How to Change Default Appointment Start Time in Outlook 2007

Microsoft Outlook 2007 offers dozens of features for managing your emails, contacts, appointments, tasks and notes; with all of these options comes a variety of settings. Each time you change one, it makes it harder to track all of the changes made to your Outlook Calendar. While rarely is this a problem, on occasion you may run into what can only be described as a glitch, when no matter how many adjustments you make to return your calendar back to its original state, you still cannot identify the source of the problem. Fortunately, if your particular glitch includes a default start time, you're in luck.

How to Change Default Appointment Start Time in Outlook 2007 by Resetting the Default View

Under normal Outlook circumstances, when you open a new appointment, the start time defaults to the day of the appointment. You can then modify the start and end time as needed to reflect an accurate appointment time. If, however, when you open a new appointment, the default start time reverts to the current day, instead of the date of the appointment, no amount of modifying the start and end times will resolve your problem. In fact, you may find that each time you adjust the start time, the end time also adjust to a random date. With no rhyme or reason to these automatic calendar modifications, narrowing down the cause of the problem is almost impossible. A wonky start time may affect your entire calendar, displaying the future appointment as a banner in today's calendar view. Even if you elect a start date in the future, when you save the appointment, it may still display the banner on today's page.

Resetting the "View" within Outlook Calendar may be all you need to restore the original settings and disable the default start time problem. Select "View," "Arrange By," then "Custom." Select "Reset Current View" in the window that pops up. If this doesn't' work, you'll need to reset the default view for the entire mailbox.

Close Outlook. Click "Start Menu," then "Run." Type "Outlook.exe /cleanviews" (take note of the space between the .exe and /) in the text box. This will clear out all custom views and return your Outlook to the factory default. You will now be able to create appointments which contain the correct start date.