Disable folders compacting on Outlook Express

  • Thread starter Thread starter Tyler Durden
  • Start date Start date
T

Tyler Durden

Is there any registry tweak to disable the folders compression at 100th
execution?

Kind regards.
 
[X-Posted to OE General Newsgroup]

Tyler Durden said:
Is there any registry tweak to disable the folders compression at 100th
execution?

Kind regards.


No, there is no tweak and you will regret not compacting at some point.
Please read on.

Why does OE insist on compacting folders when I close it?:
http://www.insideoe.com/faqs/why.htm#compact

About File Corruption:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/community/columns/filecorruption.mspx

Compacting your folders periodically is a must to keep OE functioning well
and at some point, you may lose all your saved messages if you don't. When
you delete, or move messages, the space they had used remains until you
compact.

***Never touch anything until the compacting is finished.***

See:
www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#2

With SP2, automatic background compacting was removed due to problems it
caused. Now you will get a prompt to compact after 100 OE closings, which
you should do, and don't touch anything until it has finished. If you
compact manually, at your convenience, this will also set the counter back
to zero. See this for more information:
http://www.insideoe.com/files/maintain.htm#compact

If you are fully patched, you will also now see a copy of your dbx files
being copied to the Recycle Bin as BAK files. Should something go awry when
compacting, the messages can easily be restored from this backup. A manual
compact will also reset the counter in the registry back to zero now.

For more info, see the information outlined in red here:
www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#2

To keep things running smooth, and for faster compacting:

Do not archive mail in default OE folders. They will eventually become
corrupt and you may lose mail. Create your own user defined folders for
storing mail and move your mail to them. Empty Deleted Items folder
regularly. Keep user created folders under 100MB, and Default folders as
empty as is feasible.

And backup often.

Backup and Restore:

http://www.insideoutlookexpress.com/backup/

http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx
 
Why would I want to compact if I have zero emails stored? I don't use
OE to send or retrieve any emails, only to print ".EML" files.
I print hundreds of emails at a time and these ".EML" files are not
imported to a folder in OE so I should NEVER need to compact.

I understand the need for compacting but the way this is triggered
(100 OE closing) is a lousy way to do it. There should be an option
to disable it, even if it's a one-time registry tweak, or checking #
of emails sent/received since last compact, or number of emails
stored, etc... anything would be better than the 100 OE closing
trigger.

Since OE does not have a "print" context menu option (you can't right
click on an ".EML" file and select "Print") I've had to create a
program to automate printing hundreds of emails anat a time and this
annoying compact nag is throwing it off every 100 times.

I've seen some people mentioning a possible registry tweak that
involves resetting "Compact Check Count" to 0 so I guess I'll try
looking into implementing this into my program but what a hassle.

Sorry, just had to rant.
 
Why would I want to compact if I have zero emails stored? I don't use
OE to send or retrieve any emails, only to print ".EML" files.
I print hundreds of emails at a time and these ".EML" files are not
imported to a folder in OE so I should NEVER need to compact.

I understand the need for compacting but the way this is triggered
(100 OE closing) is a lousy way to do it. There should be an option
to disable it, even if it's a one-time registry tweak, or checking #
of emails sent/received since last compact, or number of emails
stored, etc... anything would be better than the 100 OE closing
trigger.

Since OE does not have a "print" context menu option (you can't right
click on an ".EML" file and select "Print") I've had to create a
program to automate printing hundreds of emails anat a time and this
annoying compact nag is throwing it off every 100 times.

I've seen some people mentioning a possible registry tweak that
involves resetting "Compact Check Count" to 0 so I guess I'll try
looking into implementing this into my program but what a hassle.

Sorry, just had to rant

Vista doesn't have Outlook Express.
 
You are preaching to the choir. Unfortunately, no one at MS who has any
say in such matters pays any attention to this or other newsgroups.

If you are invoking the IStoreNamespace, then if you leave it open for the
duration of the printing (as opposed to opening and closing it with each
message) and then close it, then the compact check count will only be
incremented once.

This applies to Windows Mail in Vista as well.

steve
 
Ideally you would have begun a new thread about /your/ specific issues.

Are you running WinXP SP2 or WinXP SP3?

How often are you seeing the prompt to compact OE folders?
 
Starting with SP2, you get the prompt to compact after 100 closings of
OE and every one thereafter until you compact. SP3 It changes the way
the compact count gets incremented. With SP2, only closing the main
program caused the count to get incremented. But with SP3, if the main
OE program is closed, every time a DBX, EML or NWS file is accessed by
an OE component, the count gets incremented. This includes double
clicking an EML file or sending an e-mail from another program (if OE is
the default for either) or a number of indexing programs such as Windows
Desktop Search or Nero Scout.

In your case of printing EML files, having the main OE program open
while printing will stop the count from being incremented.
 
LOL! ok - can I rant too?
I remember when computers were first introduced, we were going to REDUCE the
amount of paper used! i.e. a "paperless" society! <G> sure hasn't worked,
has it? It's so easy to print, correct - then print again for every little
change! Can't believe how much MORE paper is used!

(and just curious - if you don't send or retrieve emails - what files do you
have to print?)
 
Oops - sorry about this being here. Thought I was in a different group and
viewing "newer" messages!
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Back
Top