file compacting

  • Thread starter Thread starter M Weiss
  • Start date Start date
M

M Weiss

I use Outlook Express for mail. Every twice in a while when I sign off a
compacting process starts that lasts forever. Any way to disable this
process, or at least to schedule for a convenient time?

Same for the Disk Cleanup utility.

Thanks
 
M said:
I use Outlook Express for mail. Every twice in a while when I sign off a
compacting process starts that lasts forever. Any way to disable this
process, or at least to schedule for a convenient time?
Click to expand...

In OE select Tools, Options and go to the Maintenance tab. Remove the check
from "Compact messages in the background" and click OK. There is no way to
schedule this but you can do it any time you want manually by select File,
Folder, Compact All Folders.
Same for the Disk Cleanup utility.
Click to expand...

For automating disk cleanup, see the following KB article:

How to Automate the Disk Cleanup Tool in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=315246
--
Tom Porterfield
MS-MVP Windows
http://support.telop.org

Please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup only.
 
In my OE there is option "compact messages in the background." All I have is
"When compacting messages :" with two option relating to deleting newsgroup
postings.
 
You have XP SP2. SP2 removed the Compact messages in the background option
because it caused problems.

[[It is largely for this reason that the background compaction feature has
been removed in Windows XP SP2. Now Outlook Express will compact
automatically only after you have opened and closed Outlook Express 100
times. It will do so not in the background, when you might be busy doing
other things on the computer, but rather when you close Outlook Express for
that 100th time. Do not cancel this compaction, nor use your computer until
it is finished. For best results however, you should still compact all
folders on a regular basis, such as weekly or bi-weekly.]]
From...
The Other E-Mail Threat: File Corruption in Outlook Express
By Tom Koch
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/community/columns/filecorruption.mspx

If you compact all your folders regularly, the process takes very little
time. But, like running defrag, you have to bite the bullet and do it the
first time.

You ought to read the whole article.

The Other E-Mail Threat: File Corruption in Outlook Express
By Tom Koch
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/community/columns/filecorruption.mspx

Also...

An Outlook Express basic repair kit
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/community/columns/oerepair.mspx

Disk Cleanup ...

I have Disk Cleaner set to run quiet at startup. Runs for 5 seconds or so
and exits. I also like the fact that, after you set it up, it cleans all
the following with one click (and/or automatically at boot). Makes XP's
Disk Cleanup look like a piker. XP's Disk Cleanup will *not* clean
Content.IE5.

Disk Cleaner will Clean:
Temporary Internet Files {Including the contents of the Content.IE5 folder}
Internet Cookies
Internet History
System Temporary Folder
Recent Documents
Run... Dialog List
Find Document List
Find Computer List
URLs in IE Address Bar
URLs in Shell Address Bar
Media Player Recent URLs
WinZip Recent Files
WinZip Extract To Folders
Paint Recent Files
WordPad Recent Files
Cleans Recycle Bin (what else?)
Opera Cache
Opera Cookies
Opera History
Opera Visited links
Opera Download History and Download folder
Firefox Cache
Firefox Cookies
Firefox History

Disk Cleaner
http://www.xs4all.nl/~mp2004/
--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In
 
You can extend the inbuilt cleaner.

Here's one I just made that does *.fred in c:\desktop if more than 2 days since last accessed.
Merge the file then look here in the registry
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VolumeCaches\CustomDeleter
and alter the path and filetype (I didn't want to delete my hard drive by mistake as 98 disk cleanup threatened to do if you customised parameters). Also as the path is an Expand type it's in hex in the regfile and in english in the reg (because regfiles don't support expand so it uses hex). If using environmental variables the data type must be expand.

I created a file called New Text Document.Fred, set my clock forward, and it deleted. It didn't delete unless I set the clock forward so it shows the time is working (note it is last access not modified or created).

To use
cleanmgr /sageset:<a number>
and only tick the Customer Deleter
This sets it up

Then to run or schedule
cleanmgr /sagerun:<same number used above>

You can have as many pairs of sageset/run as you want.


Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VolumeCaches\CustomDeleter]
@="{C0E13E61-0CC6-11d1-BBB6-0060978B2AE6}"
"FileList"="*.fred"
"Folder"=hex(2):63,00,3a,00,5c,00,64,00,65,00,73,00,6b,00,74,00,6f,00,70,00,00,\
00
"Flags"=dword:00000000
"LastAccess"=dword:00000002
"StateFlags"=dword:00000001
"Display"="Custom"
"Description"="Clears a custom folder"

To make multiple cleaners just change the last key name (CustomDeleter)

Seperate multiple filetypes like so (pipe)
*.fred|*.horse

Seperate multiple directories the same way.
c:\desktop|C:\games

Use this syntax for directories ?:\recycled

Which will do all drives or the specified drive (depending on how cleanup is being used)

Last Access can be set to 0 for instant deleting.

AFAIK Disk Cleanup won't delete user data only IE's cache. There is more there than IE's cache.
--
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://webdiary.smh.com.au/archives/_comment/001075.html
=================================================
Wesley Vogel said:
You have XP SP2. SP2 removed the Compact messages in the background option
because it caused problems.

[[It is largely for this reason that the background compaction feature has
been removed in Windows XP SP2. Now Outlook Express will compact
automatically only after you have opened and closed Outlook Express 100
times. It will do so not in the background, when you might be busy doing
other things on the computer, but rather when you close Outlook Express for
that 100th time. Do not cancel this compaction, nor use your computer until
it is finished. For best results however, you should still compact all
folders on a regular basis, such as weekly or bi-weekly.]]
From...
The Other E-Mail Threat: File Corruption in Outlook Express
By Tom Koch
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/community/columns/filecorruption.mspx

If you compact all your folders regularly, the process takes very little
time. But, like running defrag, you have to bite the bullet and do it the
first time.

You ought to read the whole article.

The Other E-Mail Threat: File Corruption in Outlook Express
By Tom Koch
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/community/columns/filecorruption.mspx

Also...

An Outlook Express basic repair kit
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/community/columns/oerepair.mspx

Disk Cleanup ...

I have Disk Cleaner set to run quiet at startup. Runs for 5 seconds or so
and exits. I also like the fact that, after you set it up, it cleans all
the following with one click (and/or automatically at boot). Makes XP's
Disk Cleanup look like a piker. XP's Disk Cleanup will *not* clean
Content.IE5.

Disk Cleaner will Clean:
Temporary Internet Files {Including the contents of the Content.IE5 folder}
Internet Cookies
Internet History
System Temporary Folder
Recent Documents
Run... Dialog List
Find Document List
Find Computer List
URLs in IE Address Bar
URLs in Shell Address Bar
Media Player Recent URLs
WinZip Recent Files
WinZip Extract To Folders
Paint Recent Files
WordPad Recent Files
Cleans Recycle Bin (what else?)
Opera Cache
Opera Cookies
Opera History
Opera Visited links
Opera Download History and Download folder
Firefox Cache
Firefox Cookies
Firefox History

Disk Cleaner
http://www.xs4all.nl/~mp2004/
--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In
M Weiss said:
In my OE there is option "compact messages in the background." All I have
is "When compacting messages :" with two option relating to deleting
newsgroup postings.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Sound like this:

Not sure if this is you, but sounds like it: in Outlook Express, go to
tools->options->maintenance tab, and uncheck "compact messages in
background". Should take care of the Outlook Express hanging thing. Please
bear in mind, Outlook Express is a home-use kind of program, and bad things
can happen if it gets too full of email especially large email, which might
be part of the reason compacting is taking so long. Emptying "deleted
items" regularly, segregating files to seperate subfolders within OE, and
saving attachments seperately as files (then deleting the email that
contained them) can all help with this, if you hae any concerns.

Also, this type of behaviour might suggest your hard-drive could use a
defrag or a checkdisk.
 
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