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Outlook Express is slow



 
 
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  #1  
Old August 21st, 2004, 05:45 PM
ava cohen
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Outlook Express is slow

I have a Win ME PC

OE opens at normal speed but when I click to:

- read a mail- it takes forever to open
-reply to a message - it takes forever to open

it is very SLOW.

I ran
- adaware
- AVG virus scan
-Scandisk
-Defrag

Still very slow.

What else can I do ?

Any suggestions ?

PLEASE HELP I AM NOT TECHNICAL.

Thanks
Ava
  #2  
Old August 21st, 2004, 05:49 PM
Bruce Hagen
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Do not archive mail on default OE folders. They will eventually
become corrupted. Create your own user defined folders for storing
mail and move your mail to them. Empty Deleted Items folder
regularly.

After you are done, follow up by compacting your folders manually
while working *offline* and do it often.

FileWork Offline (or double click Working Online in the Status Bar).
FileFolderCompact all folders.

In ToolsOptionsMaintenance: Uncheck Compact messages in background
and leave it unchecked.

--
Bruce Hagen
~IB-CA~


"ava cohen" wrote in message
m...
I have a Win ME PC

OE opens at normal speed but when I click to:

- read a mail- it takes forever to open
-reply to a message - it takes forever to open

it is very SLOW.

I ran
- adaware
- AVG virus scan
-Scandisk
-Defrag

Still very slow.

What else can I do ?

Any suggestions ?

PLEASE HELP I AM NOT TECHNICAL.

Thanks
Ava



  #3  
Old August 23rd, 2004, 06:02 AM
ava cohen
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

I did what you said below. But OE is still very slow.

What should I do now ?

I do not have that many mails ..perhaps 300 and most are short and
some perhaps have a 1 or 2 page word doc attached.

PLEASE HELP.

Thanks
Ava






"Bruce Hagen" wrote in message ...
Do not archive mail on default OE folders. They will eventually
become corrupted. Create your own user defined folders for storing
mail and move your mail to them. Empty Deleted Items folder
regularly.

After you are done, follow up by compacting your folders manually
while working *offline* and do it often.

FileWork Offline (or double click Working Online in the Status Bar).
FileFolderCompact all folders.

In ToolsOptionsMaintenance: Uncheck Compact messages in background
and leave it unchecked.

--
Bruce Hagen
~IB-CA~


"ava cohen" wrote in message
m...
I have a Win ME PC

OE opens at normal speed but when I click to:

- read a mail- it takes forever to open
-reply to a message - it takes forever to open

it is very SLOW.

I ran
- adaware
- AVG virus scan
-Scandisk
-Defrag

Still very slow.

What else can I do ?

Any suggestions ?

PLEASE HELP I AM NOT TECHNICAL.

Thanks
Ava

  #4  
Old August 23rd, 2004, 12:28 PM
Steve Cochran
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Take a look at point 8 below. Also do points 2 and 3 and see if that makes
any difference. If not, then go to File | Identities and set up a new
Identity and do point 2 in that Identity. See if that fixes it.

steve

"ava cohen" wrote in message
om...
I did what you said below. But OE is still very slow.

What should I do now ?

I do not have that many mails ..perhaps 300 and most are short and
some perhaps have a 1 or 2 page word doc attached.

PLEASE HELP.

Thanks
Ava






"Bruce Hagen" wrote in message

...
Do not archive mail on default OE folders. They will eventually
become corrupted. Create your own user defined folders for storing
mail and move your mail to them. Empty Deleted Items folder
regularly.

After you are done, follow up by compacting your folders manually
while working *offline* and do it often.

FileWork Offline (or double click Working Online in the Status Bar).
FileFolderCompact all folders.

In ToolsOptionsMaintenance: Uncheck Compact messages in background
and leave it unchecked.

--
Bruce Hagen
~IB-CA~


"ava cohen" wrote in message
m...
I have a Win ME PC

OE opens at normal speed but when I click to:

- read a mail- it takes forever to open
-reply to a message - it takes forever to open

it is very SLOW.

I ran
- adaware
- AVG virus scan
-Scandisk
-Defrag

Still very slow.

What else can I do ?

Any suggestions ?

PLEASE HELP I AM NOT TECHNICAL.

Thanks
Ava




1. Don't open attachments.

Most computer infections are the result of the user opening email
attachments. The attachment usually contains a virus or worm or trojan that
infects the system when it is opened.

Because of this tendency of attachments to infect, Microsoft has now set OE
to block all attachments. See
these articles for explanations:

Cannot Open E-Mail Attachments in Outlook Express After You Install SP1
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=329570

OLEXP Using Virus Protection Features in Outlook Express 6 (Q291387)
http://support.microsoft.com/support.../Q291/3/87.ASP

Note that Microsoft does not send security patches in email. See this
article:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sec...patch_hoax.asp

If you choose to adjust OE to allow attachments, make sure you save the
attachment to disk first and then scan it with your antivirus software.

The most significant thing you can do to prevent such infections, is to
educate yourself on what attachments may constitute a threat to your system,
and never open any such attachments, no matter who they are from.



2. Turn off Background Compaction. (Note that with WinXP SP2, this feature
is already disabled.)

When a message is deleted, moved or marked as read in an OE message file
(dbx), then wasted space is generated in that file, and the folder must be
compacted to remove that wasted space.

By default, OE turns on a feature under Tools | Options | Maintenance called
"background compaction", which turns itself on if the folders in your
message store get too much wasted space. This feature uses 100% CPU time
and slows down your system, while it is active. In addition, if the process
is somewhat interrupted, then the entire message store can become corrupt.

To prevent such corruption, turn off background compaction under Tools |
Options | Maintenance for each Identity you have, and then compact manually
and frequently using File | Folder | Compact all. This will make OE more
stable.


3. Turn off email scanning in your antivirus software.


Antivirus software invades the Outlook Express program to try and intercept
(incoming and, in some cases, outgoing) messages that might contain virus.

The problem with this approach is that the antivirus software can trigger
the destruction of an entire message folder or the entire message store,
when it attempts to remove a message containing a potential virus.

To prevent the possibility of such destruction occuring, turn off email
scanning in your antivirus software. You will still be protected against
infection. If you attempt to open a message attachment containing a
potential virus, then your antivirus software will recognize that your are
attempting to infect your system, and will block you from doing so. The
best practice on the user's part is to save an attachment to disk and then
scan it with the antivirus software prior to opening it. Messages opened
themselves (if you have the latest security updates from Windows Update)
will not infect your system -- only attachments.

You do not need additional email scanning on top of your system being
continuosly scanned by antivirus software, so turn off email scanning to
prevent destruction of your message store.

From a post by Frank Saunders:

From
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT...ail,protection

Disabling email protection does not leave you vulnerable to viruses and
malicious software in email. It is a separate layer of protection in
addition to Auto-Protect. Auto-Protect scans any incoming files, including
email, as they are saved to your hard drive. As long as you keep your virus
definitions up to date with LiveUpdate, and keep Auto-Protect enabled and
set to scan files as they are created or downloaded, your system is fully
protected.


4. Recovering lost messages.


The most significant contributors to lost messages are described in points 2
and 3 above. Turn these options off to prevent message store corruption.

If you do lose your messages, you can try using my DBXtract program to
attempt to recover the lost messages. Note that dbx files are hidden in
Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
http://www.oehelp.com/DBXtract/

Alternatively one can also use DBXpress, which is faster and more accurate
than DBXtract,
and it also has the capability of reading directly from the disk and
bypassing the file system.
http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/

If you have upgraded your version of IE and OE or your OS version, and all
your messages are lost, then see this article (note that the technique in
the article does not only apply to the issue addressed in the article
title):

OLEXP: Mail Folders, Address Book, and E-mail Messages Are Missing After You
Upgrade to Microsoft Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;313055

If File | Import | Messages does not work, ignore the error message, which
is erroneous in itself, and try one of the following techniques to get your
messages back:
a. Right click on each dbx file or a selection of them and go to Properties
and clear the read only attribute of the files. Then try File | Import |
Messages again.
b. Import the dbx files individually. See the last paragraph on this page
for how to do that:
http://www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx
c. As a last resort use DBXtract or DBXpress
http://www.oehelp.com/DBXtract/ or http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/

See also: http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/probl...s.htm#mailgone


5. How does one reinstall IE and OE?

This article seems to work for other OSs than just XP:

How to Reinstall or Repair Internet Explorer and Outlook Express
http://support.microsoft.com/default...;EN-US;Q318378

See point 11 below first.


6. How does one backup and restore or transfer OE messages and settings:

See: http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/backup/index.htm
http://www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx

Note that there is also a link in this article to MVP David Guess's free
OEBackup programs (www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/)



7. Links in email don't work:

see the links on this page

http://www.oehelp.com/


8. Outlook Express is slow.

See the various performance issues and how to address them on this page:

http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/problems/performance.htm


9. Outlook Express won't start.

This is usually due to a conflict between what is recorded in the registry
and what is in the message store. Often, one can fix this problem by
deleting folders.dbx. If that doesn't work, then try moving all the dbx
files to another directory and see if that fixes it. Alternatively, see
these articles and also point 4 above:

http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/probl...ce.htm#nostart

http://support.microsoft.com/support.../q245/4/19.asp


10. Address book information:

see The Windows Address Book

http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/files/wab.htm


11. Installation issues:

Most of the problems with a faulty installation are due to other programs
running during the install and interfering with the updating of necessary
files. Antivirus software is notorious for this. To minimize such
interference, in Win98, WinMe, and WinXP go to Start | Run and type msconfig
and disable all startup items and non Microsoft services. Then reboot.
Then proceed with the installation. Startup items can then be re-enabled.

For additional info see:

Win98:
http://support.microsoft.com/default...65&Product=w98
WinXP:
http://support.microsoft.com/default...&Product=winxp

Since Win2000 does not have msconfig, one has to manually go to this
registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Run

You can export this key and then delete all values under it. Then disable
all antivirus services under Computer Management | Services and then reboot.
Then install. After the installation you can import the key back into the
registry to restore the values and re-enable the services.


12. Screening unwanted email and Spam

Everybody gets unwanted email these days. Much of this email is either
trying to sell you something you probably don't want or else is trying to
infect you with a virus via an email attachment. What can you do?

a. Never open an attachment. First save an attachment to disk and then
scan it with your antivirus software to ensure it is not infected (make sure
your antivirus software definitions are up to date). If the attachment is
from someone you don't know, don't even bother opening it. Its not worth
it. See also point 1 above.

b. Screen email. Disable the Preview Pane (you can put a button on the
toolbar to turn this on and off). Then go to View | Columns and enable most
of the headers. That way you can scan the headers and pick out the various
obvious unwanted mail. Once you find messages that you don't want to open,
select the headers of those messages without opening the messages and
perform a Shift-Delete to permanently remove them from the folder. Once
they are removed, they will no longer be accessible, so don't do this on
messages you might wish to keep.

c. On messages left that might be worth opening, go to Tools | Options |
Read and check the box that says "read all messages in plain text"
(available only with IE6 SP1 or WinXP SP1 and higher). Reading in plain
text prevents any returns to the spammer's server, so your email address
cannot be validated in that fashion. In addition, it prevents malformed or
malicious HTML code from executing. If you find the message is worth
viewing as HTML, then you can go back to Tools | Options | Read and uncheck
the option to read in plain text only and then reopen the message to view it
as HTML (note that you can put this button on a toolbar with OETool
(www.oehelp.com/OETool/). You can also use OETool to view the message
details without having to open the message. You can also use the "Compact
Current Folder" button after deleting to shrink the file size.

d. If you get unwanted email repeatedly from the same source, you can set
up message rules to block out some of these messages. See the help file in
OE and also

http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/tips/rules.htm

and

http://www.mindspring.com/~oe_oh/message_rules.htm.


e. If you find a message that is spam and that offends you or is deceptive,
go to Message | Forward as attachment and send it to .

The US Federal Trade Comission is launching a major crackdown on deceptive
and offensive spam. Visit their site at
www.ftc.gov/spam for more info.


13. Messages appear blank

From a post by Frank Saunders:

Several possible causes and therefor several possible fixes:
1. Go to Start | Run and type
regsvr32 inetcomm.dll
and press Enter
2. Go to Tools | Options | Read | Fonts and set Western (ISO) as the
default.
3. Clear Temporary Internet Files and the Temp folder.
4. Turn off email scanning in your anti-virus.
5. Someone else reported that re-installing OE using method 2 in this
article fixed the problem:
How to Reinstall or Repair Internet Explorer and Outlook Express in Windows
XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=318378
Method 2 works on earlier versions of Windows.
6. Eliminate any scumware.
See
Dealing with Unwanted Spyware, Parasites, Toolbars and Search Engines
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm
especially
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm#Coolwebsearch

Note that AdAware and SpyBot S & D will each catch some things the other
won't. Also, each needs to be updated before every use, even when just
downloaded. There's also a lot more to do than just those two programs.
CWShredder is also available he
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/regs...cwshredder.zip
**Post your HijackThis log to
http://forums.spywareinfo.com/ or the Spyware forum at
http://forum.aumha.org/ for expert analysis, not here.**
Alternative download pages for Ad-Aware, Spybot, HijackThis and CWShredder
may be found on this page:
http://aumha.org/a/parasite.htm.
If trying everything at that site does not fix the problem please post back
in the same thread.

14. Issues with WinXP SP2.

For general information on WinXP SP2 see:

Windows XP Service Pack 2 Resources for IT Professionals
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro.../winxpsp2.mspx

For Internet Explorer changes with SP2 see:


Changes to Functionality in Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2: Part 5:
Enhanced Browsing Security
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro.../sp2brows.mspx

883256 - How to manage Internet Explorer add-ons in Windows XP Service Pack
2
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;EN-US;883256

For Outlook Express changes with SP2 see:


Use the New Security Improvements in Outlook Express
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/u...eb/sp2_oe.mspx

Also:

835935 - Release notes for Windows XP Service Pack 2
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;835935

Changes to Functionality in Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2Part 1
Introduction
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro.../sp2chngs.mspx

842242 - Some programs seem to stop working after you install Windows XP
Service Pack 2
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;842242

884130 - Programs that may behave differently in Windows XP Service Pack 2
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=884130





I've left off some issues, but I believe these address the most
common problems that users encounter with OE. In addition, please check the
websites of the individual OE MVP's that address other issues not listed
he


Tom Koch:
http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/

David Guess
http://www.mindspring.com/~oe_oh/

Jim Pickering
http://home.comcast.net/~jimpickering/

Frank Saunders
http://www.fjsmjs.com/OE/index.htm

and my site at http://www.oehelp.com


If you don't find your problem addressed, then feel free to post a question
in these newsgroups and we will be more than happy to respond and attempt to
help. Just go to Tools | Accounts | Add | News and add msnews.microsoft.com
as a newsserver and then you can address your question to the appropriate
newsgroup.


  #5  
Old August 23rd, 2004, 07:58 PM
ava cohen
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

I think I have done almost everything so far that has been suggested
except one:
and that is delete folders.dbx

If I do this will I lose all me emails. My emails are real important
to me so I am hestitating to do so. I cannot afford to lose my emails
in OE.

Pls. let me know.

Also do I have to do so for each identity separately ...I am not sure
if this question is relevant or appropriate...but since I am
technically Ignorant, I am asking.

Thanks
ava



"Steve Cochran" wrote in message ...
Take a look at point 8 below. Also do points 2 and 3 and see if that makes
any difference. If not, then go to File | Identities and set up a new
Identity and do point 2 in that Identity. See if that fixes it.

steve

"ava cohen" wrote in message
om...
I did what you said below. But OE is still very slow.

What should I do now ?

I do not have that many mails ..perhaps 300 and most are short and
some perhaps have a 1 or 2 page word doc attached.

PLEASE HELP.

Thanks
Ava






"Bruce Hagen" wrote in message

...
Do not archive mail on default OE folders. They will eventually
become corrupted. Create your own user defined folders for storing
mail and move your mail to them. Empty Deleted Items folder
regularly.

After you are done, follow up by compacting your folders manually
while working *offline* and do it often.

FileWork Offline (or double click Working Online in the Status Bar).
FileFolderCompact all folders.

In ToolsOptionsMaintenance: Uncheck Compact messages in background
and leave it unchecked.

--
Bruce Hagen
~IB-CA~


"ava cohen" wrote in message
m...
I have a Win ME PC

OE opens at normal speed but when I click to:

- read a mail- it takes forever to open
-reply to a message - it takes forever to open

it is very SLOW.

I ran
- adaware
- AVG virus scan
-Scandisk
-Defrag

Still very slow.

What else can I do ?

Any suggestions ?

PLEASE HELP I AM NOT TECHNICAL.

Thanks
Ava




1. Don't open attachments.

Most computer infections are the result of the user opening email
attachments. The attachment usually contains a virus or worm or trojan that
infects the system when it is opened.

Because of this tendency of attachments to infect, Microsoft has now set OE
to block all attachments. See
these articles for explanations:

Cannot Open E-Mail Attachments in Outlook Express After You Install SP1
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=329570

OLEXP Using Virus Protection Features in Outlook Express 6 (Q291387)
http://support.microsoft.com/support.../Q291/3/87.ASP

Note that Microsoft does not send security patches in email. See this
article:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sec...patch_hoax.asp

If you choose to adjust OE to allow attachments, make sure you save the
attachment to disk first and then scan it with your antivirus software.

The most significant thing you can do to prevent such infections, is to
educate yourself on what attachments may constitute a threat to your system,
and never open any such attachments, no matter who they are from.



2. Turn off Background Compaction. (Note that with WinXP SP2, this feature
is already disabled.)

When a message is deleted, moved or marked as read in an OE message file
(dbx), then wasted space is generated in that file, and the folder must be
compacted to remove that wasted space.

By default, OE turns on a feature under Tools | Options | Maintenance called
"background compaction", which turns itself on if the folders in your
message store get too much wasted space. This feature uses 100% CPU time
and slows down your system, while it is active. In addition, if the process
is somewhat interrupted, then the entire message store can become corrupt.

To prevent such corruption, turn off background compaction under Tools |
Options | Maintenance for each Identity you have, and then compact manually
and frequently using File | Folder | Compact all. This will make OE more
stable.


3. Turn off email scanning in your antivirus software.


Antivirus software invades the Outlook Express program to try and intercept
(incoming and, in some cases, outgoing) messages that might contain virus.

The problem with this approach is that the antivirus software can trigger
the destruction of an entire message folder or the entire message store,
when it attempts to remove a message containing a potential virus.

To prevent the possibility of such destruction occuring, turn off email
scanning in your antivirus software. You will still be protected against
infection. If you attempt to open a message attachment containing a
potential virus, then your antivirus software will recognize that your are
attempting to infect your system, and will block you from doing so. The
best practice on the user's part is to save an attachment to disk and then
scan it with the antivirus software prior to opening it. Messages opened
themselves (if you have the latest security updates from Windows Update)
will not infect your system -- only attachments.

You do not need additional email scanning on top of your system being
continuosly scanned by antivirus software, so turn off email scanning to
prevent destruction of your message store.

From a post by Frank Saunders:

From
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT...ail,protection

Disabling email protection does not leave you vulnerable to viruses and
malicious software in email. It is a separate layer of protection in
addition to Auto-Protect. Auto-Protect scans any incoming files, including
email, as they are saved to your hard drive. As long as you keep your virus
definitions up to date with LiveUpdate, and keep Auto-Protect enabled and
set to scan files as they are created or downloaded, your system is fully
protected.


4. Recovering lost messages.


The most significant contributors to lost messages are described in points 2
and 3 above. Turn these options off to prevent message store corruption.

If you do lose your messages, you can try using my DBXtract program to
attempt to recover the lost messages. Note that dbx files are hidden in
Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
http://www.oehelp.com/DBXtract/

Alternatively one can also use DBXpress, which is faster and more accurate
than DBXtract,
and it also has the capability of reading directly from the disk and
bypassing the file system.
http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/

If you have upgraded your version of IE and OE or your OS version, and all
your messages are lost, then see this article (note that the technique in
the article does not only apply to the issue addressed in the article
title):

OLEXP: Mail Folders, Address Book, and E-mail Messages Are Missing After You
Upgrade to Microsoft Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;313055

If File | Import | Messages does not work, ignore the error message, which
is erroneous in itself, and try one of the following techniques to get your
messages back:
a. Right click on each dbx file or a selection of them and go to Properties
and clear the read only attribute of the files. Then try File | Import |
Messages again.
b. Import the dbx files individually. See the last paragraph on this page
for how to do that:
http://www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx
c. As a last resort use DBXtract or DBXpress
http://www.oehelp.com/DBXtract/ or http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/

See also: http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/probl...s.htm#mailgone


5. How does one reinstall IE and OE?

This article seems to work for other OSs than just XP:

How to Reinstall or Repair Internet Explorer and Outlook Express
http://support.microsoft.com/default...;EN-US;Q318378

See point 11 below first.


6. How does one backup and restore or transfer OE messages and settings:

See: http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/backup/index.htm
http://www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx

Note that there is also a link in this article to MVP David Guess's free
OEBackup programs (www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/)



7. Links in email don't work:

see the links on this page

http://www.oehelp.com/


8. Outlook Express is slow.

See the various performance issues and how to address them on this page:

http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/problems/performance.htm


9. Outlook Express won't start.

This is usually due to a conflict between what is recorded in the registry
and what is in the message store. Often, one can fix this problem by
deleting folders.dbx. If that doesn't work, then try moving all the dbx
files to another directory and see if that fixes it. Alternatively, see
these articles and also point 4 above:

http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/probl...ce.htm#nostart

http://support.microsoft.com/support.../q245/4/19.asp


10. Address book information:

see The Windows Address Book

http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/files/wab.htm


11. Installation issues:

Most of the problems with a faulty installation are due to other programs
running during the install and interfering with the updating of necessary
files. Antivirus software is notorious for this. To minimize such
interference, in Win98, WinMe, and WinXP go to Start | Run and type msconfig
and disable all startup items and non Microsoft services. Then reboot.
Then proceed with the installation. Startup items can then be re-enabled.

For additional info see:

Win98:
http://support.microsoft.com/default...65&Product=w98
WinXP:
http://support.microsoft.com/default...&Product=winxp

Since Win2000 does not have msconfig, one has to manually go to this
registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Run

You can export this key and then delete all values under it. Then disable
all antivirus services under Computer Management | Services and then reboot.
Then install. After the installation you can import the key back into the
registry to restore the values and re-enable the services.


12. Screening unwanted email and Spam

Everybody gets unwanted email these days. Much of this email is either
trying to sell you something you probably don't want or else is trying to
infect you with a virus via an email attachment. What can you do?

a. Never open an attachment. First save an attachment to disk and then
scan it with your antivirus software to ensure it is not infected (make sure
your antivirus software definitions are up to date). If the attachment is
from someone you don't know, don't even bother opening it. Its not worth
it. See also point 1 above.

b. Screen email. Disable the Preview Pane (you can put a button on the
toolbar to turn this on and off). Then go to View | Columns and enable most
of the headers. That way you can scan the headers and pick out the various
obvious unwanted mail. Once you find messages that you don't want to open,
select the headers of those messages without opening the messages and
perform a Shift-Delete to permanently remove them from the folder. Once
they are removed, they will no longer be accessible, so don't do this on
messages you might wish to keep.

c. On messages left that might be worth opening, go to Tools | Options |
Read and check the box that says "read all messages in plain text"
(available only with IE6 SP1 or WinXP SP1 and higher). Reading in plain
text prevents any returns to the spammer's server, so your email address
cannot be validated in that fashion. In addition, it prevents malformed or
malicious HTML code from executing. If you find the message is worth
viewing as HTML, then you can go back to Tools | Options | Read and uncheck
the option to read in plain text only and then reopen the message to view it
as HTML (note that you can put this button on a toolbar with OETool
(www.oehelp.com/OETool/). You can also use OETool to view the message
details without having to open the message. You can also use the "Compact
Current Folder" button after deleting to shrink the file size.

d. If you get unwanted email repeatedly from the same source, you can set
up message rules to block out some of these messages. See the help file in
OE and also

http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/tips/rules.htm

and

http://www.mindspring.com/~oe_oh/message_rules.htm.


e. If you find a message that is spam and that offends you or is deceptive,
go to Message | Forward as attachment and send it to .

The US Federal Trade Comission is launching a major crackdown on deceptive
and offensive spam. Visit their site at
www.ftc.gov/spam for more info.


13. Messages appear blank

From a post by Frank Saunders:

Several possible causes and therefor several possible fixes:
1. Go to Start | Run and type
regsvr32 inetcomm.dll
and press Enter
2. Go to Tools | Options | Read | Fonts and set Western (ISO) as the
default.
3. Clear Temporary Internet Files and the Temp folder.
4. Turn off email scanning in your anti-virus.
5. Someone else reported that re-installing OE using method 2 in this
article fixed the problem:
How to Reinstall or Repair Internet Explorer and Outlook Express in Windows
XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=318378
Method 2 works on earlier versions of Windows.
6. Eliminate any scumware.
See
Dealing with Unwanted Spyware, Parasites, Toolbars and Search Engines
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm
especially
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm#Coolwebsearch

Note that AdAware and SpyBot S & D will each catch some things the other
won't. Also, each needs to be updated before every use, even when just
downloaded. There's also a lot more to do than just those two programs.
CWShredder is also available he
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/regs...cwshredder.zip
**Post your HijackThis log to
http://forums.spywareinfo.com/ or the Spyware forum at
http://forum.aumha.org/ for expert analysis, not here.**
Alternative download pages for Ad-Aware, Spybot, HijackThis and CWShredder
may be found on this page:
http://aumha.org/a/parasite.htm.
If trying everything at that site does not fix the problem please post back
in the same thread.

14. Issues with WinXP SP2.

For general information on WinXP SP2 see:

Windows XP Service Pack 2 Resources for IT Professionals
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro.../winxpsp2.mspx

For Internet Explorer changes with SP2 see:


Changes to Functionality in Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2: Part 5:
Enhanced Browsing Security
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro.../sp2brows.mspx

883256 - How to manage Internet Explorer add-ons in Windows XP Service Pack
2
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;EN-US;883256

For Outlook Express changes with SP2 see:


Use the New Security Improvements in Outlook Express
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/u...eb/sp2_oe.mspx

Also:

835935 - Release notes for Windows XP Service Pack 2
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;835935

Changes to Functionality in Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2Part 1
Introduction
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro.../sp2chngs.mspx

842242 - Some programs seem to stop working after you install Windows XP
Service Pack 2
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;842242

884130 - Programs that may behave differently in Windows XP Service Pack 2
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=884130





I've left off some issues, but I believe these address the most
common problems that users encounter with OE. In addition, please check the
websites of the individual OE MVP's that address other issues not listed
he


Tom Koch:
http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/

David Guess
http://www.mindspring.com/~oe_oh/

Jim Pickering
http://home.comcast.net/~jimpickering/

Frank Saunders
http://www.fjsmjs.com/OE/index.htm

and my site at http://www.oehelp.com


If you don't find your problem addressed, then feel free to post a question
in these newsgroups and we will be more than happy to respond and attempt to
help. Just go to Tools | Accounts | Add | News and add msnews.microsoft.com
as a newsserver and then you can address your question to the appropriate
newsgroup.

  #6  
Old August 23rd, 2004, 10:16 PM
Jim Pickering
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

No you will not lose any mail by deleting folders.dbx but you will lose your
subscribed newsgroups and if you have set up a folder hierarchy for your
mail folders, that will need to be recreated along with any message rules
that may point to folders will have to be edited. But it hopefully will fix
your problem. Post back with your results.

Also, check for parasites:

Go here for info:
http://aumha.org/a/tshoot.php#malware

And for a quick check:
http://aumha.org/a/noads.php
--
Jim Pickering, MVP-Outlook Express
Please reply only to newsgroup.


"ava cohen" wrote in message
om...
I think I have done almost everything so far that has been suggested
except one:
and that is delete folders.dbx

If I do this will I lose all me emails. My emails are real important
to me so I am hestitating to do so. I cannot afford to lose my emails
in OE.

Pls. let me know.

Also do I have to do so for each identity separately ...I am not sure
if this question is relevant or appropriate...but since I am
technically Ignorant, I am asking.

Thanks
ava



"Steve Cochran" wrote in message
...
Take a look at point 8 below. Also do points 2 and 3 and see if that
makes
any difference. If not, then go to File | Identities and set up a new
Identity and do point 2 in that Identity. See if that fixes it.

steve

"ava cohen" wrote in message
om...
I did what you said below. But OE is still very slow.

What should I do now ?

I do not have that many mails ..perhaps 300 and most are short and
some perhaps have a 1 or 2 page word doc attached.

PLEASE HELP.

Thanks
Ava






"Bruce Hagen" wrote in message

...
Do not archive mail on default OE folders. They will eventually
become corrupted. Create your own user defined folders for storing
mail and move your mail to them. Empty Deleted Items folder
regularly.

After you are done, follow up by compacting your folders manually
while working *offline* and do it often.

FileWork Offline (or double click Working Online in the Status Bar).
FileFolderCompact all folders.

In ToolsOptionsMaintenance: Uncheck Compact messages in background
and leave it unchecked.

--
Bruce Hagen
~IB-CA~


"ava cohen" wrote in message
m...
I have a Win ME PC

OE opens at normal speed but when I click to:

- read a mail- it takes forever to open
-reply to a message - it takes forever to open

it is very SLOW.

I ran
- adaware
- AVG virus scan
-Scandisk
-Defrag

Still very slow.

What else can I do ?

Any suggestions ?

PLEASE HELP I AM NOT TECHNICAL.

Thanks
Ava




1. Don't open attachments.

Most computer infections are the result of the user opening email
attachments. The attachment usually contains a virus or worm or trojan
that
infects the system when it is opened.

Because of this tendency of attachments to infect, Microsoft has now set
OE
to block all attachments. See
these articles for explanations:

Cannot Open E-Mail Attachments in Outlook Express After You Install SP1
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=329570

OLEXP Using Virus Protection Features in Outlook Express 6 (Q291387)
http://support.microsoft.com/support.../Q291/3/87.ASP

Note that Microsoft does not send security patches in email. See this
article:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sec...patch_hoax.asp

If you choose to adjust OE to allow attachments, make sure you save the
attachment to disk first and then scan it with your antivirus software.

The most significant thing you can do to prevent such infections, is to
educate yourself on what attachments may constitute a threat to your
system,
and never open any such attachments, no matter who they are from.



2. Turn off Background Compaction. (Note that with WinXP SP2, this
feature
is already disabled.)

When a message is deleted, moved or marked as read in an OE message file
(dbx), then wasted space is generated in that file, and the folder must
be
compacted to remove that wasted space.

By default, OE turns on a feature under Tools | Options | Maintenance
called
"background compaction", which turns itself on if the folders in your
message store get too much wasted space. This feature uses 100% CPU time
and slows down your system, while it is active. In addition, if the
process
is somewhat interrupted, then the entire message store can become
corrupt.

To prevent such corruption, turn off background compaction under Tools |
Options | Maintenance for each Identity you have, and then compact
manually
and frequently using File | Folder | Compact all. This will make OE more
stable.


3. Turn off email scanning in your antivirus software.


Antivirus software invades the Outlook Express program to try and
intercept
(incoming and, in some cases, outgoing) messages that might contain
virus.

The problem with this approach is that the antivirus software can trigger
the destruction of an entire message folder or the entire message store,
when it attempts to remove a message containing a potential virus.

To prevent the possibility of such destruction occuring, turn off email
scanning in your antivirus software. You will still be protected against
infection. If you attempt to open a message attachment containing a
potential virus, then your antivirus software will recognize that your
are
attempting to infect your system, and will block you from doing so. The
best practice on the user's part is to save an attachment to disk and
then
scan it with the antivirus software prior to opening it. Messages opened
themselves (if you have the latest security updates from Windows Update)
will not infect your system -- only attachments.

You do not need additional email scanning on top of your system being
continuosly scanned by antivirus software, so turn off email scanning to
prevent destruction of your message store.

From a post by Frank Saunders:

From
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT...ail,protection

Disabling email protection does not leave you vulnerable to viruses and
malicious software in email. It is a separate layer of protection in
addition to Auto-Protect. Auto-Protect scans any incoming files,
including
email, as they are saved to your hard drive. As long as you keep your
virus
definitions up to date with LiveUpdate, and keep Auto-Protect enabled and
set to scan files as they are created or downloaded, your system is fully
protected.


4. Recovering lost messages.


The most significant contributors to lost messages are described in
points 2
and 3 above. Turn these options off to prevent message store corruption.

If you do lose your messages, you can try using my DBXtract program to
attempt to recover the lost messages. Note that dbx files are hidden in
Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
http://www.oehelp.com/DBXtract/

Alternatively one can also use DBXpress, which is faster and more
accurate
than DBXtract,
and it also has the capability of reading directly from the disk and
bypassing the file system.
http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/

If you have upgraded your version of IE and OE or your OS version, and
all
your messages are lost, then see this article (note that the technique in
the article does not only apply to the issue addressed in the article
title):

OLEXP: Mail Folders, Address Book, and E-mail Messages Are Missing After
You
Upgrade to Microsoft Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;313055

If File | Import | Messages does not work, ignore the error message,
which
is erroneous in itself, and try one of the following techniques to get
your
messages back:
a. Right click on each dbx file or a selection of them and go to
Properties
and clear the read only attribute of the files. Then try File | Import |
Messages again.
b. Import the dbx files individually. See the last paragraph on this
page
for how to do that:
http://www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx
c. As a last resort use DBXtract or DBXpress
http://www.oehelp.com/DBXtract/ or http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/

See also: http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/probl...s.htm#mailgone


5. How does one reinstall IE and OE?

This article seems to work for other OSs than just XP:

How to Reinstall or Repair Internet Explorer and Outlook Express
http://support.microsoft.com/default...;EN-US;Q318378

See point 11 below first.


6. How does one backup and restore or transfer OE messages and settings:

See: http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/backup/index.htm
http://www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx

Note that there is also a link in this article to MVP David Guess's free
OEBackup programs (www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/)



7. Links in email don't work:

see the links on this page

http://www.oehelp.com/


8. Outlook Express is slow.

See the various performance issues and how to address them on this page:

http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/problems/performance.htm


9. Outlook Express won't start.

This is usually due to a conflict between what is recorded in the
registry
and what is in the message store. Often, one can fix this problem by
deleting folders.dbx. If that doesn't work, then try moving all the dbx
files to another directory and see if that fixes it. Alternatively, see
these articles and also point 4 above:

http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/probl...ce.htm#nostart

http://support.microsoft.com/support.../q245/4/19.asp


10. Address book information:

see The Windows Address Book

http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/files/wab.htm


11. Installation issues:

Most of the problems with a faulty installation are due to other programs
running during the install and interfering with the updating of necessary
files. Antivirus software is notorious for this. To minimize such
interference, in Win98, WinMe, and WinXP go to Start | Run and type
msconfig
and disable all startup items and non Microsoft services. Then reboot.
Then proceed with the installation. Startup items can then be
re-enabled.

For additional info see:

Win98:
http://support.microsoft.com/default...65&Product=w98
WinXP:
http://support.microsoft.com/default...&Product=winxp

Since Win2000 does not have msconfig, one has to manually go to this
registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Run

You can export this key and then delete all values under it. Then
disable
all antivirus services under Computer Management | Services and then
reboot.
Then install. After the installation you can import the key back into
the
registry to restore the values and re-enable the services.


12. Screening unwanted email and Spam

Everybody gets unwanted email these days. Much of this email is either
trying to sell you something you probably don't want or else is trying to
infect you with a virus via an email attachment. What can you do?

a. Never open an attachment. First save an attachment to disk and then
scan it with your antivirus software to ensure it is not infected (make
sure
your antivirus software definitions are up to date). If the attachment
is
from someone you don't know, don't even bother opening it. Its not worth
it. See also point 1 above.

b. Screen email. Disable the Preview Pane (you can put a button on the
toolbar to turn this on and off). Then go to View | Columns and enable
most
of the headers. That way you can scan the headers and pick out the
various
obvious unwanted mail. Once you find messages that you don't want to
open,
select the headers of those messages without opening the messages and
perform a Shift-Delete to permanently remove them from the folder. Once
they are removed, they will no longer be accessible, so don't do this on
messages you might wish to keep.

c. On messages left that might be worth opening, go to Tools | Options |
Read and check the box that says "read all messages in plain text"
(available only with IE6 SP1 or WinXP SP1 and higher). Reading in plain
text prevents any returns to the spammer's server, so your email address
cannot be validated in that fashion. In addition, it prevents malformed
or
malicious HTML code from executing. If you find the message is worth
viewing as HTML, then you can go back to Tools | Options | Read and
uncheck
the option to read in plain text only and then reopen the message to view
it
as HTML (note that you can put this button on a toolbar with OETool
(www.oehelp.com/OETool/). You can also use OETool to view the message
details without having to open the message. You can also use the
"Compact
Current Folder" button after deleting to shrink the file size.

d. If you get unwanted email repeatedly from the same source, you can
set
up message rules to block out some of these messages. See the help file
in
OE and also

http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/tips/rules.htm

and

http://www.mindspring.com/~oe_oh/message_rules.htm.


e. If you find a message that is spam and that offends you or is
deceptive,
go to Message | Forward as attachment and send it to .

The US Federal Trade Comission is launching a major crackdown on
deceptive
and offensive spam. Visit their site at
www.ftc.gov/spam for more info.


13. Messages appear blank

From a post by Frank Saunders:

Several possible causes and therefor several possible fixes:
1. Go to Start | Run and type
regsvr32 inetcomm.dll
and press Enter
2. Go to Tools | Options | Read | Fonts and set Western (ISO) as the
default.
3. Clear Temporary Internet Files and the Temp folder.
4. Turn off email scanning in your anti-virus.
5. Someone else reported that re-installing OE using method 2 in this
article fixed the problem:
How to Reinstall or Repair Internet Explorer and Outlook Express in
Windows
XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=318378
Method 2 works on earlier versions of Windows.
6. Eliminate any scumware.
See
Dealing with Unwanted Spyware, Parasites, Toolbars and Search Engines
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm
especially
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm#Coolwebsearch

Note that AdAware and SpyBot S & D will each catch some things the other
won't. Also, each needs to be updated before every use, even when just
downloaded. There's also a lot more to do than just those two programs.
CWShredder is also available he
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/regs...cwshredder.zip
**Post your HijackThis log to
http://forums.spywareinfo.com/ or the Spyware forum at
http://forum.aumha.org/ for expert analysis, not here.**
Alternative download pages for Ad-Aware, Spybot, HijackThis and
CWShredder
may be found on this page:
http://aumha.org/a/parasite.htm.
If trying everything at that site does not fix the problem please post
back
in the same thread.

14. Issues with WinXP SP2.

For general information on WinXP SP2 see:

Windows XP Service Pack 2 Resources for IT Professionals
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro.../winxpsp2.mspx

For Internet Explorer changes with SP2 see:


Changes to Functionality in Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2: Part 5:
Enhanced Browsing Security
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro.../sp2brows.mspx

883256 - How to manage Internet Explorer add-ons in Windows XP Service
Pack
2
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;EN-US;883256

For Outlook Express changes with SP2 see:


Use the New Security Improvements in Outlook Express
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/u...eb/sp2_oe.mspx

Also:

835935 - Release notes for Windows XP Service Pack 2
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;835935

Changes to Functionality in Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2Part 1
Introduction
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro.../sp2chngs.mspx

842242 - Some programs seem to stop working after you install Windows XP
Service Pack 2
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;842242

884130 - Programs that may behave differently in Windows XP Service Pack
2
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=884130





I've left off some issues, but I believe these address the most
common problems that users encounter with OE. In addition, please check
the
websites of the individual OE MVP's that address other issues not listed
he


Tom Koch:
http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/

David Guess
http://www.mindspring.com/~oe_oh/

Jim Pickering
http://home.comcast.net/~jimpickering/

Frank Saunders
http://www.fjsmjs.com/OE/index.htm

and my site at http://www.oehelp.com


If you don't find your problem addressed, then feel free to post a
question
in these newsgroups and we will be more than happy to respond and attempt
to
help. Just go to Tools | Accounts | Add | News and add
msnews.microsoft.com
as a newsserver and then you can address your question to the appropriate
newsgroup.


  #7  
Old August 24th, 2004, 04:23 AM
ava cohen
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

I did a search for folders.dbx. There were quite a few. I deleted all
of them.
Turned off the PC and restarted it and tried OE.

Still the same problem ...OE freezes.

We have 5 different identities in OE and about 600 to 800 emails. All
of them were moved into a new folder (under local folders) in each
identity. Then I went offline and compressed all folders in all
identities.

Still no change.


I do not know what else to do .
can anyone suggest any ?


Thanks
ava


"Jim Pickering" wrote in message ...
No you will not lose any mail by deleting folders.dbx but you will lose your
subscribed newsgroups and if you have set up a folder hierarchy for your
mail folders, that will need to be recreated along with any message rules
that may point to folders will have to be edited. But it hopefully will fix
your problem. Post back with your results.

Also, check for parasites:

Go here for info:
http://aumha.org/a/tshoot.php#malware

And for a quick check:
http://aumha.org/a/noads.php
--
Jim Pickering, MVP-Outlook Express
Please reply only to newsgroup.


"ava cohen" wrote in message
om...
I think I have done almost everything so far that has been suggested
except one:
and that is delete folders.dbx

If I do this will I lose all me emails. My emails are real important
to me so I am hestitating to do so. I cannot afford to lose my emails
in OE.

Pls. let me know.

Also do I have to do so for each identity separately ...I am not sure
if this question is relevant or appropriate...but since I am
technically Ignorant, I am asking.

Thanks
ava



"Steve Cochran" wrote in message
...
Take a look at point 8 below. Also do points 2 and 3 and see if that
makes
any difference. If not, then go to File | Identities and set up a new
Identity and do point 2 in that Identity. See if that fixes it.

steve

"ava cohen" wrote in message
om...
I did what you said below. But OE is still very slow.

What should I do now ?

I do not have that many mails ..perhaps 300 and most are short and
some perhaps have a 1 or 2 page word doc attached.

PLEASE HELP.

Thanks
Ava






"Bruce Hagen" wrote in message

...
Do not archive mail on default OE folders. They will eventually
become corrupted. Create your own user defined folders for storing
mail and move your mail to them. Empty Deleted Items folder
regularly.

After you are done, follow up by compacting your folders manually
while working *offline* and do it often.

FileWork Offline (or double click Working Online in the Status Bar).
FileFolderCompact all folders.

In ToolsOptionsMaintenance: Uncheck Compact messages in background
and leave it unchecked.

--
Bruce Hagen
~IB-CA~


"ava cohen" wrote in message
m...
I have a Win ME PC

OE opens at normal speed but when I click to:

- read a mail- it takes forever to open
-reply to a message - it takes forever to open

it is very SLOW.

I ran
- adaware
- AVG virus scan
-Scandisk
-Defrag

Still very slow.

What else can I do ?

Any suggestions ?

PLEASE HELP I AM NOT TECHNICAL.

Thanks
Ava



1. Don't open attachments.

Most computer infections are the result of the user opening email
attachments. The attachment usually contains a virus or worm or trojan
that
infects the system when it is opened.

Because of this tendency of attachments to infect, Microsoft has now set
OE
to block all attachments. See
these articles for explanations:

Cannot Open E-Mail Attachments in Outlook Express After You Install SP1
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=329570

OLEXP Using Virus Protection Features in Outlook Express 6 (Q291387)
http://support.microsoft.com/support.../Q291/3/87.ASP

Note that Microsoft does not send security patches in email. See this
article:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sec...patch_hoax.asp

If you choose to adjust OE to allow attachments, make sure you save the
attachment to disk first and then scan it with your antivirus software.

The most significant thing you can do to prevent such infections, is to
educate yourself on what attachments may constitute a threat to your
system,
and never open any such attachments, no matter who they are from.



2. Turn off Background Compaction. (Note that with WinXP SP2, this
feature
is already disabled.)

When a message is deleted, moved or marked as read in an OE message file
(dbx), then wasted space is generated in that file, and the folder must
be
compacted to remove that wasted space.

By default, OE turns on a feature under Tools | Options | Maintenance
called
"background compaction", which turns itself on if the folders in your
message store get too much wasted space. This feature uses 100% CPU time
and slows down your system, while it is active. In addition, if the
process
is somewhat interrupted, then the entire message store can become
corrupt.

To prevent such corruption, turn off background compaction under Tools |
Options | Maintenance for each Identity you have, and then compact
manually
and frequently using File | Folder | Compact all. This will make OE more
stable.


3. Turn off email scanning in your antivirus software.


Antivirus software invades the Outlook Express program to try and
intercept
(incoming and, in some cases, outgoing) messages that might contain
virus.

The problem with this approach is that the antivirus software can trigger
the destruction of an entire message folder or the entire message store,
when it attempts to remove a message containing a potential virus.

To prevent the possibility of such destruction occuring, turn off email
scanning in your antivirus software. You will still be protected against
infection. If you attempt to open a message attachment containing a
potential virus, then your antivirus software will recognize that your
are
attempting to infect your system, and will block you from doing so. The
best practice on the user's part is to save an attachment to disk and
then
scan it with the antivirus software prior to opening it. Messages opened
themselves (if you have the latest security updates from Windows Update)
will not infect your system -- only attachments.

You do not need additional email scanning on top of your system being
continuosly scanned by antivirus software, so turn off email scanning to
prevent destruction of your message store.

From a post by Frank Saunders:

From
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT...ail,protection

Disabling email protection does not leave you vulnerable to viruses and
malicious software in email. It is a separate layer of protection in
addition to Auto-Protect. Auto-Protect scans any incoming files,
including
email, as they are saved to your hard drive. As long as you keep your
virus
definitions up to date with LiveUpdate, and keep Auto-Protect enabled and
set to scan files as they are created or downloaded, your system is fully
protected.


4. Recovering lost messages.


The most significant contributors to lost messages are described in
points 2
and 3 above. Turn these options off to prevent message store corruption.

If you do lose your messages, you can try using my DBXtract program to
attempt to recover the lost messages. Note that dbx files are hidden in
Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
http://www.oehelp.com/DBXtract/

Alternatively one can also use DBXpress, which is faster and more
accurate
than DBXtract,
and it also has the capability of reading directly from the disk and
bypassing the file system.
http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/

If you have upgraded your version of IE and OE or your OS version, and
all
your messages are lost, then see this article (note that the technique in
the article does not only apply to the issue addressed in the article
title):

OLEXP: Mail Folders, Address Book, and E-mail Messages Are Missing After
You
Upgrade to Microsoft Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;313055

If File | Import | Messages does not work, ignore the error message,
which
is erroneous in itself, and try one of the following techniques to get
your
messages back:
a. Right click on each dbx file or a selection of them and go to
Properties
and clear the read only attribute of the files. Then try File | Import |
Messages again.
b. Import the dbx files individually. See the last paragraph on this
page
for how to do that:
http://www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx
c. As a last resort use DBXtract or DBXpress
http://www.oehelp.com/DBXtract/ or http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/

See also: http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/probl...s.htm#mailgone


5. How does one reinstall IE and OE?

This article seems to work for other OSs than just XP:

How to Reinstall or Repair Internet Explorer and Outlook Express
http://support.microsoft.com/default...;EN-US;Q318378

See point 11 below first.


6. How does one backup and restore or transfer OE messages and settings:

See: http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/backup/index.htm
http://www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx

Note that there is also a link in this article to MVP David Guess's free
OEBackup programs (www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/)



7. Links in email don't work:

see the links on this page

http://www.oehelp.com/


8. Outlook Express is slow.

See the various performance issues and how to address them on this page:

http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/problems/performance.htm


9. Outlook Express won't start.

This is usually due to a conflict between what is recorded in the
registry
and what is in the message store. Often, one can fix this problem by
deleting folders.dbx. If that doesn't work, then try moving all the dbx
files to another directory and see if that fixes it. Alternatively, see
these articles and also point 4 above:

http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/probl...ce.htm#nostart

http://support.microsoft.com/support.../q245/4/19.asp


10. Address book information:

see The Windows Address Book

http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/files/wab.htm


11. Installation issues:

Most of the problems with a faulty installation are due to other programs
running during the install and interfering with the updating of necessary
files. Antivirus software is notorious for this. To minimize such
interference, in Win98, WinMe, and WinXP go to Start | Run and type
msconfig
and disable all startup items and non Microsoft services. Then reboot.
Then proceed with the installation. Startup items can then be
re-enabled.

For additional info see:

Win98:
http://support.microsoft.com/default...65&Product=w98
WinXP:
http://support.microsoft.com/default...&Product=winxp

Since Win2000 does not have msconfig, one has to manually go to this
registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Run

You can export this key and then delete all values under it. Then
disable
all antivirus services under Computer Management | Services and then
reboot.
Then install. After the installation you can import the key back into
the
registry to restore the values and re-enable the services.


12. Screening unwanted email and Spam

Everybody gets unwanted email these days. Much of this email is either
trying to sell you something you probably don't want or else is trying to
infect you with a virus via an email attachment. What can you do?

a. Never open an attachment. First save an attachment to disk and then
scan it with your antivirus software to ensure it is not infected (make
sure
your antivirus software definitions are up to date). If the attachment
is
from someone you don't know, don't even bother opening it. Its not worth
it. See also point 1 above.

b. Screen email. Disable the Preview Pane (you can put a button on the
toolbar to turn this on and off). Then go to View | Columns and enable
most
of the headers. That way you can scan the headers and pick out the
various
obvious unwanted mail. Once you find messages that you don't want to
open,
select the headers of those messages without opening the messages and
perform a Shift-Delete to permanently remove them from the folder. Once
they are removed, they will no longer be accessible, so don't do this on
messages you might wish to keep.

c. On messages left that might be worth opening, go to Tools | Options |
Read and check the box that says "read all messages in plain text"
(available only with IE6 SP1 or WinXP SP1 and higher). Reading in plain
text prevents any returns to the spammer's server, so your email address
cannot be validated in that fashion. In addition, it prevents malformed
or
malicious HTML code from executing. If you find the message is worth
viewing as HTML, then you can go back to Tools | Options | Read and
uncheck
the option to read in plain text only and then reopen the message to view
it
as HTML (note that you can put this button on a toolbar with OETool
(www.oehelp.com/OETool/). You can also use OETool to view the message
details without having to open the message. You can also use the
"Compact
Current Folder" button after deleting to shrink the file size.

d. If you get unwanted email repeatedly from the same source, you can
set
up message rules to block out some of these messages. See the help file
in
OE and also

http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/tips/rules.htm

and

http://www.mindspring.com/~oe_oh/message_rules.htm.


e. If you find a message that is spam and that offends you or is
deceptive,
go to Message | Forward as attachment and send it to .

The US Federal Trade Comission is launching a major crackdown on
deceptive
and offensive spam. Visit their site at
www.ftc.gov/spam for more info.


13. Messages appear blank

From a post by Frank Saunders:

Several possible causes and therefor several possible fixes:
1. Go to Start | Run and type
regsvr32 inetcomm.dll
and press Enter
2. Go to Tools | Options | Read | Fonts and set Western (ISO) as the
default.
3. Clear Temporary Internet Files and the Temp folder.
4. Turn off email scanning in your anti-virus.
5. Someone else reported that re-installing OE using method 2 in this
article fixed the problem:
How to Reinstall or Repair Internet Explorer and Outlook Express in
Windows
XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=318378
Method 2 works on earlier versions of Windows.
6. Eliminate any scumware.
See
Dealing with Unwanted Spyware, Parasites, Toolbars and Search Engines
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm
especially
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm#Coolwebsearch

Note that AdAware and SpyBot S & D will each catch some things the other
won't. Also, each needs to be updated before every use, even when just
downloaded. There's also a lot more to do than just those two programs.
CWShredder is also available he
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/regs...cwshredder.zip
**Post your HijackThis log to
http://forums.spywareinfo.com/ or the Spyware forum at
http://forum.aumha.org/ for expert analysis, not here.**
Alternative download pages for Ad-Aware, Spybot, HijackThis and
CWShredder
may be found on this page:
http://aumha.org/a/parasite.htm.
If trying everything at that site does not fix the problem please post
back
in the same thread.

14. Issues with WinXP SP2.

For general information on WinXP SP2 see:

Windows XP Service Pack 2 Resources for IT Professionals
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro.../winxpsp2.mspx

For Internet Explorer changes with SP2 see:


Changes to Functionality in Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2: Part 5:
Enhanced Browsing Security
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro.../sp2brows.mspx

883256 - How to manage Internet Explorer add-ons in Windows XP Service
Pack
2
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;EN-US;883256

For Outlook Express changes with SP2 see:


Use the New Security Improvements in Outlook Express
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/u...eb/sp2_oe.mspx

Also:

835935 - Release notes for Windows XP Service Pack 2
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;835935

Changes to Functionality in Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2Part 1
Introduction
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro.../sp2chngs.mspx

842242 - Some programs seem to stop working after you install Windows XP
Service Pack 2
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;842242

884130 - Programs that may behave differently in Windows XP Service Pack
2
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=884130





I've left off some issues, but I believe these address the most
common problems that users encounter with OE. In addition, please check
the
websites of the individual OE MVP's that address other issues not listed
he


Tom Koch:
http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/

David Guess
http://www.mindspring.com/~oe_oh/

Jim Pickering
http://home.comcast.net/~jimpickering/

Frank Saunders
http://www.fjsmjs.com/OE/index.htm

and my site at http://www.oehelp.com


If you don't find your problem addressed, then feel free to post a
question
in these newsgroups and we will be more than happy to respond and attempt
to
help. Just go to Tools | Accounts | Add | News and add
msnews.microsoft.com
as a newsserver and then you can address your question to the appropriate
newsgroup.

  #8  
Old August 24th, 2004, 04:25 AM
ava cohen
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

In addition, I ran scandisk twice, defrag, Adaware, AVG virus scan etc.

Still no change

OE Freezes and sometime it says OE not responding.

I desperately need help...being a non technical person.

Thanks
Ava


"Jim Pickering" wrote in message ...
No you will not lose any mail by deleting folders.dbx but you will lose your
subscribed newsgroups and if you have set up a folder hierarchy for your
mail folders, that will need to be recreated along with any message rules
that may point to folders will have to be edited. But it hopefully will fix
your problem. Post back with your results.

Also, check for parasites:

Go here for info:
http://aumha.org/a/tshoot.php#malware

And for a quick check:
http://aumha.org/a/noads.php
--
Jim Pickering, MVP-Outlook Express
Please reply only to newsgroup.


"ava cohen" wrote in message
om...
I think I have done almost everything so far that has been suggested
except one:
and that is delete folders.dbx

If I do this will I lose all me emails. My emails are real important
to me so I am hestitating to do so. I cannot afford to lose my emails
in OE.

Pls. let me know.

Also do I have to do so for each identity separately ...I am not sure
if this question is relevant or appropriate...but since I am
technically Ignorant, I am asking.

Thanks
ava



"Steve Cochran" wrote in message
...
Take a look at point 8 below. Also do points 2 and 3 and see if that
makes
any difference. If not, then go to File | Identities and set up a new
Identity and do point 2 in that Identity. See if that fixes it.

steve

"ava cohen" wrote in message
om...
I did what you said below. But OE is still very slow.

What should I do now ?

I do not have that many mails ..perhaps 300 and most are short and
some perhaps have a 1 or 2 page word doc attached.

PLEASE HELP.

Thanks
Ava






"Bruce Hagen" wrote in message

...
Do not archive mail on default OE folders. They will eventually
become corrupted. Create your own user defined folders for storing
mail and move your mail to them. Empty Deleted Items folder
regularly.

After you are done, follow up by compacting your folders manually
while working *offline* and do it often.

FileWork Offline (or double click Working Online in the Status Bar).
FileFolderCompact all folders.

In ToolsOptionsMaintenance: Uncheck Compact messages in background
and leave it unchecked.

--
Bruce Hagen
~IB-CA~


"ava cohen" wrote in message
m...
I have a Win ME PC

OE opens at normal speed but when I click to:

- read a mail- it takes forever to open
-reply to a message - it takes forever to open

it is very SLOW.

I ran
- adaware
- AVG virus scan
-Scandisk
-Defrag

Still very slow.

What else can I do ?

Any suggestions ?

PLEASE HELP I AM NOT TECHNICAL.

Thanks
Ava



1. Don't open attachments.

Most computer infections are the result of the user opening email
attachments. The attachment usually contains a virus or worm or trojan
that
infects the system when it is opened.

Because of this tendency of attachments to infect, Microsoft has now set
OE
to block all attachments. See
these articles for explanations:

Cannot Open E-Mail Attachments in Outlook Express After You Install SP1
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=329570

OLEXP Using Virus Protection Features in Outlook Express 6 (Q291387)
http://support.microsoft.com/support.../Q291/3/87.ASP

Note that Microsoft does not send security patches in email. See this
article:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sec...patch_hoax.asp

If you choose to adjust OE to allow attachments, make sure you save the
attachment to disk first and then scan it with your antivirus software.

The most significant thing you can do to prevent such infections, is to
educate yourself on what attachments may constitute a threat to your
system,
and never open any such attachments, no matter who they are from.



2. Turn off Background Compaction. (Note that with WinXP SP2, this
feature
is already disabled.)

When a message is deleted, moved or marked as read in an OE message file
(dbx), then wasted space is generated in that file, and the folder must
be
compacted to remove that wasted space.

By default, OE turns on a feature under Tools | Options | Maintenance
called
"background compaction", which turns itself on if the folders in your
message store get too much wasted space. This feature uses 100% CPU time
and slows down your system, while it is active. In addition, if the
process
is somewhat interrupted, then the entire message store can become
corrupt.

To prevent such corruption, turn off background compaction under Tools |
Options | Maintenance for each Identity you have, and then compact
manually
and frequently using File | Folder | Compact all. This will make OE more
stable.


3. Turn off email scanning in your antivirus software.


Antivirus software invades the Outlook Express program to try and
intercept
(incoming and, in some cases, outgoing) messages that might contain
virus.

The problem with this approach is that the antivirus software can trigger
the destruction of an entire message folder or the entire message store,
when it attempts to remove a message containing a potential virus.

To prevent the possibility of such destruction occuring, turn off email
scanning in your antivirus software. You will still be protected against
infection. If you attempt to open a message attachment containing a
potential virus, then your antivirus software will recognize that your
are
attempting to infect your system, and will block you from doing so. The
best practice on the user's part is to save an attachment to disk and
then
scan it with the antivirus software prior to opening it. Messages opened
themselves (if you have the latest security updates from Windows Update)
will not infect your system -- only attachments.

You do not need additional email scanning on top of your system being
continuosly scanned by antivirus software, so turn off email scanning to
prevent destruction of your message store.

From a post by Frank Saunders:

From
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT...ail,protection

Disabling email protection does not leave you vulnerable to viruses and
malicious software in email. It is a separate layer of protection in
addition to Auto-Protect. Auto-Protect scans any incoming files,
including
email, as they are saved to your hard drive. As long as you keep your
virus
definitions up to date with LiveUpdate, and keep Auto-Protect enabled and
set to scan files as they are created or downloaded, your system is fully
protected.


4. Recovering lost messages.


The most significant contributors to lost messages are described in
points 2
and 3 above. Turn these options off to prevent message store corruption.

If you do lose your messages, you can try using my DBXtract program to
attempt to recover the lost messages. Note that dbx files are hidden in
Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
http://www.oehelp.com/DBXtract/

Alternatively one can also use DBXpress, which is faster and more
accurate
than DBXtract,
and it also has the capability of reading directly from the disk and
bypassing the file system.
http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/

If you have upgraded your version of IE and OE or your OS version, and
all
your messages are lost, then see this article (note that the technique in
the article does not only apply to the issue addressed in the article
title):

OLEXP: Mail Folders, Address Book, and E-mail Messages Are Missing After
You
Upgrade to Microsoft Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;313055

If File | Import | Messages does not work, ignore the error message,
which
is erroneous in itself, and try one of the following techniques to get
your
messages back:
a. Right click on each dbx file or a selection of them and go to
Properties
and clear the read only attribute of the files. Then try File | Import |
Messages again.
b. Import the dbx files individually. See the last paragraph on this
page
for how to do that:
http://www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx
c. As a last resort use DBXtract or DBXpress
http://www.oehelp.com/DBXtract/ or http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/

See also: http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/probl...s.htm#mailgone


5. How does one reinstall IE and OE?

This article seems to work for other OSs than just XP:

How to Reinstall or Repair Internet Explorer and Outlook Express
http://support.microsoft.com/default...;EN-US;Q318378

See point 11 below first.


6. How does one backup and restore or transfer OE messages and settings:

See: http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/backup/index.htm
http://www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx

Note that there is also a link in this article to MVP David Guess's free
OEBackup programs (www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/)



7. Links in email don't work:

see the links on this page

http://www.oehelp.com/


8. Outlook Express is slow.

See the various performance issues and how to address them on this page:

http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/problems/performance.htm


9. Outlook Express won't start.

This is usually due to a conflict between what is recorded in the
registry
and what is in the message store. Often, one can fix this problem by
deleting folders.dbx. If that doesn't work, then try moving all the dbx
files to another directory and see if that fixes it. Alternatively, see
these articles and also point 4 above:

http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/probl...ce.htm#nostart

http://support.microsoft.com/support.../q245/4/19.asp


10. Address book information:

see The Windows Address Book

http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/files/wab.htm


11. Installation issues:

Most of the problems with a faulty installation are due to other programs
running during the install and interfering with the updating of necessary
files. Antivirus software is notorious for this. To minimize such
interference, in Win98, WinMe, and WinXP go to Start | Run and type
msconfig
and disable all startup items and non Microsoft services. Then reboot.
Then proceed with the installation. Startup items can then be
re-enabled.

For additional info see:

Win98:
http://support.microsoft.com/default...65&Product=w98
WinXP:
http://support.microsoft.com/default...&Product=winxp

Since Win2000 does not have msconfig, one has to manually go to this
registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Run

You can export this key and then delete all values under it. Then
disable
all antivirus services under Computer Management | Services and then
reboot.
Then install. After the installation you can import the key back into
the
registry to restore the values and re-enable the services.


12. Screening unwanted email and Spam

Everybody gets unwanted email these days. Much of this email is either
trying to sell you something you probably don't want or else is trying to
infect you with a virus via an email attachment. What can you do?

a. Never open an attachment. First save an attachment to disk and then
scan it with your antivirus software to ensure it is not infected (make
sure
your antivirus software definitions are up to date). If the attachment
is
from someone you don't know, don't even bother opening it. Its not worth
it. See also point 1 above.

b. Screen email. Disable the Preview Pane (you can put a button on the
toolbar to turn this on and off). Then go to View | Columns and enable
most
of the headers. That way you can scan the headers and pick out the
various
obvious unwanted mail. Once you find messages that you don't want to
open,
select the headers of those messages without opening the messages and
perform a Shift-Delete to permanently remove them from the folder. Once
they are removed, they will no longer be accessible, so don't do this on
messages you might wish to keep.

c. On messages left that might be worth opening, go to Tools | Options |
Read and check the box that says "read all messages in plain text"
(available only with IE6 SP1 or WinXP SP1 and higher). Reading in plain
text prevents any returns to the spammer's server, so your email address
cannot be validated in that fashion. In addition, it prevents malformed
or
malicious HTML code from executing. If you find the message is worth
viewing as HTML, then you can go back to Tools | Options | Read and
uncheck
the option to read in plain text only and then reopen the message to view
it
as HTML (note that you can put this button on a toolbar with OETool
(www.oehelp.com/OETool/). You can also use OETool to view the message
details without having to open the message. You can also use the
"Compact
Current Folder" button after deleting to shrink the file size.

d. If you get unwanted email repeatedly from the same source, you can
set
up message rules to block out some of these messages. See the help file
in
OE and also

http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/tips/rules.htm

and

http://www.mindspring.com/~oe_oh/message_rules.htm.


e. If you find a message that is spam and that offends you or is
deceptive,
go to Message | Forward as attachment and send it to .

The US Federal Trade Comission is launching a major crackdown on
deceptive
and offensive spam. Visit their site at
www.ftc.gov/spam for more info.


13. Messages appear blank

From a post by Frank Saunders:

Several possible causes and therefor several possible fixes:
1. Go to Start | Run and type
regsvr32 inetcomm.dll
and press Enter
2. Go to Tools | Options | Read | Fonts and set Western (ISO) as the
default.
3. Clear Temporary Internet Files and the Temp folder.
4. Turn off email scanning in your anti-virus.
5. Someone else reported that re-installing OE using method 2 in this
article fixed the problem:
How to Reinstall or Repair Internet Explorer and Outlook Express in
Windows
XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=318378
Method 2 works on earlier versions of Windows.
6. Eliminate any scumware.
See
Dealing with Unwanted Spyware, Parasites, Toolbars and Search Engines
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm
especially
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm#Coolwebsearch

Note that AdAware and SpyBot S & D will each catch some things the other
won't. Also, each needs to be updated before every use, even when just
downloaded. There's also a lot more to do than just those two programs.
CWShredder is also available he
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/regs...cwshredder.zip
**Post your HijackThis log to
http://forums.spywareinfo.com/ or the Spyware forum at
http://forum.aumha.org/ for expert analysis, not here.**
Alternative download pages for Ad-Aware, Spybot, HijackThis and
CWShredder
may be found on this page:
http://aumha.org/a/parasite.htm.
If trying everything at that site does not fix the problem please post
back
in the same thread.

14. Issues with WinXP SP2.

For general information on WinXP SP2 see:

Windows XP Service Pack 2 Resources for IT Professionals
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro.../winxpsp2.mspx

For Internet Explorer changes with SP2 see:


Changes to Functionality in Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2: Part 5:
Enhanced Browsing Security
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro.../sp2brows.mspx

883256 - How to manage Internet Explorer add-ons in Windows XP Service
Pack
2
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;EN-US;883256

For Outlook Express changes with SP2 see:


Use the New Security Improvements in Outlook Express
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/u...eb/sp2_oe.mspx

Also:

835935 - Release notes for Windows XP Service Pack 2
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;835935

Changes to Functionality in Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2Part 1
Introduction
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro.../sp2chngs.mspx

842242 - Some programs seem to stop working after you install Windows XP
Service Pack 2
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;842242

884130 - Programs that may behave differently in Windows XP Service Pack
2
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=884130





I've left off some issues, but I believe these address the most
common problems that users encounter with OE. In addition, please check
the
websites of the individual OE MVP's that address other issues not listed
he


Tom Koch:
http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/

David Guess
http://www.mindspring.com/~oe_oh/

Jim Pickering
http://home.comcast.net/~jimpickering/

Frank Saunders
http://www.fjsmjs.com/OE/index.htm

and my site at http://www.oehelp.com


If you don't find your problem addressed, then feel free to post a
question
in these newsgroups and we will be more than happy to respond and attempt
to
help. Just go to Tools | Accounts | Add | News and add
msnews.microsoft.com
as a newsserver and then you can address your question to the appropriate
newsgroup.

  #9  
Old August 24th, 2004, 01:35 PM
Steve Cochran
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Do points 2 below for each Identity and see if that makes any difference.
If not, then you may have to delete the Identities key in the registry and
then set up each again.

Before doing much else, I'd search for *.dbx and copy all the files onto a
CD or something to ensure you don't lose the message folders.

steve

"ava cohen" wrote in message
om...
I did a search for folders.dbx. There were quite a few. I deleted all
of them.
Turned off the PC and restarted it and tried OE.

Still the same problem ...OE freezes.

We have 5 different identities in OE and about 600 to 800 emails. All
of them were moved into a new folder (under local folders) in each
identity. Then I went offline and compressed all folders in all
identities.

Still no change.


I do not know what else to do .
can anyone suggest any ?


Thanks
ava


"Jim Pickering" wrote in message

...
No you will not lose any mail by deleting folders.dbx but you will lose

your
subscribed newsgroups and if you have set up a folder hierarchy for your
mail folders, that will need to be recreated along with any message

rules
that may point to folders will have to be edited. But it hopefully will

fix
your problem. Post back with your results.

Also, check for parasites:

Go here for info:
http://aumha.org/a/tshoot.php#malware

And for a quick check:
http://aumha.org/a/noads.php
--
Jim Pickering, MVP-Outlook Express
Please reply only to newsgroup.


"ava cohen" wrote in message
om...
I think I have done almost everything so far that has been suggested
except one:
and that is delete folders.dbx

If I do this will I lose all me emails. My emails are real important
to me so I am hestitating to do so. I cannot afford to lose my emails
in OE.

Pls. let me know.

Also do I have to do so for each identity separately ...I am not sure
if this question is relevant or appropriate...but since I am
technically Ignorant, I am asking.

Thanks
ava



"Steve Cochran" wrote in message
...
Take a look at point 8 below. Also do points 2 and 3 and see if that
makes
any difference. If not, then go to File | Identities and set up a

new
Identity and do point 2 in that Identity. See if that fixes it.

steve

"ava cohen" wrote in message
om...
I did what you said below. But OE is still very slow.

What should I do now ?

I do not have that many mails ..perhaps 300 and most are short and
some perhaps have a 1 or 2 page word doc attached.

PLEASE HELP.

Thanks
Ava






"Bruce Hagen" wrote in message

...
Do not archive mail on default OE folders. They will eventually
become corrupted. Create your own user defined folders for

storing
mail and move your mail to them. Empty Deleted Items folder
regularly.

After you are done, follow up by compacting your folders manually
while working *offline* and do it often.

FileWork Offline (or double click Working Online in the Status

Bar).
FileFolderCompact all folders.

In ToolsOptionsMaintenance: Uncheck Compact messages in

background
and leave it unchecked.

--
Bruce Hagen
~IB-CA~


"ava cohen" wrote in message
m...
I have a Win ME PC

OE opens at normal speed but when I click to:

- read a mail- it takes forever to open
-reply to a message - it takes forever to open

it is very SLOW.

I ran
- adaware
- AVG virus scan
-Scandisk
-Defrag

Still very slow.

What else can I do ?

Any suggestions ?

PLEASE HELP I AM NOT TECHNICAL.

Thanks
Ava



1. Don't open attachments.

Most computer infections are the result of the user opening email
attachments. The attachment usually contains a virus or worm or

trojan
that
infects the system when it is opened.

Because of this tendency of attachments to infect, Microsoft has now

set
OE
to block all attachments. See
these articles for explanations:

Cannot Open E-Mail Attachments in Outlook Express After You Install

SP1
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=329570

OLEXP Using Virus Protection Features in Outlook Express 6 (Q291387)
http://support.microsoft.com/support.../Q291/3/87.ASP

Note that Microsoft does not send security patches in email. See

this
article:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sec...patch_hoax.asp

If you choose to adjust OE to allow attachments, make sure you save

the
attachment to disk first and then scan it with your antivirus

software.

The most significant thing you can do to prevent such infections, is

to
educate yourself on what attachments may constitute a threat to your
system,
and never open any such attachments, no matter who they are from.



2. Turn off Background Compaction. (Note that with WinXP SP2, this
feature
is already disabled.)

When a message is deleted, moved or marked as read in an OE message

file
(dbx), then wasted space is generated in that file, and the folder

must
be
compacted to remove that wasted space.

By default, OE turns on a feature under Tools | Options | Maintenance
called
"background compaction", which turns itself on if the folders in your
message store get too much wasted space. This feature uses 100% CPU

time
and slows down your system, while it is active. In addition, if the
process
is somewhat interrupted, then the entire message store can become
corrupt.

To prevent such corruption, turn off background compaction under

Tools |
Options | Maintenance for each Identity you have, and then compact
manually
and frequently using File | Folder | Compact all. This will make OE

more
stable.


3. Turn off email scanning in your antivirus software.


Antivirus software invades the Outlook Express program to try and
intercept
(incoming and, in some cases, outgoing) messages that might contain
virus.

The problem with this approach is that the antivirus software can

trigger
the destruction of an entire message folder or the entire message

store,
when it attempts to remove a message containing a potential virus.

To prevent the possibility of such destruction occuring, turn off

email
scanning in your antivirus software. You will still be protected

against
infection. If you attempt to open a message attachment containing a
potential virus, then your antivirus software will recognize that

your
are
attempting to infect your system, and will block you from doing so.

The
best practice on the user's part is to save an attachment to disk and
then
scan it with the antivirus software prior to opening it. Messages

opened
themselves (if you have the latest security updates from Windows

Update)
will not infect your system -- only attachments.

You do not need additional email scanning on top of your system being
continuosly scanned by antivirus software, so turn off email scanning

to
prevent destruction of your message store.

From a post by Frank Saunders:

From

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT...ail,protection

Disabling email protection does not leave you vulnerable to viruses

and
malicious software in email. It is a separate layer of protection in
addition to Auto-Protect. Auto-Protect scans any incoming files,
including
email, as they are saved to your hard drive. As long as you keep your
virus
definitions up to date with LiveUpdate, and keep Auto-Protect enabled

and
set to scan files as they are created or downloaded, your system is

fully
protected.


4. Recovering lost messages.


The most significant contributors to lost messages are described in
points 2
and 3 above. Turn these options off to prevent message store

corruption.

If you do lose your messages, you can try using my DBXtract program

to
attempt to recover the lost messages. Note that dbx files are hidden

in
Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
http://www.oehelp.com/DBXtract/

Alternatively one can also use DBXpress, which is faster and more
accurate
than DBXtract,
and it also has the capability of reading directly from the disk and
bypassing the file system.
http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/

If you have upgraded your version of IE and OE or your OS version,

and
all
your messages are lost, then see this article (note that the

technique in
the article does not only apply to the issue addressed in the article
title):

OLEXP: Mail Folders, Address Book, and E-mail Messages Are Missing

After
You
Upgrade to Microsoft Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;313055

If File | Import | Messages does not work, ignore the error message,
which
is erroneous in itself, and try one of the following techniques to

get
your
messages back:
a. Right click on each dbx file or a selection of them and go to
Properties
and clear the read only attribute of the files. Then try File |

Import |
Messages again.
b. Import the dbx files individually. See the last paragraph on

this
page
for how to do that:
http://www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx
c. As a last resort use DBXtract or DBXpress
http://www.oehelp.com/DBXtract/ or http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/

See also: http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/probl...s.htm#mailgone


5. How does one reinstall IE and OE?

This article seems to work for other OSs than just XP:

How to Reinstall or Repair Internet Explorer and Outlook Express
http://support.microsoft.com/default...;EN-US;Q318378

See point 11 below first.


6. How does one backup and restore or transfer OE messages and

settings:

See: http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/backup/index.htm
http://www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx

Note that there is also a link in this article to MVP David Guess's

free
OEBackup programs (www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/)



7. Links in email don't work:

see the links on this page

http://www.oehelp.com/


8. Outlook Express is slow.

See the various performance issues and how to address them on this

page:

http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/problems/performance.htm


9. Outlook Express won't start.

This is usually due to a conflict between what is recorded in the
registry
and what is in the message store. Often, one can fix this problem by
deleting folders.dbx. If that doesn't work, then try moving all the

dbx
files to another directory and see if that fixes it. Alternatively,

see
these articles and also point 4 above:

http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/probl...ce.htm#nostart

http://support.microsoft.com/support.../q245/4/19.asp


10. Address book information:

see The Windows Address Book

http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/files/wab.htm


11. Installation issues:

Most of the problems with a faulty installation are due to other

programs
running during the install and interfering with the updating of

necessary
files. Antivirus software is notorious for this. To minimize such
interference, in Win98, WinMe, and WinXP go to Start | Run and type
msconfig
and disable all startup items and non Microsoft services. Then

reboot.
Then proceed with the installation. Startup items can then be
re-enabled.

For additional info see:

Win98:

http://support.microsoft.com/default...65&Product=w98
WinXP:

http://support.microsoft.com/default...&Product=winxp

Since Win2000 does not have msconfig, one has to manually go to this
registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Run

You can export this key and then delete all values under it. Then
disable
all antivirus services under Computer Management | Services and then
reboot.
Then install. After the installation you can import the key back

into
the
registry to restore the values and re-enable the services.


12. Screening unwanted email and Spam

Everybody gets unwanted email these days. Much of this email is

either
trying to sell you something you probably don't want or else is

trying to
infect you with a virus via an email attachment. What can you do?

a. Never open an attachment. First save an attachment to disk and

then
scan it with your antivirus software to ensure it is not infected

(make
sure
your antivirus software definitions are up to date). If the

attachment
is
from someone you don't know, don't even bother opening it. Its not

worth
it. See also point 1 above.

b. Screen email. Disable the Preview Pane (you can put a button on

the
toolbar to turn this on and off). Then go to View | Columns and

enable
most
of the headers. That way you can scan the headers and pick out the
various
obvious unwanted mail. Once you find messages that you don't want to
open,
select the headers of those messages without opening the messages and
perform a Shift-Delete to permanently remove them from the folder.

Once
they are removed, they will no longer be accessible, so don't do this

on
messages you might wish to keep.

c. On messages left that might be worth opening, go to Tools |

Options |
Read and check the box that says "read all messages in plain text"
(available only with IE6 SP1 or WinXP SP1 and higher). Reading in

plain
text prevents any returns to the spammer's server, so your email

address
cannot be validated in that fashion. In addition, it prevents

malformed
or
malicious HTML code from executing. If you find the message is worth
viewing as HTML, then you can go back to Tools | Options | Read and
uncheck
the option to read in plain text only and then reopen the message to

view
it
as HTML (note that you can put this button on a toolbar with OETool
(www.oehelp.com/OETool/). You can also use OETool to view the

message
details without having to open the message. You can also use the
"Compact
Current Folder" button after deleting to shrink the file size.

d. If you get unwanted email repeatedly from the same source, you

can
set
up message rules to block out some of these messages. See the help

file
in
OE and also

http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/tips/rules.htm

and

http://www.mindspring.com/~oe_oh/message_rules.htm.


e. If you find a message that is spam and that offends you or is
deceptive,
go to Message | Forward as attachment and send it to .

The US Federal Trade Comission is launching a major crackdown on
deceptive
and offensive spam. Visit their site at
www.ftc.gov/spam for more

info.


13. Messages appear blank

From a post by Frank Saunders:

Several possible causes and therefor several possible fixes:
1. Go to Start | Run and type
regsvr32 inetcomm.dll
and press Enter
2. Go to Tools | Options | Read | Fonts and set Western (ISO) as the
default.
3. Clear Temporary Internet Files and the Temp folder.
4. Turn off email scanning in your anti-virus.
5. Someone else reported that re-installing OE using method 2 in

this
article fixed the problem:
How to Reinstall or Repair Internet Explorer and Outlook Express in
Windows
XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=318378
Method 2 works on earlier versions of Windows.
6. Eliminate any scumware.
See
Dealing with Unwanted Spyware, Parasites, Toolbars and Search Engines
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm
especially
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm#Coolwebsearch

Note that AdAware and SpyBot S & D will each catch some things the

other
won't. Also, each needs to be updated before every use, even when

just
downloaded. There's also a lot more to do than just those two

programs.
CWShredder is also available he
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/regs...cwshredder.zip
**Post your HijackThis log to
http://forums.spywareinfo.com/ or the Spyware forum at
http://forum.aumha.org/ for expert analysis, not here.**
Alternative download pages for Ad-Aware, Spybot, HijackThis and
CWShredder
may be found on this page:
http://aumha.org/a/parasite.htm.
If trying everything at that site does not fix the problem please

post
back
in the same thread.

14. Issues with WinXP SP2.

For general information on WinXP SP2 see:

Windows XP Service Pack 2 Resources for IT Professionals

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro.../winxpsp2.mspx

For Internet Explorer changes with SP2 see:


Changes to Functionality in Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2: Part

5:
Enhanced Browsing Security

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro.../sp2brows.mspx

883256 - How to manage Internet Explorer add-ons in Windows XP

Service
Pack
2
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;EN-US;883256

For Outlook Express changes with SP2 see:


Use the New Security Improvements in Outlook Express
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/u...eb/sp2_oe.mspx

Also:

835935 - Release notes for Windows XP Service Pack 2
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;835935

Changes to Functionality in Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2Part 1
Introduction

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro.../sp2chngs.mspx

842242 - Some programs seem to stop working after you install Windows

XP
Service Pack 2
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;842242

884130 - Programs that may behave differently in Windows XP Service

Pack
2
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=884130





I've left off some issues, but I believe these address the most
common problems that users encounter with OE. In addition, please

check
the
websites of the individual OE MVP's that address other issues not

listed
he


Tom Koch:
http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/

David Guess
http://www.mindspring.com/~oe_oh/

Jim Pickering
http://home.comcast.net/~jimpickering/

Frank Saunders
http://www.fjsmjs.com/OE/index.htm

and my site at http://www.oehelp.com


If you don't find your problem addressed, then feel free to post a
question
in these newsgroups and we will be more than happy to respond and

attempt
to
help. Just go to Tools | Accounts | Add | News and add
msnews.microsoft.com
as a newsserver and then you can address your question to the

appropriate
newsgroup.



  #10  
Old August 24th, 2004, 05:19 PM
rita goldman
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Am I doing the right thing ?

To compact the folders I created new folders in OE6 under local folders.
Should the new folders be created under LOCAL FOLDERS ?
After the above I went offline and compacted the folders.

I have tried everything so far but My OE6 is still Freezing.

Any other suggestions ?
Thanks
Ava


(ava cohen) wrote in message . com...
In addition, I ran scandisk twice, defrag, Adaware, AVG virus scan etc.

Still no change

OE Freezes and sometime it says OE not responding.

I desperately need help...being a non technical person.

Thanks
Ava


"Jim Pickering" wrote in message ...
No you will not lose any mail by deleting folders.dbx but you will lose your
subscribed newsgroups and if you have set up a folder hierarchy for your
mail folders, that will need to be recreated along with any message rules
that may point to folders will have to be edited. But it hopefully will fix
your problem. Post back with your results.

Also, check for parasites:

Go here for info:
http://aumha.org/a/tshoot.php#malware

And for a quick check:
http://aumha.org/a/noads.php
--
Jim Pickering, MVP-Outlook Express
Please reply only to newsgroup.


"ava cohen" wrote in message
om...
I think I have done almost everything so far that has been suggested
except one:
and that is delete folders.dbx

If I do this will I lose all me emails. My emails are real important
to me so I am hestitating to do so. I cannot afford to lose my emails
in OE.

Pls. let me know.

Also do I have to do so for each identity separately ...I am not sure
if this question is relevant or appropriate...but since I am
technically Ignorant, I am asking.

Thanks
ava



"Steve Cochran" wrote in message
...
Take a look at point 8 below. Also do points 2 and 3 and see if that
makes
any difference. If not, then go to File | Identities and set up a new
Identity and do point 2 in that Identity. See if that fixes it.

steve

"ava cohen" wrote in message
om...
I did what you said below. But OE is still very slow.

What should I do now ?

I do not have that many mails ..perhaps 300 and most are short and
some perhaps have a 1 or 2 page word doc attached.

PLEASE HELP.

Thanks
Ava






"Bruce Hagen" wrote in message

...
Do not archive mail on default OE folders. They will eventually
become corrupted. Create your own user defined folders for storing
mail and move your mail to them. Empty Deleted Items folder
regularly.

After you are done, follow up by compacting your folders manually
while working *offline* and do it often.

FileWork Offline (or double click Working Online in the Status Bar).
FileFolderCompact all folders.

In ToolsOptionsMaintenance: Uncheck Compact messages in background
and leave it unchecked.

--
Bruce Hagen
~IB-CA~


"ava cohen" wrote in message
m...
I have a Win ME PC

OE opens at normal speed but when I click to:

- read a mail- it takes forever to open
-reply to a message - it takes forever to open

it is very SLOW.

I ran
- adaware
- AVG virus scan
-Scandisk
-Defrag

Still very slow.

What else can I do ?

Any suggestions ?

PLEASE HELP I AM NOT TECHNICAL.

Thanks
Ava



1. Don't open attachments.

Most computer infections are the result of the user opening email
attachments. The attachment usually contains a virus or worm or trojan
that
infects the system when it is opened.

Because of this tendency of attachments to infect, Microsoft has now set
OE
to block all attachments. See
these articles for explanations:

Cannot Open E-Mail Attachments in Outlook Express After You Install SP1
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=329570

OLEXP Using Virus Protection Features in Outlook Express 6 (Q291387)
http://support.microsoft.com/support.../Q291/3/87.ASP

Note that Microsoft does not send security patches in email. See this
article:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sec...patch_hoax.asp

If you choose to adjust OE to allow attachments, make sure you save the
attachment to disk first and then scan it with your antivirus software.

The most significant thing you can do to prevent such infections, is to
educate yourself on what attachments may constitute a threat to your
system,
and never open any such attachments, no matter who they are from.



2. Turn off Background Compaction. (Note that with WinXP SP2, this
feature
is already disabled.)

When a message is deleted, moved or marked as read in an OE message file
(dbx), then wasted space is generated in that file, and the folder must
be
compacted to remove that wasted space.

By default, OE turns on a feature under Tools | Options | Maintenance
called
"background compaction", which turns itself on if the folders in your
message store get too much wasted space. This feature uses 100% CPU time
and slows down your system, while it is active. In addition, if the
process
is somewhat interrupted, then the entire message store can become
corrupt.

To prevent such corruption, turn off background compaction under Tools |
Options | Maintenance for each Identity you have, and then compact
manually
and frequently using File | Folder | Compact all. This will make OE more
stable.


3. Turn off email scanning in your antivirus software.


Antivirus software invades the Outlook Express program to try and
intercept
(incoming and, in some cases, outgoing) messages that might contain
virus.

The problem with this approach is that the antivirus software can trigger
the destruction of an entire message folder or the entire message store,
when it attempts to remove a message containing a potential virus.

To prevent the possibility of such destruction occuring, turn off email
scanning in your antivirus software. You will still be protected against
infection. If you attempt to open a message attachment containing a
potential virus, then your antivirus software will recognize that your
are
attempting to infect your system, and will block you from doing so. The
best practice on the user's part is to save an attachment to disk and
then
scan it with the antivirus software prior to opening it. Messages opened
themselves (if you have the latest security updates from Windows Update)
will not infect your system -- only attachments.

You do not need additional email scanning on top of your system being
continuosly scanned by antivirus software, so turn off email scanning to
prevent destruction of your message store.

From a post by Frank Saunders:

From
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT...ail,protection

Disabling email protection does not leave you vulnerable to viruses and
malicious software in email. It is a separate layer of protection in
addition to Auto-Protect. Auto-Protect scans any incoming files,
including
email, as they are saved to your hard drive. As long as you keep your
virus
definitions up to date with LiveUpdate, and keep Auto-Protect enabled and
set to scan files as they are created or downloaded, your system is fully
protected.


4. Recovering lost messages.


The most significant contributors to lost messages are described in
points 2
and 3 above. Turn these options off to prevent message store corruption.

If you do lose your messages, you can try using my DBXtract program to
attempt to recover the lost messages. Note that dbx files are hidden in
Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
http://www.oehelp.com/DBXtract/

Alternatively one can also use DBXpress, which is faster and more
accurate
than DBXtract,
and it also has the capability of reading directly from the disk and
bypassing the file system.
http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/

If you have upgraded your version of IE and OE or your OS version, and
all
your messages are lost, then see this article (note that the technique in
the article does not only apply to the issue addressed in the article
title):

OLEXP: Mail Folders, Address Book, and E-mail Messages Are Missing After
You
Upgrade to Microsoft Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;313055

If File | Import | Messages does not work, ignore the error message,
which
is erroneous in itself, and try one of the following techniques to get
your
messages back:
a. Right click on each dbx file or a selection of them and go to
Properties
and clear the read only attribute of the files. Then try File | Import |
Messages again.
b. Import the dbx files individually. See the last paragraph on this
page
for how to do that:
http://www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx
c. As a last resort use DBXtract or DBXpress
http://www.oehelp.com/DBXtract/ or http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/

See also: http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/probl...s.htm#mailgone


5. How does one reinstall IE and OE?

This article seems to work for other OSs than just XP:

How to Reinstall or Repair Internet Explorer and Outlook Express
http://support.microsoft.com/default...;EN-US;Q318378

See point 11 below first.


6. How does one backup and restore or transfer OE messages and settings:

See: http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/backup/index.htm
http://www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx

Note that there is also a link in this article to MVP David Guess's free
OEBackup programs (www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/)



7. Links in email don't work:

see the links on this page

http://www.oehelp.com/


8. Outlook Express is slow.

See the various performance issues and how to address them on this page:

http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/problems/performance.htm


9. Outlook Express won't start.

This is usually due to a conflict between what is recorded in the
registry
and what is in the message store. Often, one can fix this problem by
deleting folders.dbx. If that doesn't work, then try moving all the dbx
files to another directory and see if that fixes it. Alternatively, see
these articles and also point 4 above:

http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/probl...ce.htm#nostart

http://support.microsoft.com/support.../q245/4/19.asp


10. Address book information:

see The Windows Address Book

http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/files/wab.htm


11. Installation issues:

Most of the problems with a faulty installation are due to other programs
running during the install and interfering with the updating of necessary
files. Antivirus software is notorious for this. To minimize such
interference, in Win98, WinMe, and WinXP go to Start | Run and type
msconfig
and disable all startup items and non Microsoft services. Then reboot.
Then proceed with the installation. Startup items can then be
re-enabled.

For additional info see:

Win98:
http://support.microsoft.com/default...65&Product=w98
WinXP:
http://support.microsoft.com/default...&Product=winxp

Since Win2000 does not have msconfig, one has to manually go to this
registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Run

You can export this key and then delete all values under it. Then
disable
all antivirus services under Computer Management | Services and then
reboot.
Then install. After the installation you can import the key back into
the
registry to restore the values and re-enable the services.


12. Screening unwanted email and Spam

Everybody gets unwanted email these days. Much of this email is either
trying to sell you something you probably don't want or else is trying to
infect you with a virus via an email attachment. What can you do?

a. Never open an attachment. First save an attachment to disk and then
scan it with your antivirus software to ensure it is not infected (make
sure
your antivirus software definitions are up to date). If the attachment
is
from someone you don't know, don't even bother opening it. Its not worth
it. See also point 1 above.

b. Screen email. Disable the Preview Pane (you can put a button on the
toolbar to turn this on and off). Then go to View | Columns and enable
most
of the headers. That way you can scan the headers and pick out the
various
obvious unwanted mail. Once you find messages that you don't want to
open,
select the headers of those messages without opening the messages and
perform a Shift-Delete to permanently remove them from the folder. Once
they are removed, they will no longer be accessible, so don't do this on
messages you might wish to keep.

c. On messages left that might be worth opening, go to Tools | Options |
Read and check the box that says "read all messages in plain text"
(available only with IE6 SP1 or WinXP SP1 and higher). Reading in plain
text prevents any returns to the spammer's server, so your email address
cannot be validated in that fashion. In addition, it prevents malformed
or
malicious HTML code from executing. If you find the message is worth
viewing as HTML, then you can go back to Tools | Options | Read and
uncheck
the option to read in plain text only and then reopen the message to view
it
as HTML (note that you can put this button on a toolbar with OETool
(www.oehelp.com/OETool/). You can also use OETool to view the message
details without having to open the message. You can also use the
"Compact
Current Folder" button after deleting to shrink the file size.

d. If you get unwanted email repeatedly from the same source, you can
set
up message rules to block out some of these messages. See the help file
in
OE and also

http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/tips/rules.htm

and

http://www.mindspring.com/~oe_oh/message_rules.htm.


e. If you find a message that is spam and that offends you or is
deceptive,
go to Message | Forward as attachment and send it to .

The US Federal Trade Comission is launching a major crackdown on
deceptive
and offensive spam. Visit their site at
www.ftc.gov/spam for more info.


13. Messages appear blank

From a post by Frank Saunders:

Several possible causes and therefor several possible fixes:
1. Go to Start | Run and type
regsvr32 inetcomm.dll
and press Enter
2. Go to Tools | Options | Read | Fonts and set Western (ISO) as the
default.
3. Clear Temporary Internet Files and the Temp folder.
4. Turn off email scanning in your anti-virus.
5. Someone else reported that re-installing OE using method 2 in this
article fixed the problem:
How to Reinstall or Repair Internet Explorer and Outlook Express in
Windows
XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=318378
Method 2 works on earlier versions of Windows.
6. Eliminate any scumware.
See
Dealing with Unwanted Spyware, Parasites, Toolbars and Search Engines
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm
especially
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm#Coolwebsearch

Note that AdAware and SpyBot S & D will each catch some things the other
won't. Also, each needs to be updated before every use, even when just
downloaded. There's also a lot more to do than just those two programs.
CWShredder is also available he
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/regs...cwshredder.zip
**Post your HijackThis log to
http://forums.spywareinfo.com/ or the Spyware forum at
http://forum.aumha.org/ for expert analysis, not here.**
Alternative download pages for Ad-Aware, Spybot, HijackThis and
CWShredder
may be found on this page:
http://aumha.org/a/parasite.htm.
If trying everything at that site does not fix the problem please post
back
in the same thread.

14. Issues with WinXP SP2.

For general information on WinXP SP2 see:

Windows XP Service Pack 2 Resources for IT Professionals
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro.../winxpsp2.mspx

For Internet Explorer changes with SP2 see:


Changes to Functionality in Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2: Part 5:
Enhanced Browsing Security
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro.../sp2brows.mspx

883256 - How to manage Internet Explorer add-ons in Windows XP Service
Pack
2
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;EN-US;883256

For Outlook Express changes with SP2 see:


Use the New Security Improvements in Outlook Express
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/u...eb/sp2_oe.mspx

Also:

835935 - Release notes for Windows XP Service Pack 2
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;835935

Changes to Functionality in Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2Part 1
Introduction
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro.../sp2chngs.mspx

842242 - Some programs seem to stop working after you install Windows XP
Service Pack 2
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;842242

884130 - Programs that may behave differently in Windows XP Service Pack
2
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=884130





I've left off some issues, but I believe these address the most
common problems that users encounter with OE. In addition, please check
the
websites of the individual OE MVP's that address other issues not listed
he


Tom Koch:
http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/

David Guess
http://www.mindspring.com/~oe_oh/

Jim Pickering
http://home.comcast.net/~jimpickering/

Frank Saunders
http://www.fjsmjs.com/OE/index.htm

and my site at http://www.oehelp.com


If you don't find your problem addressed, then feel free to post a
question
in these newsgroups and we will be more than happy to respond and attempt
to
help. Just go to Tools | Accounts | Add | News and add
msnews.microsoft.com
as a newsserver and then you can address your question to the appropriate
newsgroup.

 




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