Cannot open Outlook 2002 after installing Office: 'Activity.cfg could not be opened'

When you attempt to start Outlook 2002 for the first time after installing Microsoft Office XP to a path other than the default, Outlook may not start, and the following error message may appear: When you start other Office applications, such as Word or Excel, the applications start successfully. When you try again to start Outlook, the same error message appears, and then Outlook stops responding.

This behavior can occur if you perform a custom installation of Office XP to a custom path that is more than 95 characters long.

The Open File Application Programming Interface (API) in Outlook supports a maximum of 128 characters in the path name. However, Outlook must be installed in a folder whose path name contains no more than about 95 characters, because the path must also contain \Office10\forms\1033\Activity.cfg.

To resolve this behavior, remove Outlook, and then when you reinstall it, specify a shorter custom path name for the Outlook folder:

1. Remove Outlook. To do this, use one of the following sets of steps:
   
   Microsoft Windows XP:
   1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
   2. Double-click Add or Remove Programs.
   3. Click Change or Remove Programs, and then click the specific Microsoft Office product you are using.
   4. Click Remove.
   Microsoft Windows 2000:
   1. Click Start, click Settings, and then click Control Panel.
   2. Double-click Add/Remove Programs.
   3. Click Change or Remove Programs, and then click the specific Microsoft Office product you are using.
   4. Click Remove.
   Microsoft Windows 98:
   1. Click Start, click Settings, and then click Control Panel.
   2. Double-click Add/Remove Programs.
   3. Click theInstall/Uninstall tab, and then click the specific Microsoft Office product you are using.
   4. Click Add/Remove.
2. In Windows XP, click OK in the Add or remove programs dialog box.
   
   In Windows 2000, click OK in the Add/Remove Programs dialog box.
   
   In Windows 98, click Remove Office in Microsoft Office XP Maintenance Mode Options.
3. Run the Windows Installer again, click Custom Installation, and then change the default path C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office to a shorter path name.