How to customize the "Preparing Outlook for first use" message after you install the Outlook 2007 hotfix package for February 2009 or 2007 Microsoft Office Suite Service Pack 2

This article describes how to customize the "Preparing Outlook for first use" message that appears after you install the Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 hotfix package for February 2009 or the 2007 Microsoft Office Suite Service Pack 2.

Important This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: On a client computer, you install Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 hotfix package for February 2009 (KB961752) or 2007 Microsoft Office Suite Service Pack 2 (SP2). When you restart Outlook 2007, you may see a message that resembles the following information:In this case, you may be confused because you have already used Outlook 2007 on the computer.

To avoid this confusion, apply the Outlook 2007 hotfix package that is dated April 30, 2009, and then set the StoreUpgradeProgressTitle registry entry to represent the text that you want to appear in the message, such as "Optimizing your mail storage." To do this, follow these steps.

Note The following steps will have no effect on Outlook if you have already started Outlook at least one time after you install either the February 2009 hotfix update (KB961752) or the 2007 Microsoft Office Suite SP2. If you want to customize the text in the message, you must iperform the following steps before you run Outlook for the first time after you install either the February 2009 hotfix update (KB961752) or 2007 Office SP2.

1. Apply the Outlook 2007 hotfix package that is dated April 30, 2009.
   
   For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
   968858  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/968858/ ) Description of the Outlook 2007 hotfix package (Outlook.msp): April 30, 2009
2. Set the StoreUpgradeProgressTitle registry entry to represent the text that you want to appear in the message. To do this, follow these steps:
   1. Start Registry Editor.
      • In Windows Vista, click Start
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        , type regedit in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.
        
        
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        If you are prompted for an administrator password or for confirmation, type the password, or provide confirmation.
      • In Windows XP, click Start, click Run, type regedit in the Open box, and then click OK.
   2. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
      HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\Preferences
   3. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click String Value.
   4. Type StoreUpgradeProgressTitle, and then press ENTER.
   5. Right-click StoreUpgradeProgressTitle, and then click Modify.
   6. In the Value data box, type the text you want to use, such as "Optimizing your mail storage," and then click OK.
   7. Exit Registry Editor.

Note You can specify an empty string value for the StoreUpgradeProgressTitle registry entry. If you do this, no message is displayed in the dialog box when you run Outlook for the first time.

For more information about the February 2009 hotfix update, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: For more information about first-run experience in detail, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: