don't know what has already been attempted but it's not impossible. :smileyhappy:

 

There are a few things you should do first:

1) You may want to print these instructions so that you don't have to go back and forth between the windows (I usually copy and paste the post into Word and then print it out but you could also use Wordpad or Notepad as well as any other text editor that you prefer)

2) Create a manual restore point (Click on the option for How do I create a restore point manually and you'll see the instructions drop down)

3) Close all open applications especially the Dell Dock and Windows Mail if you're able to open it with the Start Menu (to close the Dock just right-click on it, choose Close the Dock and if prompted click on Yes to close it)

 

Here are the steps to replace the msoe.dll file:

1) Click Start/Computer and then double-click on the C drive (you should see the contents of your main partition here)

2) Click on Organize/Folder and Search Options and then click on the View tab in the window that comes up (Organize will be near the top left of the Windows Explorer window)

3) Look under Advanced Settings on the View tab and select the option under Hidden Files and Folders that says Show hidden files and folders, then click ok on the Folder Options window to close it

4) In the upper right of the still open window click in the Search box and then type msoe.dll (Windows will then start searching for that file on your C drive and you'll see the results show up below)

5) Once it has completed that search you will see an option for Advanced Search so click on that and then click on the check box next to where it says Include non-indexed, hidden and system files and then click on the Search button near the right of that window if it doesn't start searching right away (you can tell that it is searching if you see the green bar moving to the right in the upper left-hand box on that window) (the search will take a little while so be patient)

6) Once it is done searching you should see a more extensive list in the search results and you will also see a column heading that says Name so click on that (this will order your search results by the name of the files/folders that have been found)

7) On my system I found 5 results for msoe.dll and of those 4 were located in folders that started with x86 while the fifth file was found in the Program Files\Windows Mail directory (for some reason the Windows Mail is shown before Program Files even though it is in fact a folder)

8) Take a look at the information for each of the files named msoe.dll by putting your cursor over the name of the file (when you hover the cursor over the filename you should see info such as File Description, Company, File Version, etc.)

9) The things that we are most interested in are the file version and the date created for each of those msoe.dll files (a strange thing on my system is that the date created for a couple of the files is about six months earlier than the date modified that is listed in the column next to the filename so yours may or may not be the same way)

10) What you want to find is the file that has the newest file version and most recent creation date and is not the one that is already stored in the Program Files\Windows Mail directory (you'll have to look under the Folder column to see which one that is) (also note that when you select the file by clicking on it that the information for that file will also be located near the bottom of the window)

11) Now you want to open a new Windows Explorer window while leaving the window open that you used to search so click on Start\Computer and then double-click on the C drive followed by the Program Files and Windows Mail directories/folders in that order (if all is well to this point you will see the Windows Mail files which include one copy of msoe.dll)

12) Now go back to the window that you used for searching, select and then right-click and choose Copy on the most recent msoe.dll file that you found that is not stored in the Windows Mail directory

13) Go back to the window that shows the Windows Mail directory, right-click in an open area where the files are listed and choose Paste (if it asks if you want to overwrite the file then select Yes, Continue or whatever the affirmative option that is given) (you may see a different message so if you do make a note of the full message and post it, it most likely would have to do with the User Account Control)

14) If everything has gone well so far then you should still have both windows open and will have replaced the msoe.dll file with the backup copy that shouldn't be corrupted

15) Next, close both windows and restart the computer

16) Once the computer has restarted you should see the Dell Dock again so you can try to open Windows Mail by clicking on the E-Mail & Chat button followed by the E-Mail button and hopefully this will open up Windows Mail (if it doesn't then chances are that something else is keeping that file from loading and we will have to look deeper to find out what that is)

 

If you try all this and it works or doesn't work post it here. Any questions, let me know. I know I said that this fix was simple and it is but it takes a lot of steps when you are explaining how to do it. :smileywink:

First of all, I did load ObjectDock from stardock.com and I like it.:smileyvery-happy: I will use that on my XP machine as well. Secondly, thank you williamkidd, I will try to repair the MSOE.DLL file and see if it works. I will let you know one way or another.

Williamkidd, I DID IT AND IT WORKED!!!!!!!!

 

Thank you so much! I can't believe I actually did it. Your instructions were very thorough especially for an average person like me who does not know the inside workings of a computer or it's programs.

 

Now if only I can get voice chat in yahoo messenger, or any other chat client, to work. Sadly, I it will not work for me. I used to have Windows XP Home and got used to using the voice chat features. I use them every day. But not anymore. Not since I got this new dell computer with Vista Home Premium. I've also spent countless hours downloading different things like the truspeech codec. But nothing has worked.

 

I wish I can get voice back. The only options dell offered me was to purchase Windows XP Home Edition for an additional $200 and have them walk me through installing it. But I think that involves uninstalling Vista and I don't trust myself enough to mess with the computer doing that, even if they walk me through. Frustrated and don't know what I should do because I love this computer , with Vista, the way it is, especially more so now after you helped me fix the problem with the dock.

 

Thanks again!!!!!!

njdevil is correct in saying that the Dell Dock and ObjectDock are both from StarDock. The Dell Dock is ObjectDock customized for Dell. I have both docks on my system but don't really use either one of them because of their positioning. I'd rather have the dock on the bottom of the screen and the Windows taskbar at the top but haven't yet found a way to make that happen.

 

PopsTechGuy: I think that we're going to find that the msoe.dll replacement will not be the fix for you. The reason for this being that you are able to use Windows Mail normally. This indicates that msoe.dll is working correctly (i.e. is not corrupted). Does it work when you use the button on ObjectDock? For some reason the link between the Dell Dock and Windows Mail appears to have been broken by the reinstallation. Did you use Control Panel to uninstall the program and did you get any error messages during the uninstall? I've got a few ideas in mind but want to see what's happening first.

 

Chantillylace: I'm glad to hear that worked for you. I had a feeling that the msoe.dll might have been corrupted when you had to shut the system down after it locked up. I'm guessing that the fix took less than four hours. :smileywink: Anything further that I suggest on this thread you won't have to worry about because Windows Mail and Dell Dock are now working correctly for you. As for the voice chat issue I've done some cursory research but it would be good to know what you have done so far. So head on back to your thread on the voice chat issue and I'll let you know what I'm looking for as soon as I get a chance.

Places hands on top of head, clutches fingers, (while fingers are still clutched) thrusts arms outwards!

 

Williamkidd, I ran into more issues with Windows Mail not wanting to open from the DOCK. This issue started when I tried to address my issue with voice not working in chat. I wanted to go over all the things I had tried and then post them on the other thread, the thread with the voice issue.

 

One of those things involved right clicking on Yahoo Messenger to get to the COMPATIBILITIES TAB. I have Yahoo Messenger on my dock. But when you right click on it when it is in dock you don't get the options that would take you to compatibilities. So I  moved Yahoo Messenger from dock to my desktop. Then right clicked on it to get  where I needed to go. I wanted to do this so I could write down the exact steps and what I checked/clicked etc... So I wrote this information down then dragged the Yahoo Messenger icon from the desktop to put it back in my dock. That's when trouble began.

 

After doing this when I would click on the Windows Mail in my dock I got that same error message again!

 

I rebooted and also had issues with Yahoo Messenger not working for me so I had to uninstall it and reinstall it and reboot and go over the same steps you posted in your other post. This did not work this time though.  I went in and deleted what was done and rebooted and rebooted and did several restores and so on and so.

 

I was able to get the Windows Mail to open from the dock again only because I stopped my computer from installing the updates. Each times I did a restore the computer needed to update. I tried opening MAIL from the dock before the install, it works, after the install it doesn't work.

 

I use the restore point I originally created when I did the first fix from your instructions.  I haven't allowed the install of updates. Opening MAIL from the dock works.

 

I spent a better part of my day doing all of this and so at one point I decided to call Dell and tell them to send me another computer I am sending this one back. So that is my next plan of action. To get another computer. It'll be the same computer with the same OS. Maybe I will have the same problems who knows. But I am taking a gamble that perhaps it's just a glitch with THIS computer.

 

P.S. I continued to have issues with other programs not functioning as they should from the dock. At this point I don't have MAIL or most of my other icons in DOCK. I have closed DOCK.

Well, I received the new computer, it is an exchange so it is the exact same computer/model/OS. Or so it's supposed to be.

 

So far I am having no problems with the DOCK.

 

However, as I stated it's supposed to be the exact same computer/model/OS, except the computer I paid for has Windows Vista Home Premium 64 BIT SP1, the computer they sent me has the Windows Vista Home Premium 32BIT SP1........ I had 64, they send me 32!!!!!!!

williamkidd: You are correct, it did not fix the problem. I noticed that all the MSOE.DLL files were the same date, created and modified. It does not work when I use the Windows Mail icon in the dock, but I can run the program from anywhere else on the machine. When you say:

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 For some reason the link between the Dell Dock and Windows Mail appears to have been broken by the reinstallation. Did you use Control Panel to uninstall the program and did you get any error messages during the uninstall?

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Not sure what you mean by reinstallation. This is the way it came from Dell. I have not removed or added anything to the computer. I can use the Control Panel to remove the program, but which one do you mean? The Windows Mail program, or Dell Dock? Again, thank you for all your help.

Chantillylace: I would suggest contacting Dell as soon as possible about the 32 versus 64 bit question. Keep in mind that there is a time limit for returning the computer that was replaced and that information should be in the information that came with the new system. When it comes to the printer which we've discussed you usually want to install the software that came with it (usually on a CD) before you plug the printer into the computer. However, you never mentioned whether you tried to install that newer download to see what it contained. I'm hoping that with the Yahoo Messenger that you've only tried to install that to see what happened. Once changes are made it can sometimes be more difficult to troubleshoot. It would be nice to know if the new version of Yahoo Messenger includes (and installs) the codecs that were installed by hand last time (using the external sites).

 

PopsTechGuy: You're absolutely correct. In reading the different posts I somehow started thinking that you had done a reinstall as well. But you only installed ObjectDock, right? If you are able to run Windows Mail using ObjectDock then we know that the msoe.dll is working correctly because you also said that you could run it using the other methods such as the Start Menu, correct? Now I'm looking for a common theme between the different systems. The reason being that I am unable to recreate the error on my system (i.e. Windows Mail opens fine using the Dell Dock). At this point, I would not suggest uninstalling anything on your system especially if everything is working well other than the Windows Mail/Dell Dock. Do the other programs on the Dock work correctly? Also, is your Vista 32-bit or 64-bit?

 

njdevil: If by chance you are still tracking this thread, are you using Vista and if so is it 32-bit or 64-bit?

 

As you can tell from my questions I'm wondering if the Dock is having issues with Windows Mail when using a 64-bit system. I'm using 32-bit Vista HP and that is the only thing that is standing out right now. I just can't come up with an explanation for that if that is the case because using the Dock should work in a similar manner to using the Start Menu/Quicklaunch/Desktop Icons.

- i have the 64bit vista home premium

- i changed the drive partition when i got my computer - clean install of OS

- when i downloaded Dell Dock from the support site, i had the windows mail error after the first reboot

- if i uninstalled Dell dock and reinstalled it, it would work again until i reboot the computer

- i have had internet explorer freeze when the top edge overlaps the dock occasionally

- i have had the same issue with stardock object dock and IE7 freezing, but the mail works fine

 

my resolution - i moved object dock to the right edge of the screen and clicked the "reserve screen edge" in the options to keep windows from opening across it... everything is fine since then.

 

Hope this is helpful!

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@njdevil wrote:

- i have the 64bit vista home premium

- when i downloaded Dell Dock from the support site, i had the windows mail error after the first reboot

- if i uninstalled Dell dock and reinstalled it, it would work again until i reboot the computer

 

Hope this is helpful!

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Yes I believe you have the key, njdevil. Thanks for posting this info as it may turn out to be very helpful. I say that you have the key because that third line above is eerily similar (Halloween reference) to an issue that was happening for some people with iTunes. Here's the quick overview of that situation: there was a driver (usually afs.sys or afs2k.sys) that was interfering with the loading of another driver (cdrom.sys) and this was causing optical drives (i.e. CD/DVD) to "go missing." What would happen is that someone would install iTunes and everything was right with the world. Once the system was rebooted the drives disappeared. Once the filters were removed from the registry the drives came back. Some of you may have seen this as the solution if you had any trouble with missing drives.

 

Does this scenario sound familiar now? The only thing is that we are now dealing with different files with one of them being msoe.dll. You'll remember that your error messages said something to the effect that "msoe.dll could not be loaded" so it looks like a file that is being used in the 64-bit version of Vista or the Dell Dock but not in the 32-bit version is interfering with msoe.dll and its' ability to load. Now I'm saying this without knowing whether PopsTechGuy has the 64-bit version or not so it's still conjecture. But the more people that have that combination will make it all the more likely that that is what is happening.

 

But there is the strange part about Internet Explorer acting erratically for njdevil. I'm thinking that it is more likely that it is one of the files associated with the Dell Dock than Vista, something that doesn't try to load or behaves differently when using a 32-bit version of Vista. The download for the Dell Dock that is used is the same for both the 32 and 64-bit versions of Vista and should be the same that comes preinstalled on the systems.

I have 64 bit but use live mail and the dock and no issues. Perhaps upgrading to live mail might be an option.