argyliz said:In attempting to open an email with attachment, the Outlook Express
program locked.. cannot delete, send, receive or send on the mail program.
Cannot get to tools, etc. completely unusable. Any help or suggestions
much appreciated.
thanks
Bruce Hagen said:X-Poxted to OE General.
Close OE. If you /must/ use Ctrl+Alt+Delete. Open Internet Explorer and
File | Work Offline. Open OE and see if you can delete it now.
argyliz said:Did not work Bruce -- when I opened Outlook , the box ask if I wanted to
continue 'offline' - I clicked Yes and it locked... thanks and please give
me something else to try. Ralph Griffith
Bruce Hagen said:Do you store messages in the Inbox, or can you afford to wipe it clean? If
you don't care about message in the Inbox, do the following. If you do
need messages, instead of deleting the Inbox.dbx, rename it to
Inboxold.dbx. You will need a tool to recover the messages and we'll deal
with that later.
Tools | Options | Maintenance | Store Folder will reveal the location of
your Outlook Express files. Press the Tab key to highlight the folder
location, then Ctrl+C. Close OE, then Start | Run | Ctrl+V will put the
location in the box - Click OK and you'll see the OE files. Otherwise,
write the location down and navigate to it in Windows Explorer.
In WinXP, Win2K & Win2K3, the OE user files (DBX and WAB) are by default
marked as hidden. To view these files in Windows Explorer, you must enable
Show Hidden Files and Folders under Start | Control Panel | Folder Options
Icon | View, or in Windows Explorer | Tools | Folder Options | View.
With OE closed, find the DBX file for the folder in question {Inbox.dbx}
and delete it. A new one will be created automatically when you open OE.
General precautions for Outlook Express:
Do not archive mail in default OE folders. They will eventually become
corrupt. 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.
After you are done, follow up by compacting your folders manually while
working *offline* and do it often.
Click on Outlook Express at the top of the folder tree so no folders are
open. Then: File | Work Offline (or double click Working Online in the
Status Bar). File | Folder | Compact all folders. Don't touch anything
until the compacting is completed.
Turn off e-mail scanning in your anti-virus program. It is a redundant
layer of protection that eats up CPUs and causes a multitude of problems
such as time-outs and account setting changes. Your up-to-date A/V program
will continue to protect you sufficiently. For more, see:
http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#3
In Tools | Options | Maintenance: Uncheck Compact messages in background
and leave it unchecked. {N/A if running XP/SP2}.
And backup often.
Outlook Express Quick Backup (OEQB):
http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx
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