Sara said:
The Outlook program is open and running. I click on the taskbar to
restore it and it closes the program completely.
If it's open and running, slicking the handle on the task bar will minimize
it. If you're using Outlook 2003 or 2007, there is an option to minimize
Outlook to the System Traym which is my guess for what is happening.
However, since you thought that mentioning the Outlook version was
unimportant, it's only a guess.