Would a reinstall of Outlook Express (and possibly IE7) help my problems? I
see you can uninstall from the control panel. Where would a fresh copy of
OE6 reside?

for other suffering souls-
1. running with email virus scanning turned off did not help
2. replacing my computer RAM did not help
3. OE6 hung when I clicked on a http link last weekend. It took down IE7
with it.
4. Norton directed me to upgrade to Norton Internet Security 2007.2.
However, after an identity switch this morning, I had blank emails. Yes, I
turned off email scanning after I installed 2007.2 Yes, it doesn't make a
difference which identity I am switching too. Looks like back to square one
to me.