Outlook opens multiple processes/instances repeatedly

Question

The issue seems to be platform agnostic but here is that info anyways:

• Windows 7 Pro x64
• Outlook 2010 32bit
• Exchange 2010 running on Server 08 R2

I've also seen this in Outlook 2007(3?) on XP with Exchange 2003.

What it does is it launches over and over again, multiple instances/processes. It will keep doing this until you kill the processes (using taskkill) which it will continue launching after, or until you let the machine crash.

Process Explorer will show you that Outlook's parent process is explorer.exe so somehow Explorer might be the issue?

Another note is that Outlook is never actually launched by hand, meaning that it just starts automatically a minute or two after Windows loads.

Ive tried uninstalling and reinstalling and repair installations to no avail. I've also tried disabling add-ons (which fixed the XP machine but nothing here)

This is an irritating issue that I'm yet to find a real solution to.

Answer 1

Is there a scheduled task? Like a batch file? Or maybe start up? Or maybe triggered by registry.

Answer 2

Turns out that at some point they connected a wireless keyboard. It didn't work. They left the receiver connected and stored the keyboard away. The "Mail" key on that keyboard is stuck.

Oddly, I submitted the above as the answer yesterday. I either forgot to hit Post or there was a technical issue. Either way, sorry for the delay. Chris