"Michel Merlin" wrote in message
...
Today, while working on my desktop, a glance to my laptop (WXP
Pro) which was Shutting down, suddenly showed me a notification
windowlet saying (approximatively) "Outlook Express can compact
your messages, compacting will save space, etc."

I at once clicked the × button in the upper right corner to stop
this (I couldn't know how much time was left before it
eventually would start its compacting). But at the same time I
saw another system windowlet saying "Program not responding",
and the name of that program was something like
"Windnotifysomething"; I immediately closed it by its × button,
avoiding any "OK".

This happened several times.

If necessary I recall that compacting messages in OE is
(right or wrong) known for increasing risks of file corruption.
Anyway this is not the problem: opinion and decision about
compacting or not is MINE, not Microsoft's.

How can I make sure OE is not mulling compacting messages
against my will?

Paris, Mon 12 Jun 2006 10:56:35 +0200


From http://www.fjsmjs.com/OE/compact.htm

Compacting of folders is necessary or they will become corrupted or else so
large that they can no longer be used. Deleting a message does not reclaim
the space. The message is marked as deleted but is still there until the
folder is compacted. That is why programs such as DBXtract work.

If a user closes compacting while compacting is in progress data loss will
probably occur.

Open OE and close it and let it compact the messages. After doing this it
won't ask again until you have closed OE 100 times.

If you have WinXP SP2 you will want this update:
There are two articles, KB918766 and KB918651, but the latter is not
currently available. The download link is
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...DisplayLang=en

I places the backup in Recycled, overwriting any earlier backup of the
sane folder(s). To use it, copy it to the store folder, delete the one you
want to replace and then rename the BAK file to DBX. (It's a bit more
complicated if the messed up DBX file isn't there or contains messages that
are hew that you want to keep.

--
Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE/WM
"Anyone who prefers security over freedom deserves neither."