Deleting WindowsMail.MSMessageStore

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Hi. If I have understood various discussions on this group, deleting the
WindowsMail.MSMessageStore file will simply scrap the index, leaving the
messages intact. Is that right?

My WindowsMail.MSMessageStore file is almost 40Mb and is clogged up with
references to ancient Usenet messages - including messages on newsgroups I
don't even visit any more.

So, if I delete WindowsMail.MSMessageStore will Windows Mail work OK, but
without the bloat?

Thanks in advance,

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Answering my own question . . .
After checking as best I could and having made two (count 'em, two) backups
I went ahead and deleted my WindowsMail.MSMessageStore file and, yes, it
regenerated itself without any loss of email messages.
Of course the Usenet message store vanished but that didn't matter anyway.
So everything's fine and response time is better.
The odd thing, however, is that the regenerated file is nearly as big as the
old one.
Oh well . . .

 

[Guest]

I kept files storing ancient Usenet messages until I did the following:
Click on Tools, then Options, then Advanced, then Maintenance.
Put checkmarks in the boxes before Purge newsgroup messages in
the background, Delete read message bodies in newsgroups, and
Delete news messages 21 days after being downloaded. It now
deletes the older .nws files. I haven't checked if it also deletes
anything from WindowsMail.MSMessageStore.