Don't use ctrl-shift-a. That marks all messages as read even messages that
were already marked as read.
Ctrl + A, then Ctrl + Q
--
Ron Sommer

"Fredxx" wrote in message
...

I've compacted the news folder but on a regular basis OE hangs after the
above keypress on the current news folder. I can leave it 1/2 hour and
it'll still be there hogging CPU resources and getting nowhere. If I
close down the application, and re-open, the selected messages have been
marked as read and all seems to be well.

It's a new installation of WinXP SP2, with SP3 installed as well.

Any ideas?