Outlook Express-Troubleshooting

Problem: You’ve lost all your Outlook Express mail.
Cause: This could happen if you have background compacting selected and it was running when Windows was shut down improperly. Check if this option is selected under Tools > Options > Maintenance.
SolutionIf your computer often shuts down improperly, disable background compacting. Now, to recover your mail, re-extract them using a paid utility called DBXpress from www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/Default. aspx
Problem: Outlook Express will not allow attachments
Cause: This is intentional. It’s meant to make your computer more secure, but can be an annoyance.
Solution #1: Go to Tools > Options > Security tab and remove the checkmark beside “Do not allow attachments to be saved or opened that could potentially be a virus”. Press Apply and then OK. Exit Outlook Express via the File menu, then re-launch the program. You should now be able to view and save attachments to your hard disk, but it is generally advised that you leave this turned on most of the time to prevent accidentally opening infected attachments.
Solution #2: Here’s a quick work-around. Open the mail with the attachment, then click Forward (just as if you were going to for­ward the message to someone else). The attachment will now be viewable below the Subject Line.
Problem: OE won’t switch identities.
Comments: There is a fix available for this: “An Overview of the Cumulative Update for Outlook Express 6.0 SP-1”. This is available at http://support. microsoft. com/default. aspx?scid= kb;EN-US; q331923
Workaround #1: You might find that the problem was caused by installing SP1. The workaround is to uncheck the “use this identi­ty as default” box under “Manage Identities”, and get prompted for which identity to use every time you start.
Workaround #2: Hit the [F1] key before switching identities. This will bring up the Outlook Express Help window. With this window minimised, you can switch identities.
Problem: Outlook Express loads very slowly.
Cause: A possible cause for slow performance when starting Microsoft Outlook Express in Windows XP is the integration of Windows Messenger.
Solution #1: Is Messenger starting when Windows starts? If so, then that’s the cause of OE’s performance hit. If it is not running at startup, then OE is probably launching Messenger and waiting for it to fully initialise before it continues initializing OE itself.
To prevent OE from launching Messenger, click Tools > Options and remove the check mark for “Automatically log on to Windows Messenger”. Then add a checkmark for “When starting, go direct­ly to my Inbox folder”. Then click View > Layout, and remove the checkmark for “Contacts”.
Note that if you open the Contacts pane, or if you open the OE start page, then Messenger will launch in order to update the online status of your contacts.
Solution #2: Open the Registry Editor and navigate to this key HKEY_CLASSES_ ROOT\CLSID\ {FB7199AB-79BF- 11d2-8D94- 0000F875C541 }\InProcServer32
In the right-hand pane, double-click on the “Default” value and delete whatever is entered there, leaving it blank. Click OK. Now perform exactly the same step with the key directly underneath, namely
HKEY_CLASSES_ ROOT\CLSID\ {FB7199AB-79BF- 11d2-8D94- 0000F875C541 }\LocalServer32
Once both “Default” values are empty, OE will open normally.
Problem: Outlook Express could not be started because MSO ERES.DLL could not be found.
Cause: Outlook Express may not be installed correctly.
Solution: First, uninstall and reinstall OE. This can be done from ‘Add or Remove Programs’ in the Control Panel, and selecting “Windows Components.” Remove OE, and re-install it. If that doesn’t work, try the following link:
http://support. microsoft. com/default. aspx?scid= KB;EN­US ;Q3183 78
Problem :Links in mails do not work
Cause: This is a problem with your file type settings.
Solution: In Windows Explorer, go to Tools > Folder Options > File Types and scroll down to “HTML” or “HTM”. Check the values there. Click “Advanced” at the bottom right. Assuming you’re using Internet Explorer, click “open”, then click “Edit”. Under “Application used to perform action, the entry should be
“C:\PROGRAM FILES\INTERNET EXPLORER\iexplore. exe” - nohome
(Check the path to iexplore.exe to make sure it is correct.) “DDE” should be checked. In the boxes below it you should have, in order,
“%1”,,-1,0,,,,
IExplore
(blank)
WWW_OpenURL
If this is incorrect, change the values to the above. If it’s correct and you still have problems, go to Start > Run and type in “regsvr32 urlmon.dll”. Next, open Internet Explorer and go to Tools > Internet Options > Programs, and click “Reset Web Settings”.
Problem: Messages do not appear in Outlook Express 6 Comments: When you try to access e-mails or newsgroup mes­sages, the general header information appears, but when you click on the message, you get an “hourglass” cursor, and the body of the message does not appear. This happens to pre-down­loaded email as well, not just new messages.
Cause: One of the causes of this could be a virus or spyware. Solution #1: Do a thorough spyware and virus scan using the latest definitions.
Solution #2: Go to: Start > Run and type in “regsvr32 inet­comm.dll”, and press [Enter]. That might do the trick.
Solution #3: In Outlook Express, go to Tools > Options > Read > Fonts, and change the default encoding setting to Western (ISO)
Problem: When a mail is highlighted and deleted, a copy goes to the deleted folder but the original stays in the Inbox.
Cause: This can occur if the Deleted Items folder is damaged. Solution: Move all messages you want to keep out of the Deleted Items folder and into another mail folder. Close OE, then delete the “Deleted Items.dbx” file in your Identity’s store folder. OE will create a new one when it is reopened.
(To find where your data files are stored, go to Tools > Options > Maintenance > Store Folder and see where OE is keeping its files.)
Problem: After installing Windows XP SP2, you get a Red X instead of a picture.
Comments: In order to view the pictures, you need to click the bar under the subject line in the preview pane that says, “Some pictures have been blocked...Click here to download pictures.” The pictures will now be visible.
Cause: This is an inten­tional feature in SP2.
Solution: If you would like to turn the feature off all together, go to Tools > Options and click the Security tab. Under “Download Images”, uncheck the box marked “Block images and other exter­nal content...” Your pictures should now appear without you hav­ing to do anything.
Problem: Messages are invisible in the Inbox.
Comments: When you do a search for an e-mail message, you find it to be in your Inbox. But when you go directly in to the Inbox, it’s not there.
Cause: This is due to a corrupt inbox.dbx file.
Solution: First, use the search feature and move the files from your Inbox to some other folder (you could create a new folder and put the files in there). After that, locate the folder where OE stores your messages by going to Tools > Options > Maintenance tab > Store Folder. In that folder, delete the inbox.dbx file. (You’ll need to shut down OE before doing this.) Now when you restart OE, a new Inbox folder will have been created.