Korean Job Discussion Forums

PaperTiger · Joined: 31 May 2005 Location: Ulaanbataar

When I use my PC lately, I've been having a problem with Outlook popping up spontaneously when I hit some keys or just random keys. If I hit apostrophe, hyphen, right shift, return, and some random alphabet keys Outlook pops up. I just can't seem to shut it down, delete, or disable it. It will cause my games to crash and it's really hard to compose any kind of e-mail, post on forums, or surf the internet without this darn Outlook window popping up each time I type something.

I think it might be a virus that accessed my PC through an Outlook mass mailing, but since it appeared to be from Microsoft I thought it was safe. Someone suggested it could be a problem with hotkeys or a new feature in Outlook that automatically assigns hotkeys. The other answer that occurred to me is that someone has my IP address and is just having some fun with me. In any case, I want fix this problem and return to some semblance of normalcy.

I've heard of monkeying with the registry to disable Outlook could be an answer, but it's risky and I doubt I could do it right. The nerd herd is just bigger at Dave's so I know this is the right place to ask. Need some answers, PLEASE.

bassexpander · Joined: 13 Sep 2007 Location: Someplace you'd rather be.

Sounds weird!

Do you have an anti-virus program? Try avast.

If it's not a virus, it could be a "browser hook" of some kind.

Try running this program. Ignore the few bad reviews. Actually, it's worked very well for me. They're just mad they want you to pay for it after a 15 day trial:

http://www.download.com/Browser-Hijack-Recover-BHR-/3640-8022_4-10316141.html?v=1&sb=1

PaperTiger · Joined: 31 May 2005 Location: Ulaanbataar

AVAST seems to detect problems without really fixing them, I had three or four different kinds of adware and viruses on my PC and it didn't delete ANY of them. I downloaded AVG and that was the first thing it took care of. AVAST seems like a big, bulky program with no real real significant results...just runs all the time and doesn't do a darn thing. AVG really seems to work...which is a bit of a rarity in IMHO. This Outlook virus is really irritating.

I'm thinkin' I'll just delete all of Microsoft Office and see how that pans out. I'll be wiping the whole thing next month and starting over anyways so it doesn't seem like a big loss.

eamo · Joined: 08 Mar 2003 Location: Shepherd's Bush, 1964.

I forget how it's done in XP, but if you find the Default Programs function, in Control Panel probably, you can mess around there and take Outlook out of the equation. Maybe.

bassexpander · Joined: 13 Sep 2007 Location: Someplace you'd rather be.

piratebryan · Joined: 21 Feb 2008 Location: Nonyeon

i had a very similar problem on a gateway laptop. it started just opening up outlook and the windows help menus and continued until all my homerow keys would type other keystrokes. if its the same thing, its a hardware issue. i plugged in an external keyboard and it worked fine. never tried straight out replacing the keyboard as i was a broke college student and could never scrounge up the $100 or so to replace the keyboard. occasionally i would take the laptop apart and unplug the keyboard, blow it out etc and it would fix it for a few weeks, but it was a temporary solution.

not a huge computer nut, but was told that if an external keyboard works (like it did with mine) its not a software or driver issue, its hardware.

hope this helps.