after i close OE after reading newsgroups, a box pops up asking me if I want
to free up disk space, then I can have OE compact messages. Is this a good
idea to do & an it really help? what is the drawback?
ALso, if I want to turn on/off this feature, where do I go. Thank you in
advance

Why does OE insist on compacting folders when I close it?:
http://www.insideoe.com/faqs/why.htm#compact

Compacting your folders periodically is a must to keep OE functioning well
and at some point, you may lose all your saved messages if you don't. When
you delete messages, they are only marked for deletion and the space they
had used, remains until you compact, or the space is eventually overwritten.

See:
www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#2

With SP2, automatic background compacting was removed due to problems it
caused. Now you will get a prompt to compact after 100 OE closings, which
you should do and don't touch anything until it has finished. See this for
more information:
http://www.insideoe.com/files/maintain.htm#compact

To keep things running smooth, and for faster compacting:

Do not archive mail in default OE folders. They will eventually become
corrupt and you may lose mail. Create your own user defined folders for
storing mail and move your mail to them. Empty Deleted Items folder
regularly. Keep user created folders under 100MB, and Default folders as
empty as is feasible.

If you haven't already done so, download this patch. It isn't available at
Windows Updates yet, but you can get it now.

Patch KB918766:
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
and also sends a copy of your dbx files to the recycle bin as a temporary
backup.

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

And backup often.

Backup and Resto

http://www.insideoutlookexpress.com/backup/

http://www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx

http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx
--
Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
~IB-CA~

"Cynanthis" wrote in message
...
after i close OE after reading newsgroups, a box pops up asking me if I
want to free up disk space, then I can have OE compact messages. Is this a
good idea to do & an it really help? what is the drawback?
ALso, if I want to turn on/off this feature, where do I go. Thank you in
advance

"Cynanthis" je napisal v sporoèilo
...
after i close OE after reading newsgroups, a box pops up asking me if I
want to free up disk space, then I can have OE compact messages. Is this a
good idea to do & an it really help? what is the drawback?
ALso, if I want to turn on/off this feature, where do I go. Thank you in
advance