Disappearing address book

[pia]

Yesterday I opened my address book...only to find it empty. If I begin to
type an address into the address line of a message, however, it sometimes
completes the address, suggesting that the address book still exists
somewhere...but where? How can I keep this from happening again. (This is
the second time it has vanished.)

 

[Wandering]

Don't know where it went, but there is no relationship between the automatic
entry completion and the address book. They are separate, so that the loss
of the address book will not affect auto complete. Are you using some kind
of cleanup software?

Check for the following file: Windows/Users/youracountname/Contacts They
should be there.

 

[pia]

I went to Windows/Users/youracountname/Contacts, and the address book was
there...still empty! No clean-up software or any other type of
maintenance/housekeeping activities. Thanks for explaining auto-complete.

 

[Wandering]

If this is a new machine, does it have a security suite like Norton
installed. If so, for a start, turn off email scanning. Second, if you
have different users set up on the machine, each will have a separate
contacts folder. If you log on as a new different user you get a new
contacts folder - empty but for you. Last, if none of these work, and you
have a security suite installed, uninstall it. Then try again. There a
number of suites that cripple Windows Mail. Avast, AVG, and my favorite
AntiVir all work well with it. Vista has it's own firewall that is quite
good if you add the freeware Vista Firewall Control to enable it's outgoing
features. Besides all these are free, and rated very well. Good luck.

 

[pia]

I will turn off email scanning (I've heard that advice in other contexts.) I
too use Avast...no other users...security suite? (not sure, will
check...nothing that didn't come with the HP Pavillion or Vista.) One other
thing, at the time of the latest "disappearance" I had just completely
emptied my "sent" and "delete" folders. Am unclear how that might have cause
the problem, though. Thanks. I greatly appreciate your input.

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

HP computers often come with a trial version of McAfee or Norton
antivirus. Do you recall uninstalling either one? Their uninstall needs to be
followed up by using a special cleanup utility.

Also, you probably installed Avast using its default install. Even if its
email scanning is disabled, it can still cause problems. Uninstall it,
then reinstall, but select 'custom' install, and then deselect the email
scanning module so it won't install.

Instead of switching to a different antivirus, another option is to upgrade
to Windows Live Mail (WLM), which is more resistant to the adverse effects
of aggressive antivirus products: http://get.live.com/wlmail/overview