Sounds to me like you were a victim of an OEM support dispute. I've never
seen this issue reported here, but no one with MCE seeks support in these
groups since they are OEM's responsibilities. It would not surprise me a bit
that Windows XP Fax wouldn't work as expected with MCE.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
"ajgmisc" wrote in message
...
Russ and others:

I went to hell and back resolving the problem reinstalling Windows Fax
Services. It took many telephone sessions of a Microsoft specialist
calling
me from India; he couldn't explain some of the symptoms my system was
exhibiting either. Eventually we hit upon a procedure that succeeded in
reinstalling Fax Services.

After reinstallation, the Windows Fax Wizard showed my Outlook Address
Book
as it should. It was the disappearance of the OAB from the Fax Wizard
that
started me on this ordeal in the first place. Russ Valentine had replied
to
my description of this disappearance "cannot be reproduced"; let me come
back to that in a moment because it CAN be reproduced.

Part of the difficulty may be that I'm running Windows XP Media Center
Edition (MCE) -- that was certainly part of the problem getting help with
reinstalling the Fax Services component. Although Microsoft created XP
Media
Center Edition, they don't sell it to end users and, therefore, don't
provide
support for it (I had to pay). The support is supposed to come from the
OEM's who sell MCE computers, in my case HP.

However, the problems I was trying to overcome (OAB suddenly not available
from Fax Wizard and then the inability to reinstall the Windows Fax
Service)
are fairly esoteric and clearly beyond HP's Windows XP expertise. HP tech
support supervisors that that this was over their heads and eventually
told
me -- but wouldn't put it in writing -- that Microsoft should be willing
to
provide free support because it has nothing per se to do with MCE. They
said
they'd been told explicitly by their management that Microsoft will
support
issues that are beyond HP expertise. Try convincing Microsoft of that!

Now, coming back to the reproducability of having access to the OAB
disappear from the Fax Wizard. I can't tell you *what* makes it go away,
but
it has done so two or three more times for me since my initial battle. I
can
get it back each time by repeating the process of reinstalling Windows Fax
Services from the Windows Component Wizard. I'd like to be able to report
what makes it disappear (and to
know for myself), but so far I haven't been able to pinpoint a cause. I'm
going to try to remember to open the Fax Wizard at least once or twice per
day in the hope of narrows down the cause. If anyone can suggest a more
effective method, I'm all ears.

Andrew Garvin

---------------------

"Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]" wrote:

Adding and removing the Fax Service is not recommended. We have posted
information on this type of problem he
http://members.shaw.ca/bsanders/FAQFAX.htm#_Toc88835132
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

"ajgmisc" wrote in message
...
Russ,

For lack of anything else to try, I figured it was reasonably harmless
to
remove the Windows Component "Fax Services," reboot, and then add it
back.
Unfortunately, that turned up another problem. I have no idea whether
this
newly discovered problem underlies my Address Book problem or not.

I'll describe what I encounterd here briefly, but it will not surprised
if
you and the other experts consider the Outlook discussions to be the
wrong
place to be looking for help with it (if that's the case, I'd appreciate
any
thoughts on where to find information!). However, maybe it will look
familiar to someone...

When I tried to add "Fax Services" back to Windows using the Windows
Component Wizard (which I access via Add/Remove Programs), I got a
series
of
"Setup cannot copy the file filename" messages even though the files
were
in the I386 folder where it was looking. Similar problems are described
in a
number of KB articles (e.g., 894351), but I've tried both resolutions
listed
and neither has solved the problem.

Any constructive advice would be appreciated.

-----------------------------------------------------

"Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]" wrote:

What you claim cannot be reproduced. When you properly configure your
Outlook Address Book and set your OS to use it, Windows Fax will use it
too.
You've missed something.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]