Tip 1004: The Case of the Missing Reminder Window Solved

Over the last couple of weeks, I've had a lot of questions about Outlook reminder windows not opening or being "stuck" to the task bar. The common thread is that when the user clicks on the reminder window, it won't come up on screen.

Outlook developed a problem I can't seem to get to the bottom of. The reminders window stays attached to the task bar and will only appear as a thumbnail there. On mouseover (the thumbnail) shows the desktop, even if another program is on the desktop.

The desktop looks like the following screenshot. When you hover over the reminder window in Windows 7 (or 8), the full size reminder window should display on the screen, however, it doesn't because it's pushed off the screen.

Other symptoms include the reminder window quickly flashes across the screen as if it was opening, but the reminders window can't be seen.

One quick solution is to right click on the task bar and choose Cascade windows, Show Windows stacked, or Show Windows side by side. Any one of these commands should bring the window back onscreen, at the cost of resizing and moving all open windows. (I hate that!)

A better solution is deleting the Reminder window's WindowsPos key.

Close Outlook.
Open the registry editor. (Press Windows key + R to open the Run command, type regedit and press Enter.)
Locate HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\xx.0\Outlook\Options\Reminders (where xx = your version of Outlook).
Delete the WindowsPos name from the right side
Restart Outlook.

When the reminder window is off screen, this will bring it back to the screen when you restart Outlook.

Published July 5, 2012. Last updated on July 1, 2013.