I bought a new laptop in Nov., a Dell Inspiron 640m with all the bells and whistles, running Windows XP (Home). I installed MS Office XP Pro (2002). Outlook worked fine at first but I initially had problems setting up my email account. While resolving that I checked a box on an option somewhere that has created a huge problem with Outlook. (I violated the cardinal rule of only making one change at a time!!)

Outlook constantly pops up a box tellling me that a program is trying to access my contact list and asking for permission (I would normally see this message if I were sync'ing my PDA with Outlook). This is an incessant request and the only way to stop it is to say "yes" and give it a timeframe (or exit Outlook). If I don't get to the warning quickly enough, numerous instances of the warning box appears. I have thoroughly scanned my computer for viruses numerous times, so this is not a virus. I do recall making changes to the options but I can't remember what box I checked that has caused this - but the problem started right then. I've uninstalled Office then reinstalled it thinking that would restore the defaults but this did not resolve the problem. I've been using Outlook Express which does not have the problem but I want to ultimately be able to sync my Palm with Outlook so I need to repair this. (I just closed 8 instances of the warning and it had only been waiting for a few seconds!!!)

Thank you!

Hi RRider, welcome to BC.
Only two things come to mind that normally would set off that security warning.
In Outlook, go to Tools>Options>Mail Format Tab.
Under the message format options, deselect the two "Use Microsoft Word" options.
If it still doesn't help, go to Tools>Options>Other Tab. Click the Advanced Options button, then the COM Add-ins button. An application in there may set it off as well. Remove one at a time. If you see Adobe's Acrobat listed, leave that one there. There is a reg fix that works better then just removing it.