I'm using Office 2010 & Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. My problem starts when I attempt to save e-mail messages to my PC that I have received via Outlook (my ISP is Comcast). I'm using the default .msg file extension option when I attempt to save these e-mails. The resultant files are locked and do not show the normal "envelope" icon. Instead, it’s a “blank page” icon with the right upper corner folded in. These files refuse to open either by double clicking on them or right clicking and trying to open them with Outlook. And when I return to Outlook, I discover that Outlook is now hung up and I have to close it via the Task Manager. To make matters worse, I’ve also discovered that every e-mail message that I've saved on my PC over the years has also somehow become locked and their original "envelope" icon has been replaced with the "blank page" icon.

I found and installed an application called LockHunter. As a result, when I right click on a saved and locked e-mail message, I’ve given an option to find out what's locking it. Each time I'm told that the culprit is Windows explorer.exe. When I unlock the file the normal envelope icon is sometimes displayed (but not always) but at least the file can then be opened. But the file is still “squirrely” as it can’t be moved or saved to a folder until it’s unlocked again. On this second attempt, LockHunter says it’s now locked by Outlook.exe. By the way, I don't have this issue when I save Word, Excel & PowerPoint files; only with Outlook.

I've exhausted every remedy that I can think of including: making sure that the file and folder options are checked to always show icons and not thumbnails; running the Windows 7 & Office 2010 repair options which find nothing amiss; running a complete system scan with Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool with negative results; verifying that Outlook is the default for opening e-mails; updating all of my applications via Secunia Personal Software Inspector; uninstalling every application that I felt was unnecessary; doing a registry cleanup via CC Cleaner; having Windows Security Essentials always on (it did find one Java Trojan recently which was quarantined and then deleted); uninstalling a bunch of non-Microsoft shell extensions; and deactivating all of the Outlook Add-ins and then re-activating each one. None of this solves the problem. I’d welcome any advice on how to resolve this.