Knockout is one of my favorite utilities. Authored by a former Outlook Program Manager, the tray icon shows you if Outlook (and Word) is running in the background and one click on the icon let's you close them if they shouldn't be running, eliminating the need to use Ctrl+Alt+Del to find Outlook.exe.

It also has shortcuts you can use to create new Outlook items.

The best part? It's free and works with all versions of Outlook.