Outlook loses focus, programs momentarily 'not responding'

I am on Win 7 64 bit, currently running Avast 6.0.1367, and I have a problem that is partly solved. Just before Christmas, I started to lose focus when writing a new email in Outlook 2010 - the new window would cycle to the back, leaving me at the inbox or wherever I opened the new message from. This would happen every 15-30 seconds.

I saw a thread on Windows 7 forum that it might be associated with anti-virus behaviour, so I checked it out. I turned off Avast and typed a 100 word message with no interruption. So I re-started Avast, and the problem returned. Then I turned off outgoing mail scans, and the problem almost stopped completely, but every once in a while, I still get a “program not responding” note on the top bar of the executing window.

I love Avast - I have replaced everything else with it on about 100 computers I look after, and everyones virus and trojan problems have gone away. Its a great program, but I do get this bizarre behaviour on the odd 64 bit Win 7 machine. Anything you can suggest as a work–around would be great. Thanks,

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Well, as you ask for a workaround…
Use Thunderbird. This will solve all your problems with Outlook…!! ;D

Absoluty no problem using Windows Live Mail on Windows 7 but then I do not use Outlook.

http://www.filehippo.com/download_windows_live_mail