I get a lot of junk emails from companies who want me to recommend their products. I can dispose of these usually with no difficulty by the simple expedient of deleting them.

Today I was getting rid of the junk (simply deleting without opening) when a Security Alert popped up. The issue is this:

‘The name on the security certificate is invalid or does not match the name of the site’

I get three options: Yes/No/ View Certificate

Neither yes nor no work. View cert lets me see the certificate but that is it.

If I hit the X option in the top right hand corner to shut the messge down, nothing happens.

I have tried to force quit by using Alt Ctrl Del but when I start Outlook up again it just reappears. I have turned the machine off and rebooted but it just sits there, preventing me from doing anything in Outlook.

I rang the company concerned and they were unable to throw any light on what to do. They did refer me to another company who distributed the email on their behalf and they blamed me! Basically i was told to sort it out myself.

I have been trying to do this on and off since mid morning and my sense of humour has evaporated.

Any ideas anyone?

I am running XP on VM Fusion and the issue is wih Outlook 2000.

Can you access Exchange via a web interface and empty the trash folder that way?

Check the date of the VM. A wrong date (and time) can throw a wobbly with certs

Other options:

Turn off the preview pane, then delete it.

Update your root certificates (Windows Update or here).

Stop using thirteen year old software (-:

The cert seems valid 23/09/13 to 24/09/2014

Can you access Exchange via a web interface and empty the trash folder that way?

I don’t know 😳

Cougar

Can’t do that, I have no control over Outlook at all.

Really?

Inform your IT department, make it their problem.

(What kind of retarded security policy enforces the preview pane? Disabling, sure.)

What Cougar said, if you have no control then it’s not your problem.

I have run the root download and it is not doing anything.

Sadly, I am my IT department, and everything else besides :o) I don’t have any special security settings, and ever had this problem before.

I have just taken a call from one of the firms involved and they have admitted it may be something to do with their certificate (told them that at 10.30 this morning.)

I take your point re the old software, I have planned to replace it between Christmas and New Year!

You’ve … locked yourself out?

LOL!

No…..haven’t done anything out of the ordinary.

The only progress I have made is getting the TP to accept they have caused the problem. Makes me feel a bit better but that’s about it. Can’t even shut Outlook down. Apart from Outlook, everything else works fine.

Since moving to a Mac I ditched Outlook in favour of Google and i haven’t regretted it.

the outlook.pst files are transportable pretty easily.

do you have access to any other pc’s with Outlook running on them (more recent)? You could copy the file to there and deal with the issue and then copy back the sorted out file (assuming that your old software will open a .pst updated by a later version).

BigJohn – I am running XP via VMFusion as most of the applications I use require a Win PC. Without sounding like a fanboi, the only computer problems I ever get are on the PC side. When I can work on the Mac I do, and use OpenOffice, when I can’t it is back to the PC.

@wwaswas great plan, there is one flaw…the absence of a newer version of Outlook.

When I get this sorted, my OS and Office upgrades are going to be brought forward.

Can you launch Outlook from the command line? If so, launch it using the /safe switch. This should hopefully not render the html, and you can delete the email.

No…’ a dialog box is open’ etc :o(

So Outlook automatically opens when you reboot the PC?

No, when I reboot Outlook doesn’t open automatically….ah I see where you are going with this.

Meanwhile I found this:

Outlook 2000

Click Start, click Run, type regedit in the Open box, and then click OK.
Locate the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Outlook\Security
If a Security registry key does not exist, create a new key. To do this, follow these steps:
Click the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Outlook
On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click Key.
Type Security, and then press ENTER.
Right-click the Security key, click New, and then click DWORD Value.
Type SupressNameChecks, and then press ENTER.
On the Edit menu, click Modify.
Type 1, and then click OK.
On the Registry menu, click Exit.

Could this be the answer?

Can you access Exchange via a web interface and empty the trash folder that way?

I don’t know [/quote]

Try

https://exchange.XXX.com/owa/auth/logon.aspx

where XXX is your company website…

alas no……

Try safe mode first

Reboot the machine
Start > Run > cmd
cd to the Office directory (probably C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Office\)
outlook /safe

See what happens

And deleting it via a web portal probably won’t help unless you delete the .ost file or reprofile Outlook

@ torsoinalake

Sorted….thanks!

Glad I could help.

Now upgrade to something from this decade.

LOL!

Thanks to everyone who chipped in btw! :o)