Thank you very much indeed for the support guys; apparently, this must have been a malware of some sort, which I appear to have gotten rid of tangentially. As I also had this dosearches adware stuck in somehow, I followed the steps of the link http://malwaretips.com/blogs/do-searches-virus-removal/, which for some reason got rid of this Outlook problem too. Got a bit wiser through the process too; your insights were very useful.
