How can I get Outlook to restore previously-open message windows when restarting?

1) make a shortcut to the Outlook application on your desktop (you may already have one there)

2) right-click the shortcut and choose the last menu item "Properties"

3) in the field labeled "Target" you should see a file path to where Outlook is installed on your PC. Click to the end of that path and add /restore

It should look something like this:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14\OUTLOOK.EXE" /restore

Now when you launch Outlook via that shortcut it will restore all open items. Really useful if your machine crashes or Windows force restarts based on a critical update.

Perhaps use the /restore switch on the command line:

http://www.quora.com/Is-there-a-way-to-restore-open-email-windows-in-Outlook-after-a-crash-like-Firefox-restores-tabs-and-windows

There is a new Outlook setting that does this, under General->Start up options: "When Outlook opens" - available options are:

• Ask me if I want to restore previous items (default)
• Never restore previous items (old behavior)
• Always restore previous items (what you want)

I was looking for it and stumbled across this post. The link is here: https://office-watch.com/2020/outlook-gets-better-restart-and-reopen-options/