Symptom:

When going to Control Panel --> Mail --> Data Files --> Add --> and add any PST file found on shared network folder, I get the following error message: "Windows Shell Common DLL has stopped working. - A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available."

The only option I get is Close program.

Going into Event Viewer --> Windows Logs --> Application, I see the following error logged in (pulled from Details - Friendly View):

Source: Application - Event ID: 1000 - Task Category (100)

System

- Provider [ Name] Application Error

- EventID 1000 [ Qualifiers] 0

Level 2

Task 100

Keywords 0x80000000000000

- TimeCreated [ SystemTime] 2015-03-18T23:10:58.000000000Z

EventRecordID 21829

Channel Application

Computer CSWIN81-YoshiSP.calsoft.com

Security

-

EventData

rundll32.exe_shell32.dll

6.3.9600.17415

54504eb8

KERNELBASE.dll

6.3.9600.17415

54505737

80000003

00000000000de002

1208

01d061d0a31406d8

C:\WINDOWS\system32\rundll32.exe

C:\WINDOWS\system32\KERNELBASE.dll

08e19114-cdc4-11e4-8281-281878badb6d

Unfortunately, my IT skills are not good enough to troubleshoot this error message.

Troubleshoot Techniques Taken So Far:

I tried to Google similar issues, and couldn't find any resolutions online.  

I've ran Command Prompt as Administrator and ran the sfc /scannow command. The results: Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violation.

I've also edited my registry by going to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software|Microsoft\Office\15.0\Outlook\Profiles\ and deleting all profiles.

I've also ran Windows Updates via Control Panel and downloaded and installed all (including optional) updates.

My Computer:

Surface Pro 3

Operating System: Windows 8.1 Enterprise

Attach to Domain: Yes

Running Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2013 64-bit

Side notes:

The user who owns this device is currently using their older laptop that they were previously using before getting this Surface Pro 3 as a replacement. The laptop has no issues connecting to the pst data files stored on a shared network drive. It appears that this issue is specific to this device possibly.

Can someone out there please help me out?

Hi,

Basically Network Stored PST files are not recommended by Microsoft.

.pst files are not intended as an enterprise network solution. Although it is possible to specify a network directory or a Universal Naming Convention (UNC) path as a storage location for a .pst file, network usage is not meant to be a long-term, continuous-use method of storing messages in an enterprise environment.

We can learn more from these articles:

Network Stored PST files ... don't do it!

Limits to using personal folders (.pst) files over LAN and WAN links

Regards,

Melon Chen
TechNet Community Su

Hi Melon,

Thank you for your response. I've copied over the PST files onto the local computer (Surface Pro 3), and the "Windows Shell Common DLL has stopped working. - A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available." 

Even though best practice is not to store the PST file on a shared network folder, I suspect the error message is not caused by this. 

I'm having pretty much the same issue- new surface pro, installed outlook 2013 (from VL), then installed Office H&B 2013 (not cloud version).  Outlook ran before office install, but will not run after.  I ran repair, no luck.  When it loads, it prompts for a profile (original set up profile vanished), so when I try to set up a new profile, I get the same error as the OP.  When I try to just run outlook and say ok to the default profile, it generates error that outlook can only open in safe mode, but still crashes anyways whether I try safe mode or not - error immediately upon launch "Micorsoft Outlook has stopped working", close program.

Trying full outlook uninstall and reinstall now..

(The rest of office (H&B) still runs properly before and after uninstall)

It's the same after reinstall.

I think the problem is caused by the fact that after I installed both outlook and office H&B, I used windows easy transfer to xfer the user's profile from a former win7 machine to win8 on the surface pro 3.  So much for "easy".