Mike said:
I have a customer who needed her e-mail configured for a new ISP. I try to
launch OE and a small window comes up looking for OE.
The shortcut specifies the wrong path or the wrong filename. Easy to fix
simply by putting in the correct filename and path to it.
I went to Add/Remove
and tried reinstalling OE.
There is no separate entry for Outlook Express in Add/Remove Programs. OE
is included in Internet Explorer. So what did you really reinstall?
No luck. I went to the OE folder and it is
completely empty.
WHICH folder did you go to? There is its program folder (C:\Program
Files\Outlook Express), its applications folder per user profile
(C:\Documents and Settings\lhodsdon\Local Settings\Application
The customer said she had someone work on her machine a
while back. He told her she didn't need Outllook Express
Wrong. Some of the DLLs installed by IE (for OE) may be required by other
applications. For example,
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=280956.
and it was a security problem.
Only if you use it. Only if you don't bother configuring it to ensure it
uses the Restricted Sites security zone (and which is set to its High
level). Sounds like a lazy and bogus "someone" professing to know more than
they do to impress their customer.
It looks like he deleted everything in the OE folder.
And probably without providing a backup, too. Yeah, nice helper, was NOT
he.
He also turned off system restore.
Bet he can't give a good excuse why, either. Turning it off meant losing
all those restore points. But why do you care? A restore wouldn't bring
back OE and all her data. A system restore point takes a few seconds to
create. A disk image or logical file backup takes a LOT longer because it
actually includes non-critical system files. System Restore is to bring the
*system* back to life, not to recover some prior state of your applications
and it definitely NEVER touches your data files (because a restore would
then corrupt all your data by making you lose changes).
A restore point that exists is not a threat. You actually have to read it
to restore your system to result in a problem, like reinstating a virally
infected file that got put into the restore point. However, there has been
no mention that any action was committed because there was suspicion of a
virus. At this point, I'm not sure the bungler could explain any of his
actions.
She called him and he said he has a copy of
Office 2000 that he would install. I told her that was illegal unless she
purchased the software herself. Is there a way to reinstall Outlook
Express?
Obviously this was NOT a professional computer technician. Why would this
guy think she wants to use a suite of products, which includes Outlook, to
solve her e-mail client problem with OE? She probably doesn't want
everything that is in Outlook 2000, and she probably doesn't want an old
version of the program. We don't know if you speak for her regarding her
propensity or aversion to pirated software.
OE is part of IE. So go to
http://www.microsoft.com/ie and install IE
again. Awhile ago, you actually had to do 2 installs. The first one only
offered to refresh the existing components while the second one added the
option to replace everything. Normally the download is just a small setup
program that then yanks the rest of the files while connected. They used to
have a network install version which was the full product that you could put
on CD and take to any host even if it was unconnected, but I don't know
where is the link or if they have that anymore.
Another option is to go to Add/Remove Programs, Add/Remove Windows
Components, and see if Outlook Express is unchecked. If it is, maybe
checking it will install it again. You'll need the Windows install CD.
You'll probably also have to go to Windows Updates to get all the patches
available since that static copy got written onto that old CD.
