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Outlook 2013 Absolute Beginner's Guide Diane Poremsky [Outlook MVP]

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Do You Accidentally Close Outlook?

Today's tip is from my son and it works in all versions of Outlook except 2000. (See Tip 184 below for Outlook 2000's method.) Outlook 2010 RTM has a bug that prevents this dialog from coming up. It also requires a slightly different method to trigger this warning.

Tip 180: Do You Accidentally Close Outlook?

Do you accidentally close Outlook when you mean to minimize it and wish it had a "Are you sure you want to close Outlook?" dialog?

Try this:

  1. Open a new message – enter "Keep Outlook Open" as the subject. Don't enter an address in the To field!
  2. Save the message to Drafts.
  3. Drag it from Drafts to the Outbox.
  4. When you exit Outlook, you'll have the chance to cancel closing Outlook.

Tip 184: Prevent Outlook 2000 from Closing

Thanks to Mike Gibson for helping me find a solution for my son, who has a habit of accidentally closing Outlook.

Recap from September 7: My son uses Exchange server and recently upgraded to Outlook 2000. In Outlook 98, he kept an address-less message in the Outbox so that when he accidentally clicked on the X in the upper right, he would get a dialog that allowed him to cancel the close. Unfortunately, Outlook 2000- Corp mode didn’t give him the warning.

Mike discovered the warning was present when other account types were in the profile, so my son added an Internet mail account, using made up mail server names. He removed the check from the account in Tools, Options, Mail Services tab to prevent Outlook from complaining when it can’t find the mail server. Now when he clicks the X, Outlook asks if he wants to exit.

Note: this tip works with all versions of Outlook *except* Outlook 2010. We’re still looking for a method to use with Outlook 2010.

Published September 7, 2004. Last updated on April 22, 2016.

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Anoop

Hi. you can do it easily in Outook 2007 by selecting the "Hide when minimised" option in the system tray Outlook icon

Vote Up0Vote Down  Reply
September 29, 2012 9:52 pm
Lance D

Didnt work in office outlook 2003

Vote Up0Vote Down  Reply
May 9, 2012 12:41 pm
Ron Graham

This tip may work for some folks, but I can tell you that it doesn't do a thing to stop my Outlook 2007 from closing...

Vote Up0Vote Down  Reply
July 10, 2011 8:14 am
Diane

Do you get the 'there are messages in your outbox" warning? If not, what build # (see help, about) and what type of email account do you have configured? It's possible an update broke this method as it doesn't work as expected in Outlook 2010. In 2010 you need to send a real message and delay delivery on it.

See Don't accidentally close Outlook 2010for the outlook 2010 method.

Vote Up0Vote Down  Reply
July 10, 2011 10:40 am

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