Check out slipstick.com, cdolive.com, your exchange server CD docs, and MS Knowledge Base for details. Outlook Agents are somewhat obscure considering what can be done w/them.

Exchange programming/scripting can be a BIG P.I.A. CDO and MAPI just don't want to play nice w/anybody besides MS languages, and often not even then, at least in my experience. I don't wish to discourage you if this is the direction you want to take, just be forewarned.

I'm pretty sure that you don't have to be logged into Outlook for the agent(s) to do their thing, but you DO need an instance of Outlook w/ the mailbox you will be manipulating.