Thanks guys for the responses. I did know about the *.dbx issues and
so I copied those files to a backup place but didn't delete them. The
nefarious computer is at the job and I just went on vacation so when I
get back I will continue, middle of next week. I will get back to let you
all know what happened, hopefully with better news.

later,
charles....

"Steve Cochran" wrote in message
...
Usually this is an issue with the message store. Search for *.dbx
(hidden)
and when you find the files then delete folders.dbx. Then see if OE will
start. If not, then move all the dbx files to another directory and see
if
OE will start.

If OE still won't start, then delete this key in the registry:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities

OE should then start okay.

steve

"***** charles" wrote in message
om...
Hi all,

I get the following error message:

Outlook Express failed to start because MSOE.DLL is missing or
corrupted.
You may need to reinstall.

Not the exact message but close enough.

I have been all over the Internet and all over Microsoft.
I have tried dosens of fixes that were supposed to work.
I have reloaded OE and IE several times.
I have copied a good MSOE.DLL file to the correct location.
I have done the SP1 update.
I have copied all the directories that are associated with OE to a
backup
location.
I have gone through several KB artcles that supposedly address this
problem.
I have done everything I could find to fix this short of wiping my hd
and
reinstalling
XP from scratch something I can't do at the moment.

Since I HAD to be email capable, I downloaded Thunderbird and installed
it.
It pulled all my "stuff" from OE and works fine. I would really like to
fix
the
OE problem, does anyone out there have something I may not have tried?
It is an XP Pro machine with SP2 installed with all the updates on a
lan.

thanks,
charles......