Update to WMUtil to remove blank files from the message store

[Steve Cochran]

I just updated my WMUtil program (http://www.oehelp.com/WMUTil/Default.aspx)
to get rid of the blank files in the message store.

"A bug in the released version of Windows Mail results in the population of
the message store (particularly the outbox) with zero byte eml files. These
files can accumulate and result in performance losses. So with the File
utilities, clicking on the File Statistics will display the total number of
..eml and .nws files in the message store directory, as well as the number of
zero byte (blank) .eml and .nws files. Clicking on the remove blank files
will improve performance if there are a lot of them."

steve

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

Steve,
WMUtil found 16 zero byte files, and removed them.
However, when I restarted WinMail, I still had the stuck message
in my Outbox. So this leads me to believe that the 'stuck'
messages aren't necessarily zero bytes.

Gary VanderMolen

 

[Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE/WM]

No. I had three stuck messages in my Inbox of 330 KB that I couldn't delete
until I marked them as read.

 

[Steve Cochran]

The program ignores the database. It just goes in and finds all the zero
byte eml and nws files in the message store and obliterates them.

As I indicated earlier, the "stuck" messages are due to spurious entries in
the database that cannot easily be fixed. That's totally different from
the file system. Its a case of mismatch between what's in the db and what's
in the file system.

If you just had 16 zero byte files then you shouldn't worry about anything.
I had over 5,000 and that was a nuisance and I'm sure affected performance.

steve

 

[Steve Cochran]

Well, in that case there was another issue obviously. There are many
seeing messages they can't delete for which there is no corresponding
message file.

Having one issue doesn't preclude having others as well. <G>

steve