I found the culprit. It was KB905915, released 12/13/2005.
"Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer for Windows XP"

OE and IE worked fine with all previously released patches. Once I installed
that one, the flashing started.

Sir Timbit
---------------

"Sir Timbit" wrote in message
...
An update:
I've sinced tried this on a test PC. I formatted the drive and installed
XPsp2 from scratch. I installed no extra apps and no extra drivers, and
I'm behind our hardware firewall. The only software I've used so far is
Microsoft's XP Pro Setup CD. As soon as it finished the installation and
rebooted, I went into Outlook Express, configured, and received my test
email with an attachment. It worked fine! The window blinks twice and
that's it.

I went on Windows Update and downloaded all critical updates listed (38!)
and after it rebooted, the problem reappeared! Again, no other software is
installed, not even extra drivers from Windows Update. So now I need to
figure out which patch is causing IE/OE to act strange.

Or maybe just tell Microsoft about another potential bug in their
software. :-)

Thanks,
Sir Timbit

"Michael Santovec" wrote in message
...
I've seen the same problem. It's due to the way that OE opens the dialog
child process and maintains focus. If you click anywhere else within OE
it should beep once and return focus to the dialog. But it can get
confused and get into a loop.

You should not see a problem if you click anywhere outside of OE. So you
can click on the task bar or if OE is less than full screen somewhere
outside of OE such as on the desk top or another application behind OE.

I don't anticipate Microsoft doing anything about this anytime soon.

--

Mike - http://pages.prodigy.net/michael_santovec/techhelp.htm


"Sir Timbit" wrote in message
...
Hi there, I'm hoping someone else has experienced this and knows what
the problem is. I'm assuming the problem at this point is patch related,
but I have yet to find anything on the web about it.

Using Outlook Express, receive an email with some attachment, like an
Excel file for example. (You can send yourself an email attachment.) In
OE, click the paperclip so that it shows the file name of the
attachment. Click on the file name and you get the standard dialog box
asking "Do you want to open this file?" with either "Open" or "Cancel"
as choices. Now here's where it gets weird!

If you click Open or Cancel, everything is fine. HOWEVER, if you click
outside of this dialog box, the window starts flashing repeatedly. It's
like it loses focus between this and the main window. If I press
Ctrl-Alt-Del to bring up task manager, quite often I'll find WINLOGIN
running at 100% CPU or thereabouts. If I wait a few moments, I can
usually switch back to OE and the window will have stopped flashing.

Initially I thought this was an issue with only Outlook Express. However
when I went to IE, it did the same thing. In IE, download a file. You
get the same box asking if you want to run or save the file. You can
click outside of this dialog box, and nothing will happen. But move that
dialog box to the right and you'll see the other window--the one that
shows the estimated time to transfer a file. With the other dialog box
still open, click on this second box, and you get the flashing window
again. Or at least I do, and lots more people at my workplace. As
before, I can wait a few moments, and then click on the main IE window
to make it stop, or press Ctrl-Alt-Del, then switch back to the main
window, and it will have stopped flashing.

I know it's a pretty obscure glitch, but I'm getting an increasing
number of people coming in mentioning it when they go to check their
mail in Outlook Express. It doesn't happen in Outlook, nor does it
happen in other programs' File dialog boxes.

Any ideas? I'm taking a test machine right to see if I can duplicate it
depending on the various patches installed.

Thanks,
Sir_timbit