Outlook Express NAG

  • Thread starter Thread starter BeeJ
  • Start date Start date
BeeJ said:
How do I stop Outlook Express from nagging me every hour or so to
compress its database?
Click to expand...

You could do the compress.

Or you could Google for the registry hack to reset its counter and hope
that the message store doesn't get corrupted over progressive updates
and continued use.

http://www.google.com/search?q=+"outlook+express"+%2Bcompress+%2Bcounter+%2Bregistry

some hits:

http://www.insideoe.com/faqs/why.htm#compact
http://duitwithsbs.wordpress.com/2008/10/19/outlook-express-compacting-annoyance-message/

As noted in the 2nd article, other program exercising OE will increment
its counter so the prompt may appear before YOU have opened OE 100 times
because something else opened it. For example, besides Windows Desktop,
another cause for programmatic opening of OE is using the Fischer-Price
bobble-head Welcome Screen that shows your e-mail count. Something has
to go look at your e-mail account and that may be OE, so using the
Welcome Screen (instead of the Classic logon screen) uses OE to get your
new e-mail count which exercises OE and ups its usage counter.

Besides doing what the 2nd article mentions in deleting the key, and
since most suggestions have to leave it there and reset to zero, you
could save a .reg file containing a definition of just that registry key
and the data item with a zero count and then use "regedit.exe /s
<regfile>" as a shortcut in your Startup folder under the Start menu.
Then everytime you login the OE counter gets reset to zero. You could
schedule that command as a scheduled event in Task Scheduler to run when
you logon, or at scheduled times (and you don't even have to be logged
in at that time).

No compacting your message store results in eventually it getting
corrupted or exceeding its 2GB maximum size. Deleted items moved into
the Deleted Items folder have not been deleted. They've just been moved
into another folder so they still exist. Not until you permanently
delete an item using Shift+Del or deleting from the Deleted Items folder
or using a rule with the "permanently delete" clause is an item actually
*tagged* as deleted in the message store. You cannot see delete-flagged
items in OE's GUI but they still exist in the message store (in the .dbx
files). They still occupy space. That means you might have only a
single tiny message showing in some folder in OE's GUI but have gigs of
disk space used in the message store with thousands of delete-flagged
items. Not until those delete-flagged items are physically purged from
the database files are they really deleted (there are tools that can
undelete the delete-flagged items as further proof they are still in
there). The maximum size for the .dbx files for OE is 2GB. When you
add more items that exceeds that maximum, the database gets corrupted.
That's why you purge the database of delete-flagged items to get the
..dbx files under the 2GB limit (and why you cannot have so many items
stored in OE that even a clean .dbx file would exceed 2GB). Purging is
done by the compaction process. You compact to physically purge the
delete-flagged items still residing in the database files to prevent
eventual corruption of them by keeping them under the 2GB limit.

So continually ignoring the compaction prompt or hiding it by resetting
the counter or deleting the data item from the registry means you don't
compact the databases which eventually will result in their corruption.
So just go ahead and compact OE's message store. If you get the prompt
far earlier than your use of OE (how many times you opened it) then
start looking at what programs you installed that might be using OE or
whether you really want to use that Welcome Screen with its e-mail
counter that uses OE to look at your e-mail accounts (see
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/304148) or whether you'll switch to the
Classic logon screen to eliminate exercising OE to get a count of your
new e-mails.
 
Wow!
I can't find the uninstall for OE'

I went to the OE folder and created a folder named Hidden.
I MOVED all the files in the OE folder to the Hidden folder.

Then as I pondered this, after a few seconds, all the OE files
magically got copied right back into the OE folder and the moved files
remained. I did it again and it restored the OE files again.
I have never seen this behavior in windows.

Is this a Trojan or whatever????

Windows would not let me delete the files in OE. Said they were in
use.
But would let me move, or at least so I thought.

In use? I do not see them in Process Explorer.
 
Wow!
I can't find the uninstall for OE'

I went to the OE folder and created a folder named Hidden.
I MOVED all the files in the OE folder to the Hidden folder.
Click to expand...

Did you already try going to Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs,
Add/Remove Windows Components? Seems to me that would be how you
remove OE properly.
 
BeeJ said:
I am not even using OE. No accounts.
I'll try to uninstall it.
Click to expand...

Are are determined to continue using the bobble-head Welcome Screen for
logging on or are you willing to revert to the Classic Logon screen?
The classic login screen doesn't show a new e-mail counter which means
it won't be accessing OE to go check for new e-mails.

If you still want to continue using the Windows Screen for login, see:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/304148
"This e-mail hyperlink is only displayed if the e-mail client that your
computer is running populates the following registry key ..."

Well, presumably if that registry entry is blank (null) then no e-mail
client is specified to update the new e-mail account on the Welcome
Screen. That means the new e-mail counter on the Welcome Screen will
not get updated.

See what e-mail client is listed in that registry entry. If OE and you
don't want OE used for anything then null out the value of the data item
mentioned for this registry key.

While you may not be using OE, that doesn't Windows isn't.
 
BeeJ said:
And yes I do the compress. Next day, it's back asking to compress
again ... and again ...
Click to expand...

To compress means there has to be something to compress. Have you ever
loaded OE so it creates its default set of .dbx database files which are
what it compresses?

Do a manual compaction. Tools -> Options -> Maintenance tab -> Clean Up
Now button, and click the Reset button. This wipes out the database
files. When done, click on the Compact button. Wait for it to finish.
Exit and reload OE. Do you still get the compact prompt?

If a .dbx file is corrupt then the compress will fail which means the
counter won't get reset. Exit OE, delete all the .dbx files in OE's
store folder, reload OE (to recreate its default set of .dbx files), and
exit OE. Now you have fresh but empty database files that aren't
corrupt and the compress operation will complete okay.

If you kill the msimn.exe process, shutdown the computer, it crashes, or
for any other reason you end up aborting the compress operation before
it completes, the counter won't get reset and you'll get the compact
prompt again the next time OE loads. So did you do an exit of OE (check
if msimn.exe process is listed in Task Manager), WAIT for any compress
operation to complete, and do a proper shutdown of Windows for the "next
day" (which presumably means you booted back up). I don't know what
"next day" means to you regarding the state of your computer.

Did you install non-Microsoft anti-virus software? If so, does it scan
your e-mails? If so, it probably scans the database files for OE.
E-mail scanning is superfluous as it affords no more protection than the
real-time AV scanner. Disable any e-mail scanning in your AV software
(or do a reinstall of the AV program but follow with a custom install
that does NOT include their e-mail scanner module since disabling this
function in some AV programs does not eliminate e-mail traffic from
still going through their transparent proxy - no interrogation of the
e-mail traffic but it still goes through their proxy).
 
BeeJ said:
Wow!
I can't find the uninstall for OE'

I went to the OE folder and created a folder named Hidden.
I MOVED all the files in the OE folder to the Hidden folder.

Then as I pondered this, after a few seconds, all the OE files
magically got copied right back into the OE folder and the moved files
remained. I did it again and it restored the OE files again.
I have never seen this behavior in windows.

Is this a Trojan or whatever????

Windows would not let me delete the files in OE. Said they were in
use.
But would let me move, or at least so I thought.

In use? I do not see them in Process Explorer.
Click to expand...

To uninstall OE:

Method 1:

- Display the Control Panel and open the 'Add or Remove Programs'
applet.
- Select the 'Add/Remove Windows Component's option in the left pane.
- Scroll down to show "Outlook Express" in the Components list.
- Deselect that component.
- Click the Next button and continue.

Method 2:

- Display the Control Pannel and open the 'Add or Remove Programs'
applet.
- Select the 'Set Program Access and Defaults' option in the left pane.
- Select the Custom option.
- Click on the downward chevron for Custom to reveal its options.
- Under 'Choose a default Email Program':
o Select OE.
o Deselect the checkmark labelled 'Enable Access to this program' (to
(prevent access to the software or its components).
 
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