Sending mail smtp vs exchange without outlook mailbox opened

Question

We have an application published via Citrix Xenapp 6.5 on win2k8r2 servers which uses server-side Outlook for composing/sending mail.  The user does a one time setup of the Outlook profile through a Citrix published Outlook.exe.  After the setup
their Outlook profile is then retained in their Citrix/roaming profile and Citrix published Outlook.exe is no longer opened directly.  When the user clicks an 'email' button in the application, an Outlook send/compose window from the server appears with
the contents attached and ready to be mailed.   Up until now employees were using Exchange mailboxes and this functioned perfectly.  Hit 'send' on that compose window and the message would get sent.  We are now migrating most mailboxes
to IMAP and have found that in order for the Citrix Outlook instance to be able to send its mail via SMTP, a server-side session of the Outlook.exe mailbox has to actually be opened and not just the compose window otherwise the messages appear to send but
are actually just sitting in the outbox.  No errors.  Once Outlook mailbox is opened, the messages get sent out.  We dont want users to have to open up a separate Citrix Outlook instance as this creates confusion with their usual client-side
Outlook and it's unwanted for limited resources in Citrix sessions to go towards sync'ing mailboxes.  Seeing the same behavior with Outlook 2007 sp1 and Outlook 2013 sp1 x86.  Why would this work with Exchange but not SMTP and can anyone suggest
workarounds?  
I'm not knowledgeable with vbs/vba but i was considering whether it's possible to launch outlook hidden from the user or to script initiation of send/recv session on the mailbox at scheduled intervals without outlook open, thinking that might send what's
in the outbox.  these are some areas i've looked into but havent gotten results yet -
Email remains in the Outbox when the StrictAccountOrder registry value is non-zero
The mysterious Outlook Outbox
Launch Outlook Hidden
Force outlook to "Send/Receive All" using VBA
http://discussions.citrix.com/topic/332666-need-workaround-for-running-an-old-application-as-a-published-app/
Thanks

Answer 1

When you use a SMTP server, you need Outlook open to send mail - the spooler has to have time to load and send the message. When you use Exchange, outlook hands the message off to exchange and exchange sends it. 
It's not possible to launch outlook hidden using a different profile - you can only use one profile at a time. There is a utility called ExtraOutlook that can open two profiles that might work for you - most people say it works, but AFAIK, it won't open
the second profile in a hidden state. 
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Outlook & Exchange Solutions Center
Outlook Tips
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