It sounds to me that you have a virus or malware that is...

It sounds to me that you have a virus or malware that is actually using a lot of your memory while you want it. HC will not slow a computer down under normal circumstances. The fact that you are "only" trying to open Outlook and that part is slow means computer problems....ie virus etc. Run a good spyware program (SpyBot Search and Destroy is good and free) and see what it brings up. The other thing is do you already have any antivirus already installed? If you have Norton or Symantec already installed then that will most probably be your problem....both are memory eating programs that effectively slow your computer down.