Outlook 2003 Disappears

[Bill]

I'm using Outlook 2003 with a hosted exchange account with 1and1.com.
Yesterday when I tried to open Outlook, the program opens, asked me to
choose my profile, loaded my Avast anti-virus plug-in and I saw the
standard screen for about two seconds. Then it disappeared.

I see the Outlook icon in the system tray but it's faded and has a
small red circle with an x through it. If I hover my cursor over the
icon, it disappears.

I've tried disabling the Avast plug-in, doing a repair via the Office
CD and uninstalling and reinstalling MS Office. Nothing helped. I have
the latest Office updates installed as well.

Also, I have the same setup on my laptop and am still able to access my
exchange account so the problem is definitely local.

I've also done a deep av scan with Avast and spybot scan with MS's
Anti-Spyware. My computer is protected by a Sygate firewall.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Bill