I bought a new computer thru Dell with Windows XP and Outlook Express as my
email provider this past June 2006. I needed Word and Excell and Publisher
but
this package did not include any Microsoft Office programs. I had an old
Office 2000 disk I had purchased and still had the code so I downloaded the
first of two disks, that had Word, Outlook, Excell, and some other tools.
When prompted on set up I told Outlook that it was not my preferred email as
I thought it would be the old version and I didn't want it to override my
Outlook Express 6.0.
Everything installed seemingly fine but now if I try to open my email with
Outlook Express desktop icon I get this message over a black OE screen:

16 bit MS-Dos Subsystem
NTVDM CPU has encountered an illegal instruction
CS:054e IP:0100 OP: FF FF FF FF FF

I uninstalled Office 2000, tried a system restore, (no help),
looked at properties on the desktop icon for OE and the Target box was not
lit up and just said "email". I did a Run for "C:\Program Files\Outlook
Express\msism.exe" and got a message that said Windows cannot find this file.
I did a Search for the same one and got the OE folder with 9 out of the 12
files in it saying they were modified on 9/21, the date I installed the
Office 2000 disk. They included the msimn.exe file, wab, wabmig, setup50,
etc. I tried to open them but they were the same black screens with the
same message of

NTVDM CPU has encountered an illegal instruction

I called Dell technical support who took over the computer and googled for
the MS-DOS Subsystem message but advised me that I should save all
my files and do a complete PC restore back to when it was shipped in June .

It will mean I lose all the saved
messages in my OE and my address book, and I have a lot of critical business
and
personal emails saved that I do not want erased. Also it means reinstalling
many other programs that are on the computer, like my printer, scanner,
camera, etc. Please tell me there is a fix that won't do that to me! I
have scoured the Microsoft files using the exact error message contents but
can't
find anything like this. Did the Office 2000 do this and should I throw it
away? Is there some update I don't have for Office 2000?
I am accessing my email account thru webmail right now.

I am totally frustrated! and not a computer educated person to know where
else to look for a solution. I started this thread on the Outlook discussion
group and they sent me here.... Please Help!

Karen