Outlook 2003 Does Not Perform Send Receive On Windows Vista

Outlook 2003 on Windows Vista will not perform a send and receive if Outlook was previously closed.

Published Jan 25, 2008 by mjkunz
Last updated on Jan 25, 2008

I recently purchased a new Dell Inspiron laptop for my Wife. Since I was not going to be the user on the PC I decided to go with Windows Vista and let my wife try it out. I performed the initial setup and configured all of the software applications that my wife would need. I had Office 2003 so I decided to install it on Vista. For the most part there were no problems. Once Outlook was being used we started to notice problems with it. The problem was that Outlook does not perform a send and receive. Here is detailed description of the problem and how I solved it.

Problem

After Installing Office 2003 on Windows Vista Outlook would no longer perform a send and receive. On a clean reboot Outlook can be opened and perform send and receive actions and email would be received and sent. The problem happens when you close Outlook and then re-open it later to check your email. If you happened to not reboot since the last time you opened Outlook it will not perform a send and receive.

Solution

I just happened to look at the task manager and noticed multiple Outlook.exe processes running. This seemed odd so I ended those processes and then tried to open Outlook. To my surprise I was able to perform a send and receive without rebooting. Something was keeping the Outlook process running. Here is the real solution. Check the COM add-ons in Outlook and see if there are any setup. You will be surprised to find that there most likely are. In my case the offender was iTunes. Yes, iTunes! To get to the COM add-ons section of Outlook go to: Tools - Options, Other Tab. Click on "Advanced Options" then the "COM Add-Ins" button. You could find multiple Add-Ins there (see screenshot below). Un-check the Add-Ins one at a time and test Outlook to see if this fixes the problem. Un-check them but don't remove them. When I tried to remove the iTunes Add-In it just put itself back the next time iTunes was opened. If you find the Add-In for iTunes I would try that one first. It's the one that was causing me grief.

Add-Ins Screenshot

If Outlook does not perform a send and receive on Vista for you then I hope this will help solve your problem!

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