Solve Mysterious Outlook Connection Problems

I have something of a love/hate relationship with daily exercise, snow storms, and Outlook. My entire life revolves around that program, but it can be sluggish and bloated (just like me when I don't exercise). It also occasionally suffers unexplained connectivity problems.

The usual way to deal with Outlook's sporadic, weird glitches is to shake your fist towards the heavens, close the Outlook process in Task Manager, restart Outlook, or perhaps reboot your PC. But according to Eugene Sui, you can reset Outlook connections without a restart.

His tip: Press Ctrl while you right-click on the Outlook icon in your System Tray. You'll see some new menu items, including Connection Status. Choose that. In the Connection Status dialog, click Reconnect, which should resolve some issues. It can't solve all your problems, but it's one more way to deal with Outlook's eccentricities.

By the way, did you notice that we have something of a run on Outlook tips at the moment? Be sure to check out my look at using Outlook Connector to sync with Windows Live, and Rick's cool tip for using Outlook flags to track conversations. It's Unintentional Outlook Tip Week here at Business Hacks!