I stand to be corrected, but you can not automatically delete message bodies
or headers with XP2. OE used to delete message bodies after the number of
days selected when it compacted in the background.

With SP2, automatic background compacting was removed due to problems it
caused. Now you will get a prompt to compact after 100 OE closings, which
you should do, and don't touch anything until it has finished. If you
compact manually, at your convenience, this will also set the counter back
to zero. See this for more information:
http://www.insideoe.com/files/maintain.htm#compact

XP2 removed the capability to do what you want. For me, I just click on the
oldest message, scroll to the newest one I want deleted and click on it
while holding down the Shift key. This will highlight the whole block of
posts and tapping the Delete key gets rid of them.
--
Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
Imperial Beach, CA


"Louise" wrote in message
...
"PA Bear" wrote;

Louise wrote:
I am having a problem with old newsgroup messages in Outlook Express 6
on
Windows XP SP2.

I have these settings in Tools Options Maintenance set;

[Ticked] Delete read message bodies in newsgroups.
[Ticked] Delete news messages 2 days after being downloaded.

The messages do not go, they hang around forever!!!

As others have said, neither of those options will delete message
headers, and it only happens when you compact all OE folders or automatic
compating kicks in.

Is there any way to set the automatic compacting? I have not found a
setting to alter it or turn it off or on.

Surely the ticked option (As it was in Windows 98SE) "Delete news messages
x days after being downloaded." should do what it says, remove the
messages after however many days you pick?

It just seems to have no effect on this PC.

There was no reason to run scannow, and that's about how long it takes to
run it.

Fair enough, I guess it did no harm though?

You'll either have to delete the headers and messages manually or use a
manually applied News rule periodically to do it ("Where the message was
sent XX days ago, ...Delete it").

Okay, just seems weird to me that 98SE did all this without any special
rules being set up.

If you do a Catch Up on a newsgroup and find later that OE offers all
messages again, either there's a problem on the newsserver or your
current identity is damaged and needs to be replace.

Okay, I will keep an eye on that.

General OE Caveats:

- Don't use Inbox or Sent Items to archive messages. Move them to local
folders created for this purpose.

- Empty Deleted Items folder daily.

- Disable Background Compacting [not available in SP2] and frequently
perform a manual compact of all OE folders while "working offline". More
at http://www.insideoe.com/files/maintain.htm

Thanks for this link, seems to have quite a bit of info and is answering
some of my questions from above.

- Do not cancel Automatic Compacting, should it occur, and do not attempt
to close OE via Task Manager or shutdown your machine if Automatic
Compacting is taking place.

- Your anti-virus application's email scanning feature can also cause
such corruption. Disable it. It provides no additional protection.
--
~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-Windows (IE, OE, Security, Shell/User)
AumHa VSOP & Admin http://aumha.net
DTS-L http://dts-l.net/

Thanks for your advice.

--
Louise