Forum Discussion
Outlook icon in taskbar can start two outlook.exe processes
When the startup icon for Outlook Classic is pinned to the taskbar (laptop, Windows 11), a double-click can start two Outlook processes. I have been unable to convince my lovely wife that a taskbar icon should be clicked only once, but her trigger finger is too itchy. So we unpinned the icon from her taskbar and now she starts Outlook from a desktop shortcut (which is double-clicked).
The problem:
When Outlook is not running and the taskbar icon is clicked, it begins to start Outlook. But if the user double-clicks very quickly, the first process is not yet exposed and a second process starts. The window opens for the first process, and no window opens for the second process. Then, when the Outlook window is closed, it only exits the first process, and the second process is still active with no window. Later, the user clicks the taskbar icon to start Outlook again (because no window is visible), but no window will open (because a process is already active). The workaround is to open task manager and kill the bogus process (or logout or reboot), but my lovely wife doesn't know what the task manager is, so she asks me. Which is fine, I am happy to be my wife's workaround, but the real problem is that Windows is starting two Outlook processes.
In some cases this causes problems with IMAP synchronization, and then my wife doesn't realize that a sent email is stuck in the outbox forever, waiting for a sync that never happens. In fact, my wife is a pretty capable Outlook user, but not when Windows can't manage M365 applications that should not be running twice.
4 Replies
It's indeed a timing issue where specific COM Add-ins could also cause additional outlook.exe processes from being started if the first process hasn't properly registered yet.
A quick fix which works in many cases is by modifying your Outlook shortcut and adding the /recycle command line switch to it.
The target would then become;
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\OUTLOOK.EXE" /recycle
For additional info see; Command line switches for Outlook 365, 2024, 2021, 2019, 2016, and previous - Robert 365
If the issue is caused by an add-in, you could verify which ones you have installed by going to;
File-> Options-> Add-InsSee if the issue still persists when they are all disabled. If so, you can enable them one-by-one to find the culprit.
I believe you are correct. I just closed my Outlook Classic and double clicked it in the task bar and 2 sessions are now open. If she called me to look at this, I would tell her to click on task bar icons just once. I don't know if this is a bug, no one has asked me before about this.
This sounds like Outlook is launching a second background process before the first one actually finishes opening. You could try clicking the icon in the taskbar once or launch Outlook from the desktop icon. I would also check is a new patch available from Office as this sounds like a bug.
Your suggestions are exactly what I wrote in my post. Did my post really seem like something from a user who hasn't checked for updates? I view this as a bug, but it has probably been occurring for a long long time. I just figured I would post it and maybe someone will care, eventually. Of course, recent patches are all major security flaws being found by AI, so it will be a while before any user complaints will be addressed.
