Corker said:
Every time I click on a short cut for Outlook, it starts twice. How do I
stop it?
Are you actually exiting Outlook or are you just minimizing it to a tray
icon so it is still running? Outlook will permit multiple instances of
itself to run concurrently. So it if is already running (check Task
Manager's Process tab to see if there is an outlook.exe already loaded)
then you will end up starting another instance.
In every shortcut that exists to start Outlook, like in your Start menu
and in the QuickLaunch toolbar, add the /recycle parameter to the
command line so the shortcut runs:
<path>\outlook.exe /recycle
This tells Outlook to reuse any existing instance of itself rather than
start a new instance. It recycles the current instance.
The Outlook icon that its install puts on your desktop is not a
shortcut. It is a namespace extension to the desktop (you'll notice
there isn't a small curved arrow in its lower left corner). It is a
registry item, not a shortcut, so you cannot easily redefine what
command it runs to start Outlook. Clicking on that namespace icon for
Outlook N times will load N instances of Outlook. So get rid of that
namespace icon and replace it is a shortcut to Outlook. Get the TweakUI
powertoy and use it to hide the Outlook namespace icon on the desktop
(go to the Desktop node in the tree and deselect the Outlook desktop
icon). Then create a shortcut for Outlook (or right-click drag a copy
from the QuickLaunch menu or from the Start menu folder) to deposit a
copy on the desktop. Then you can edit the command line to include the
/recycle parameter.
If there is an error in exiting Outlook, it may leave a stub of code
loaded in memory. Then when you load Outlook again, you get multiple
instances of outlook.exe that you see in Task Manager's Processes tab.
The remnant stub is not a working copy of Outlook and can cause not only
interference with the next instance of Outlook but also with
explorer.exe (which is used for the desktop GUI and Windows Explorer).
If you exit Outlook but outlook.exe remains loaded after a minute of
waiting then you'll have to kill it using Task Manager. The usual
excuse is that one of the add-ins installed to Outlook is causing an
error when exiting Outlook; however I've seen pristine installs of
Windows (with and without all Windows updates) along with pristine
installs of MS Office with Outlook included (without and without all
Office updates) where Outlook would hang on exit. No add-ons were
installed and no other software was installed in Windows, especially any
security software that interrogates e-mail traffic. When Outlook loads,
it has to also load all the enable add-ons. When Outlook exits, it has
to also unload all the add-ons that were loaded. If an add-on errors or
crashes on load or unload, it takes Outlook with it.
It can a minute for Outlook to unload. Some add-ons don't perform their
functions until Outlook exits but it takes time to commit their actions.
For example, if you install the Personal Folders Backup add-on, it
periodically saves a copy of your .pst to a backup copy elsewhere (you
can configure how often to backup and where to save the backup copy).
However, the larger the .pst file then the longer it takes to copy all
the while Outlook is pending waiting to exit. I usually wait a minute
or two to see if the outlook.exe process disappears from Task Manager's
Process list before deciding to kill it. If you configured Word to be
your e-mail editor (or are forced to use it in OL2007), also check if
the winword.exe is stuck loaded when you exit Outlook.
At
http://www.slipstick.com/problems/close.asp are some utilities to
helping to notify you when Outlook is running and/or to force it to
exit. The Outlook Shutdown Add-in started out free but became payware
($5 only). It will forcibly unload the outlook.exe process if it hangs
when you exit. The default wait is 30 seconds before it will kill the
Outlook process but I'd suggest setting that to 1 or 2 minutes to allow
add-ins to properly finish whatever tasks they may need to perform
during the exit event for Outlook.
