1. Add-ons. The 'check Outlook mail' option of your antivirus is one of them. Try the safe mode option shown in http://smallvoid.com/article/outlook-safemode.html for diagnostics.
2. Corrupted .pst file. Try it in a new Windows account (just for experiment).
Hope this helps,
Kees
Recently my Outlook, which is working fine, has been refusing to close. No matter what, the only way I can close it, once it is opened, is to close the process (outlook.exe).
I can find no tool or option which would cause this to happen and none which will shut it down. I prefer to not leave Outlook open, so I can control whether spam actually reaches my hard drive or not, through MailWasher. When it is open ALL the time, it defeats my attempts to keep things like Trojans and whatnot off the HD.
I have XP, SP 3, Outlook 2003, Office 2003 and no idea why this is happening or how to stop it. Any help would be appreciated.

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