Outlook 2010: Clean Up Using Command-line Switches

Contributed by Rob Rogers  
Tagged: Microsoft Outlook  

There are times when maintaining Outlook can be an overwhelming experience. Not only do you have to manage the massive amounts of email that can accumulate in your inbox, you also have to manage Search Folders, reminders, subscriptions, outdated rules etc. You can utilize Outlook’s command-line switches to help clean things up and get things running the way you want them to.

1. Close Outlook.

2. Press WinKey+R to bring up the Run dialog box.

3. Input “C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\OUTLOOK.EXE” followed by a space and then the switch that you wish to run. If your path is other than the default, input it instead (remember to use the quotes).
Switches you can use to clean up your Outlook are:

/cleanfinders – to remove Search Folders from the Microsoft Exchange mailbox.

/cleanfreebusy – to clear and recreate free/busy information. (Note: To use this switch, you must be able to connect to the Exchange server)


/cleanprofile – to remove invalid profile keys and regenerate default registry keys.


/cleanreminders – to clear and recreate reminders.
/cleanrules – to delete rules on the client and server.


/cleanserverrules – to delete rules on the server only.


/cleansharing – to remove all subscriptions from Account Settings. (This will not remove any downloaded content)


/cleanviews – to restore default views, custom views are removed.