Strange sub-window in WinMail

[Rainald Taesler]

Contrary to others I love Vista! ;-)
Meanwhile I have 3 machines running under Vista (my desktop, my TabletPC
and my wife's desktop). So it's my daily joy to detect anomalies and/or
different behaviour <g>.

What bothers me most at present:
For app. 2 weeks - out if a sudden - on my desktop (and only there) I'm
having an unseen phenomenon with the screen layout:
*Below* the normal parts of the WinMail-window (columns for the folders
[left side] and the headers preview and the messages preview [right,
upper and lower half]) appears a sub-window with a scrollbar which
stretches across the whole WinMail window. This sub-windows always is
totally empty (no contents at all).
As this description might be unclear, pls see:
http://www.hera.hs-heilbronn.de/Rt/WinMailProbs.jpg

I cab drag this sub-window bigger and smaller. But there always remain a
minimal height determined by the "Up" and "Down" scroll-buttons
(arrows).

I checked literally *everything* to get rid of this totally useless
(empty) sub-window. To no avail :-( :-(
An I already asked in the German Vista NGs. To no avail either {siiiigh}

Has anybody got an idea what this might be and how I might get rid of
this?

Rainald

 

[Frank Saunders MS-MVP IE,OE/WM]

Contrary to others I love Vista! ;-)
Meanwhile I have 3 machines running under Vista (my desktop, my TabletPC
and my wife's desktop). So it's my daily joy to detect anomalies and/or
different behaviour <g>.

What bothers me most at present:
For app. 2 weeks - out if a sudden - on my desktop (and only there) I'm
having an unseen phenomenon with the screen layout:
*Below* the normal parts of the WinMail-window (columns for the folders
[left side] and the headers preview and the messages preview [right,
upper and lower half]) appears a sub-window with a scrollbar which
stretches across the whole WinMail window. This sub-windows always is
totally empty (no contents at all).
As this description might be unclear, pls see:
http://www.hera.hs-heilbronn.de/Rt/WinMailProbs.jpg

I cab drag this sub-window bigger and smaller. But there always remain a
minimal height determined by the "Up" and "Down" scroll-buttons
(arrows).

I checked literally *everything* to get rid of this totally useless
(empty) sub-window. To no avail :-( :-(
An I already asked in the German Vista NGs. To no avail either {siiiigh}

Has anybody got an idea what this might be and how I might get rid of
this?

Where did you get the computer?
Look both under View and View | Layout and if there's an InfoBar uncheck it.
I've seen this in Outlook Express but never in Windows Mail.

 

[mac]

Where did you get the computer?
Look both under View and View | Layout and if there's an InfoBar uncheck
it.
I've seen this in Outlook Express but never in Windows Mail.

That window was known as the Info Pane, it contained your ISP related Ad's,
as Frank says it was enabled/disabled via View>Layout.

Usually it was related to a Branded version of OE, ie: Outlook Express
provided by (ISP). Would appear in the title bar.

I can still emulate that view in W98 OE6.

It really is an interesting throw-back to earlier versions

I have forwarded your message to the WLM team at MS, but I do not hold out
any hope of a reply.

 

[Rainald Taesler]

Thanks for trying to help, Frank!

...
For app. 2 weeks - out if a sudden - on my desktop (and only
there) I'm having an unseen phenomenon with the screen layout:
*Below* the normal parts of the WinMail-window (columns for the
folders [left side] and the headers preview and the messages
preview [right, upper and lower half]) appears a sub-window with a
scrollbar which stretches across the whole WinMail window. This
sub-windows always is totally empty (no contents at all).
As this description might be unclear, pls see:
http://www.hera.hs-heilbronn.de/Rt/WinMailProbs.jpg

Where did you get the computer?

On eBay <bg>.
But that was app. a year ago. And it is has worked pretty fine under

Look both under View and View | Layout and if there's an InfoBar
uncheck it.

Prior to asking in here I had already worked through all of the options
in the "View" menu, activating and de-activating each and any single
option, to no avail.

In so far a very strange thing (which I had noticed when "playing" with
the options but not paid attention to until your mentioning of an
"InfoBar"):
When I open the "View | Layout" dialog, the CheckBox no. 6 (upper half,
2nd row, 3rd CheckBox) is *activated* (checked) and its title reads
"Infowindow" (my translation from the German name "Infofenster").
If I move the mouse over it, the title changes to "Searchbar" (my
translation from "Suchleiste") and the CheckBox's state correctly shows
the state of the SearchBar (Pls see the:
http://www.hera.hs-heilbronn.de/Rt/WinMailProbs_2.jpg ).

Seems that this might be a key to the riddle.

I've seen this in Outlook Express but never in Windows
Mail.

I can not remember to have had this with OE.
And it's really strange.

Thanks again
Rainald
P.S. I have SP1 and all Updates installed
P.P.S. Things with WinMail are getting worse:
After my initial posting in here and now WinMail decided not to close
correctly anymore {grin,siiiigh}. Whenever I close WinMail an
Error-MsgBox appears, telling that WinMail does work anymore and offers
a re-start.
This is persistent ever after a system re-boot :-( :-(

 

[Rainald Taesler]

Thanks for jumping in, mac!
Pls see my reply to Frank and the images
http://www.hera.hs-heilbronn.de/Rt/WinMailProbs_2.jpg

That window was known as the Info Pane, it contained your ISP
related Ad's, as Frank says it was enabled/disabled via View>Layout.

Really interesting!!

Usually it was related to a Branded version of OE, ie: Outlook
Express provided by (ISP). Would appear in the title bar.

Never had anything like that ..

I can still emulate that view in W98 OE6.

It really is an interesting throw-back to earlier versions

Really strange recursion. And "developers' joy", me seems ...
But why must this happen to poor me?
And why with out any detectable reason?

Could it be that it might be related to applying SP1?

I can not exactly say when this appeared. I can only say it did not
happen prior to installing SP1 over a clean system (restored from a
system backup).

I have forwarded your message to the WLM team at MS, but I do not
hold out any hope of a reply.

Thanks a lot for forwarding the problem to the powers in charge.
And in spite if all the frustrations of not being heard, I'd seriously
hope that someone might listen. The thing is that strange that IMHO it
might deserve some bug-hunting.
Perhaps you might forward my new findings too.

Thanks a lot
Rainald

 

[mac]

Prior to asking in here I had already worked through all of the options
in the "View" menu, activating and de-activating each and any single
option, to no avail.

In so far a very strange thing (which I had noticed when "playing" with
the options but not paid attention to until your mentioning of an
"InfoBar"):
When I open the "View | Layout" dialog, the CheckBox no. 6 (upper half,
2nd row, 3rd CheckBox) is *activated* (checked) and its title reads
"Infowindow" (my translation from the German name "Infofenster").
If I move the mouse over it, the title changes to "Searchbar" (my
translation from "Suchleiste") and the CheckBox's state correctly shows
the state of the SearchBar (Pls see the:
http://www.hera.hs-heilbronn.de/Rt/WinMailProbs_2.jpg ).

Seems that this might be a key to the riddle.

Hi there again Rainald,

please see the following article:

OLEXP: Unable to Remove InfoPane in Outlook Express 5
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/222624

Please do NOT make any changes to the Registry at this stage!!

Start>Run>Regedit>OK

Can you navigate to and check in the registry at
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows Mail, for the existence of
either of the keys mentioned in the article, BodyBarPos and BodyBarPath, if
either exist could you also report the value that they are set to, (0), or
(1) etc.

I have reproduced the mouse over name change that you described.

 

[mac]

P.P.S. Things with WinMail are getting worse:
After my initial posting in here and now WinMail decided not to close
correctly anymore {grin,siiiigh}. Whenever I close WinMail an
Error-MsgBox appears, telling that WinMail does work anymore and offers
a re-start.
This is persistent ever after a system re-boot :-( :-(

Not at all sure what is causing your shut down problem/error?

Try right click next to the Search bar on top right and remove the tick from
it.
(Instead of using view>layout).

Will WM close now?

You could also try running the following: WMUtil, (NB the text in the second
red box).

http://www.oehelp.com/WMUtil/Default.aspx

From http://www.oehelp.com/default.aspx

Just in case you have any message store corruption?

HTH?

 

[Rainald Taesler]

Thanks for responding on my "P.S." which I'd better not placed in this
thread where it's OT :-( :-(

Not at all sure what is causing your shut down problem/error?

I have absolutely no idea on why this suddenly appeared yesterday when
working on this thread ...

Try right click next to the Search bar on top right and remove the
tick from it.
(Instead of using view>layout).

Been there, done so.
WinMail's behaviour is unchanged :-( :-(

Will WM close now?

Just to make the situation clear:
Be it with closing from the menu (File | Close) or with closing the app
by clicking on the "close icon" in the TitleBar, the result is just the
same:
- WinMail closes,
- immediately after the OnClose event is firing, the ErrorMsg DialogBox
appears reporting that WinMail could not be closed correctly and
suggests a re-start.

You could also try running the following: WMUtil, (NB the text in
the second red box).

http://www.oehelp.com/WMUtil/Default.aspx

From http://www.oehelp.com/default.aspx

Thanks for the suggestion and the references.
I called WMUtil (having been sitting in my toolbox since more than a

Just in case you have any message store corruption?

This might have been the case.
But the problem was not cured.
I did run *all* of the offered routines.
Clearing "zero" files reported to have removed "1878 zero files" (quite
heavy, Me seems). After compressing the data and repairing the database,
the situation has not changed at all.

Thanks again for your care

Rainald

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

Sometimes Windows Mail gets just too bollixed up to waste further time on it.

As a last gap measure, you can try the elaborate "Reset" procedure. See:

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/62560-windows-mail-problems.html
and scroll down to the section "How to Backup and Reset Windows Mail."

If it was me, I would upgrade to Windows Live Mail and never look back:
http://get.live.com/wlmail/overview

 

[Rainald Taesler]

Just in case you have any message store corruption?

Further to my last posting:
I think that now I definitely can exclude any problem with the
mail-store:

1.) I renamed the existing directory holding the mail-store and created
a new (empty) one;

2.) I ran a restore of the nail-store from a backup made with "WMBackp"
(a really good backup tool from a German developer who produced
"MOBackup" [for Outlook] and "OEBackup" [for OE]) app. 4 weeks ago. I
could easily run the risk to do so as all of my mail-stuff is based on
IMAP (so that it's easy enough to re-download everything to the proper
folder) and the NG-stuff can easily be re-loaded too.

The situation still is *unchanged*.

Closing of WinMail is corrupt as before (since yesterday)

Rainald

 

[mac]

Thanks for responding on my "P.S." which I'd better not placed in this
thread where it's OT :-( :-(

Possibly?

But you did not respond to my 'On Topic' reply in the thread, you have me
wondering why? )

 

[Rainald Taesler]

Possibly?

But you did not respond to my 'On Topic' reply in the thread, you
have me wondering why? )

I'm so sorry.
I have been trying to get through with the closing corruption issue as
well as with import/export problems (apart from the European soccer
championship and my wife trying to get ready for a 2 weeks trip to the
US <g>) and by this could not yet relax enough to check the Registry
issues :-( :-(
I will come back in the original topic tomorrow.

Rainald

 

[mac]

I'm so sorry.

I will come back in the original topic tomorrow.

Please get back when it is convenient for you.

 

[mac]

2.) I ran a restore of the nail-store from a backup made with "WMBackp"
(a really good backup tool from a German developer who produced
"MOBackup" [for Outlook] and "OEBackup" [for OE]) app. 4 weeks ago. I
could easily run the risk to do so as all of my mail-stuff is based on
IMAP (so that it's easy enough to re-download everything to the proper
folder) and the NG-stuff can easily be re-loaded too.

On that topic

Did you upgrade to Vista from WinXP (and/or possibly, upgrade to XP from
Win9x)? I know that you got the machine off of e-bay, but what do you know
of the install history please?

Did you import your OE data into WinMail?

 

[Rainald Taesler]

You're the hero if the day! <g>
BOTH problems fixed!!
Hurrah!

please see the following article:

OLEXP: Unable to Remove InfoPane in Outlook Express 5
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/222624

Benn there done so.

Please do NOT make any changes to the Registry at this stage!!

Start>Run>Regedit>OK

Can you navigate to and check in the registry at
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows Mail, for the
existence of either of the keys mentioned in the article,
BodyBarPos and BodyBarPath, if either exist could you also report
the value that they are set to, (0), or (1) etc.

Keys with "body were:

[HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-4067126082-1478542118-3757437317-1000\Software\Micr
osoft\Windows Mail]
"BodyBarPos"=dword:00000026
"ShowBodyBar"=dword:00000001
"BodyBarPath"="www.spiegel.de"

When enlarging the sub-window (obviously the "BodyBar") with dragging
the separator, the value if BodyBarPos was changed.

The BodyBarPath shows the URL of the German magazine "Der Spiegel". I
have absolutely no idea why and how it did get in there ...
I have a gadget for the magazine in my Sidebar but I didn't see any
connection in do far.

The decisive point was "ShowBodyBar".
Although you had instructed me bit to make changes in the registry, I
just could nit resist ...
I changed the value to "0" (00000000). Bingo!
The thing is not shown anymore.

And the problem with closing went away too.

I have reproduced the mouse over name change that you described.

This thing is unchanged.

Thanks a million, Steve!!
I would have absolutely helpless without your most valuable pointers.

AFAICS an old thing from OE is still valid for WinMail.
Worth a KB article?

Thanks again
Rainald

 

[Rainald Taesler]

Please get back when it is convenient for you.

Did so. Problems solved. Pls see my reply in the other branch of this
thread.

Rainald

 

[Rainald Taesler]

Sometimes Windows Mail gets just too bollixed up to waste further
time on it.

I agree.
Would there be a chance to uninstall and re-install WinMail, I might
have already done that. To bad that MS did make WinMail an integrated
part of the OS without even a possibility to unselect it.

As a last gap measure, you can try the elaborate "Reset" procedure.
See:

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/62560-windows-mail-problems.html
and scroll down to the section "How to Backup and Reset Windows
Mail."

Thanks a lot for the reference!
The site IMHO is not only a bit chaotic in the layout and the way of
presenting things. For a really long time I have not come across a site
with more contrast between valuable information and the way of
presenting it {siiiiigh}.
So I just took it into OneNote and spent half an hour or so in
formatting in order to make it usable ...

If it was me, I would upgrade to Windows Live Mail and never look
back:
http://get.live.com/wlmail/overview

Thanks for this recommendation too!
Will have to get into it.
So far the "Live" in its name kept me from checking it out.

In the situation given it would not have been a solution as my main aim
was to get the anomaly in WinMail detected. Once BugHunt() has been set
to "true" I hardly can give up <gbg>.

Thanks again
Rainald

 

[mac]

Inline:

You're the hero if the day! <g>
BOTH problems fixed!!
Hurrah!



This thing is unchanged.

I believe that if you go back into the Registry and delete all but
BodyBarPos and set the value to 0. It will remove the mouse over name
change?

Please back up the 2 keys prior to deletion, just in case?

Obviously the remaining problem is no show stopper, so maybe leave it be?

Thanks a million, Steve!!
I would have absolutely helpless without your most valuable pointers.

Thank you for your kind comments Rainald, only too pleased to help.
ps:
Next time, "do not jump the gun" )
mac

 

[Rainald Taesler]

Inline:

???
What might this mean?
Sorry, I can not get the meaning :-(

I believe that if you go back into the Registry and delete all but
BodyBarPos and set the value to 0. It will remove the mouse over
name change?

I'll try it.
Did you play with that yourself?
As you said, you are experiencing the very same "feature".

Please back up the 2 keys prior to deletion, just in case?

For sure! It's not the first time in my life to deal with the thing
called

Obviously the remaining problem is no show stopper, so maybe leave
it be?

Contrary to you Me thinks:
Worth being reported to MS!?

Thank you for your kind comments Rainald, only too pleased to help.
ps:
Next time, "do not jump the gun" )

Sorry. I just don't know this idiom :--(

Thanks again
Rainald

 

[Rainald Taesler]

mac schrieb:

Just to give the info asked for (in order to provide the data for this
case):

Did you upgrade to Vista from WinXP (and/or possibly, upgrade to XP
from Win9x)?

No.
Never ever in my loooong PC-live I did install an OS by
"over-installing".
"Fresh install from scratch" has always been my devise.

I know that you got the machine off of e-bay, but what
do you know of the install history please?

I just know *Everything* in so far <gbg>
The machine did not only get a brandnew motherboard from HP under
warranty but two fresh installs from my side thereafter ;-)

Did you import your OE data into WinMail?

No. I didn't.
Just a small "WAB" for testing things. Nothing more.

Rainald