If I recall correctly, up until a few days ago OE6 would periodically
compact my message folder automatically when it exited. Now that doesn't
appear to be happening. I get a message asking me if I want to compact
them. I've not knowingly change anything except for a recent run of MS
Update. There may have been a change because of that.

Can anyone shed light on this?

I am running XP Home SP2 with all current updates.

Thank you.

Frank's post says it all.
--
Ron Sommer

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."



"Jack Gillis" wrote in message
...
If I recall correctly, up until a few days ago OE6 would periodically
compact my message folder automatically when it exited. Now that doesn't
appear to be happening. I get a message asking me if I want to compact
them. I've not knowingly change anything except for a recent run of MS
Update. There may have been a change because of that.

Can anyone shed light on this?

I am running XP Home SP2 with all current updates.

Thank you.

At some time in the past, you checked the Do not show me this again when you
saw the prompt to compact. A recent update puts the prompt back and gets rid
of the option to not see it. This was because OE would start compacting and
people wouldn't realize it was happening. Not knowing, they shut down their
computers during the compaction process and lost messages. That is why you
see the prompt again after 100 closings.
--
Bruce Hagen
MS MVP - Outlook Express
~IB-CA~

"Jack Gillis" wrote in message
...
If I recall correctly, up until a few days ago OE6 would periodically
compact my message folder automatically when it exited. Now that doesn't
appear to be happening. I get a message asking me if I want to compact
them. I've not knowingly change anything except for a recent run of MS
Update. There may have been a change because of that.

Can anyone shed light on this?

I am running XP Home SP2 with all current updates.

Thank you.

That answers my question completely and I thank you.

Seems like, a long time ago, I saw and checked the option not to show the
prompt again. As you pointed out, one of the updates I recently installed
did away with that option to not see the message.

Thanks again.


"Bruce Hagen" wrote in message
...
At some time in the past, you checked the Do not show me this again when
you saw the prompt to compact. A recent update puts the prompt back and
gets rid of the option to not see it. This was because OE would start
compacting and people wouldn't realize it was happening. Not knowing, they
shut down their computers during the compaction process and lost messages.
That is why you see the prompt again after 100 closings.
--
Bruce Hagen
MS MVP - Outlook Express
~IB-CA~

"Jack Gillis" wrote in message
...
If I recall correctly, up until a few days ago OE6 would periodically
compact my message folder automatically when it exited. Now that doesn't
appear to be happening. I get a message asking me if I want to compact
them. I've not knowingly change anything except for a recent run of MS
Update. There may have been a change because of that.

Can anyone shed light on this?

I am running XP Home SP2 with all current updates.

Thank you.

You're welcome. You might want to take a look here as this new patch
automatically backs up OE when you compact. It isn't at Windows Updates yet,
but you can get it now.

Patch KB918651:
http://tinyurl.com/mx3r2

This patch addresses some of the issues that were caused by KB911567.

Address Book problems.
Unsent templates appearing as sent.
Manually compacting will now reset the registry counter to Zero in
WinXP/SP2.

To complete the fix for .eml templates, a registry change is needed. See:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/918766

Tom Koch also has this information at his site, along with a downloadable
Zip file to do the registry change for you. See:
http://www.insideoe.com/#kb918651
--
Bruce Hagen
MS MVP - Outlook Express
~IB-CA~

"Jack Gillis" wrote in message
...
That answers my question completely and I thank you.

Seems like, a long time ago, I saw and checked the option not to show the
prompt again. As you pointed out, one of the updates I recently installed
did away with that option to not see the message.

Thanks again.


"Bruce Hagen" wrote in message
...
At some time in the past, you checked the Do not show me this again when
you saw the prompt to compact. A recent update puts the prompt back and
gets rid of the option to not see it. This was because OE would start
compacting and people wouldn't realize it was happening. Not knowing,
they shut down their computers during the compaction process and lost
messages. That is why you see the prompt again after 100 closings.
--
Bruce Hagen
MS MVP - Outlook Express
~IB-CA~

"Jack Gillis" wrote in message
...
If I recall correctly, up until a few days ago OE6 would periodically
compact my message folder automatically when it exited. Now that
doesn't appear to be happening. I get a message asking me if I want to
compact them. I've not knowingly change anything except for a recent
run of MS Update. There may have been a change because of that.

Can anyone shed light on this?

I am running XP Home SP2 with all current updates.

Thank you.