Outook 2003 Hangs During Shutdown

I had several users, including me, having problems with Outlook not shutting down. Many copies would be left running. This used up a lot of memory and would result in messages not being delivered as Outlook fought with itself and wouldn't get or send messages, until all but one copy was running.

Most of the time, when I restarted Outlook, it would force a repair of the Outlook PST.

The reason for the hang was pretty simple, but it took several days of debugging to find it...

The problem was that a recent update of iTunes installed an unused (for me) add-in. Thinking I would be syncing my calendar with an iPod, iTunes installed an add-in and activated it (apparently without asking?).

It looks like because I don't sync with an iPod, or because of some a problem with an open or problematic thread in the add-in, the add-in causes Outlook to be unable to close.

To disable to add-in:

• Open Outlook
• Click the [Other] tab
• Click the [Advanced Options] button
• Click the [COMM Add-Ins...] button
• Uncheck the "iTunes Outlook Addin" option
• Click [OK], [OK], [OK]

You might want to re-start Outlook, or even reboot, to make sure everything has been reset.

That's it!