If you’re running the Shoretel Communicator and Outlook 2010/2013, you may have seen a situation where Outlook doesn’t launch and hangs at the splash screen stating “loading profile…”. This is actually caused by a small program named agent.exe that is part of Shoretel Communicator. This agent.exe program is designed to download contacts from your email MAPI profile but can trip up Outlook if more than one instance of agent.exe are running. Here’s how to resolve the issue:
[the problem] When Shoretel Communicator is installed on a Windows 7 PC, Outlook 2010/2013 can get stuck at launch showing only the splash screen and stating ‘loading profile’.
The culprit is more than one instance of agent.exe (check the task manager->processes) and you’ll see it. Agent.exe is part of the Shoretel Communicator v11.1.
[the solution]
The quick fix: Kill all instances of agent.exe, then relaunch Outlook.
The long term fix:
[step 1] Close outlook by clicking the cancel link on the splash screen. Then open the task manager and click the Processes tab. Sort by Image name and find the processes named agent.exe. End all processes named agent.exe.
[step 2] Right click the Shortel Communicator shortcut and select properties. Then click Find Target to open the folder on your system where all the Shortel Communicator program files are located. Alternatively navigate to C:Program Files (x86)Shoreline CommunicationsShoreWare Client.
[step 3] Find the file named agent.exe, right-click it and select properties. Then click the Compatibility tab and check the box stating Run this program in compatibility mode for and select Windows Vista (Service Pack 2). Be sure to change this setting for all users. Then click OK.
[step 4] Restart the computer, then restart Outlook.
That’s it.