I've had this problem for a couple of upgrades now. I was running Windows 7 and Outlook 2010. I've since upgraded to Windows 8 and Outlook 2013.

I noticed that my rules had stopped working and when I created a new rule it showed as rulename(3). So I wanted to access the created rules to tidy them up, delete and start again - anything to make it all work.

However, when I click Rules from the Home tab, I can see the window flash as if trying to open, but it doesn't stay. I get the same results if I Right Click on an email and use Rules / Manage Rules and from the File menu Manage Rules & Alerts button.

As the problem has migrated through software upgrades I'm assuming that it's in the .pst files somewhere, but I can't work out where.

I'm sorry if this has been discussed elsewhere, but I've done a few searches and haven't found anything that has helped yet.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.