After transferring outlook to a new PC (and transferring emails / contact list), a customer got a strange error when composing a new email:

She would click on the “To:” button, but instead of getting a popup contact list, she would get the error message: The address list could not be displayed. The Contacts folder associated with this address list could not be opened…

But by clicking “OK”, she would be able to select a “second” contact list from a drop-down menu in the “select names” window… Its somewhat confusing , as both contact lists are called “Contacts”… But the second one does work…

I find Microsoft have a solution to this “contact list” corruption… remove and recreate the contact list.

Ah, Microsoft… as subtle as a sledgehammer.

I found a better solution:

• From the main outlook window: tools -> address book
• From the Address book window: tools -> options
• Select the “other” contact list in the first 2 drop down lists, and change the order of Contacts in the “check names” list.
• OK out of the window, restart outlook, and now the customer doesn’t get prompted about non-existent address list.