Outlook unreponsive

[peter43pan]

For no apparent reason Microsoft outlook 2007 suddenly stopped functioning. I am running Winows 8.1.

It opens, loads previous emails, but then becomes totally unresponsive with no commands available, send and receive not working, no ability to resize or close (other than through task manager). This problem only applies to my user account, and other users are still able to use Outlook as normal.
By entering safe mode I disabled all add-ins but this made no difference. In safe mode all commands and operations are available and work normally. However, when I entered safe mode with networking enabled Outlook is totally unresponsive, as it is in the full windows enviroment.
I have tried various things including running scanpst, replacing the PST file with one from File History, all to no avail.
The problem would seem to be related to user Account / Profiles / COM issues.
There are multiple error messages in event viewer which seem to point towards a Search index problem. I entered Search index Options. It appaers to not be running and I was unable to get it do so. This may or may not be related to the Outlook problem, which is my main concern.
I am loathe to uninstall / reinstall Microsoft Office at this point, much less restore Windows to its original state.
Any help or suggestions would be most appreciated.

Below are extracts from Event log:


Event ID: 36
Description:
Outlook Search has encountered an error and is temporarily disabling indexing for store D:\Peter\Outlook backup.pst (error=0x80004005).
Outlook Search has encountered an error and is temporarily disabling indexing for store C:\Users\Peter\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\*** **_hotmaill.ost (error=0x8007043c).
Outlook Search has encountered an error and is temporarily disabling indexing for store C:\Users\Peter\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\Out l****@icloud.com-00000012.pst (error=0x80042103).

Source: Microsoft-Windows-Search
Event ID: 1008
Description:
The Windows Search Service is starting up and attempting to remove the old search index {Reason: Full Index Reset}.
Log Name: Application
Source: Microsoft-Windows-Search
Date: 31/12/2013 07:46:19


Event ID: 1006
Task Category: Search service
Level: Error
Description:
The Windows Search Service has failed to create the new search index. Internal error <4, 0x80070002, Failed to add project: C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Search\Data\Applications\ Windows\Projects>.
Log Name: System
Source: Service Control Manager


Date: 02/01/2014 12:18:05

Event ID: 7023
Task Category: None
Log Name: System
Source: Service Control Manager
Date: 02/01/2014 12:18:05
Event ID: 7034
Description:
The Windows Search service terminated unexpectedly. It has done this 43 time(s).

Log Name: Application
Source: Microsoft-Windows-Search
Date: 02/01/2014 12:18:04
Event ID: 1006
Task Category: Search service
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Description:
The Windows Search Service has failed to create the new search index. Internal error <4, 0x80070002, Failed to add project: C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Search\Data\Applications\ Windows\Projects>.