Outlook starts then shuts down

[Ron Goodwyne]

I am running Outlook 2003 with all service packs on a WinXP SP2 laptop. Last
night Outlook worked fine. When I got up this morning it is acting
strangely. I open Outlook and it stays up for about 2-3 seconds, then just
closes. No error messages or anything, it just closes. I tries starting it
in safe made by holding down the left control key and I get the exact same
result. The only thing that happened in between was downloading the Windows
Vista ISO from eOpen before going to bed and installing Windows Defender
updates this morning.

I'm stuck and I really need Outlook!

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

In

I am running Outlook 2003 with all service packs on a WinXP SP2
laptop. Last night Outlook worked fine. When I got up this morning
it is acting strangely. I open Outlook and it stays up for about 2-3
seconds, then just closes. No error messages or anything, it just
closes. I tries starting it in safe made by holding down the left
control key and I get the exact same result. The only thing that
happened in between was downloading the Windows Vista ISO from eOpen
before going to bed and installing Windows Defender updates this
morning.

I'm stuck and I really need Outlook!

Go to Start | Run
Browse to the full path of outlook.exe & press Enter
After the last double quote, append a space, and /safe
Hit Enter/Open

If Outlook opens fine in safe mode, then you can try troubleshooting any
add-ins you may have installed & which may not be working right. If it won't
open up properly even in safe mode, post back....

 

[Ron Goodwyne]

Okay, I found the problem. I missed it because I had not rebooted in 3 days.
On Friday I installed Mobile Phone Tools which adds stuff to Outlook. When
I uninstalled it, the problem went away. It was non-obvious because the
problem didn't occur until after I rebooted a couple of days later.