A few things refer to older versions of Windows, but in general, most apply
to OE6 still. For instance in the same part that mentions W98:

Another cause of slow starts is opening OE at its home page, rather than the
Inbox. Because that page is an HTML file, it is usually slower to display
than is the Inbox. Click Tools| Options and place a check mark for "When
starting, go directly to my Inbox folder."

On the other hand, this might also cause the problem if the Inbox is very
large. The Inbox is a very active folder, and I strongly recommend that you
not use it to store messages. Create subfolders and move messages into them
as soon as possible so that the Inbox stays small.

Leaving the Preview Pane open in combination with opening directly to the
Inbox can result in a slower startup. You can turn the Preview Pane off
under View| Layout, or add the Preview button to the OE toolbar to toggle
the pane on and off with a single click.

This applies still.

Cleaning out your Inbox and compacting can make a world of difference too.
--
Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
Imperial Beach, CA



"Casey" wrote in message
...
Thanks, Bruce, you are a wealth of information. I plan to follow your
instructions. The first link you provided for performance problems seems
outdated or maybe just beyond my level of expertise as I don't quite
understand what to do. Isn't it referring to win98 and win95/NT which I at
least know are obsolete operating systems? I am running XP/SP2.

Again, thank you and especially for taking the time to write a very useful
answer to my question. Much appreciated!