You do not receive the "Welcome to Microsoft Office Outlook 2003" e-mail message in your Inbox folder in Outlook 2003 after you install Office 2003 Service Pack 1

Important This article contains information about modifying the registry. Before you modify the registry, make sure to back it up and make sure that you understand how to restore the registry if a problem occurs. For information about how to back up, restore, and edit the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

When you start Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 for the first time, you do not receive the "Welcome to Microsoft Office Outlook 2003" e-mail message in your Inbox folder.

This issue occurs if you installed Microsoft Office 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1) on your computer before you started Outlook 2003 for the first time.

NoteIf you start Outlook 2003 before you install Office 2003 SP1, you do receive the “Welcome to Microsoft Office Outlook 2003” e-mail message in your Inbox folder.

Warning If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

If you want to receive the “Welcome to Microsoft Office Outlook 2003” e-mail message in your Inbox folder, you must configure a registry value on the workstation before you start Outlook 2003. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, point to Run, and then type regedit in the Open box.
2. Locate the following key in the registry:
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Setup
3. Right-click Setup, click New, and then click DWORD Value.
   
   The New Value #1 will appear.
4. Type CreateWelcome, and then press ENTER.
5. Right-click CreateWelcome, and then click Modify.
6. In the Value data box, type 1, and then click OK.
7. If the DWORD value First-Run exists under the Setup key that is mentioned in step 3, delete the First-Run value.
   
   Note There may be a DWORD value that is named FirstRun (without a dash). Do not delete this DWORD value. Only delete the DWORD value that is named First-Run.
8. On the Registry menu, click Exit.
9. Start Outlook 2003.

When you start Outlook 2003, the "Welcome to Microsoft Office Outlook 2003" e-mail message appears in your Inbox folder.

Note If you start Outlook 2003 with Office 2003 SP1 installed before you make the previously mentioned registry modifications, quit Outlook 2003 and then follow the steps to generate the "Welcome to Microsoft Office Outlook 2003" e-mail message.

There is not an option in the Custom Installation Wizard or in the Group Policy templates to deploy the registry value that is discussed in the "Workaround" section. However, you can use the Custom Installation Wizard to deploy the registry value.

For additional information about the Custom Installation Wizard, visit the following Microsoft Web site:Additionally, if want to receive the “Welcome to Microsoft Office Outlook 2003” e-mail message to obtain information about the new features that are available in Microsoft Outlook, visit the following Microsoft Web site for more information about the latest features that are available in Outlook:This Web site provides all the information that is listed in the “Welcome to Microsoft Office Outlook 2003” e-mail message. Additionally, this Web site provides information about the new features and capabilities that are available in Outlook 2003.