I am using Outlook Express on Windows XP with IE7. For the last few months,
every time I close it, it prompts me to "compact" the folders to save disk
space.

Well, having several years' worth of email secure and available is worth a
lot more to me that a few Mb of disk space. I can't put into words just how
much I do NOT want to compact my precious email folders. But I can't find a
way to stop this annoying prompt. Once I accidentally clicked "yes" and just
managed to hit "cancel" in time.

This might have happened around the time I install IE7 - yes, I know this is
an IE6 newgroup, but this is the only place I can find that discusses IE/OE
integration issues. I'm not sure that this is connect, I'm not sure that
this happened at the same time, but I do know that I DON'T want this stupid
prompt to come up every time I close OE. Is there any way to stop it?

Philip

"Philip" wrote in message
I am using Outlook Express on Windows XP with IE7. For the last few months,
every time I close it, it prompts me to "compact" the folders to save disk
space.

I put the following script in the startup folder to erase 0 byte files
(which are created and left by OE) and to reset OE's closing counter.

' FileName Del0File.vbs
Const ssfINTERNETCACHE = &H20
Const KeyRoot = "HKCU\Identities\"
Const KeySub = _
"\Software\Microsoft\Outlook Express\5.0\Compact Check Count"
Dim aFolder, aFile, CachePath, N, LUID
With CreateObject("Shell.Application")
CachePath = .NameSpace(ssfINTERNETCACHE).Items.Item.Path & _
"\Content.IE5"
End With
N = 0
With CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
For Each aFolder In .GetFolder(CachePath).SubFolders
For Each aFile In aFolder.Files
If aFile.Size = 0 Or _
LCase(.GetExtensionName(aFile)) = "tmp" Then _
aFile.Delete: N = N + 1
Next
Next
End With
With CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
.Popup "Deleted " & N & " files from " & CachePath, 2
LUID = .RegRead(KeyRoot & "Last User ID")
If LUID "" And LUID _
"{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}" Then
.RegWrite KeyRoot & LUID & KeySub, 0, "REG_DWORD"
Else
.PopUp "Can't specify the Last User ID", 2
End If
End With

--
Miyahn
Microsoft MVP for Microsoft Office - Excel(Jan 2004 - Dec 2007)
https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/pr...4-83d372c269b4

It is necessary to compact the database files in OE. Otherwise there is
huge bloat and the result is loss of performance and eventually loss of
messages. All compaction does is remove wasted space in the database and
you need to have it compact on a regular basis so it functions properly.

OE is set to compact after 100 closings. If you compact manually, then it
will reset the counter so that you can then operate it for another 100
sessions. Or it will prompt you after 100 sessions.

See www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#2 for more information. Perform a backup of
your messages (which you should do regularly anyway -- suppose your hard
drive dies tonight and tomorrow you get up and everything is lost -- think
about that trying to sleep tonight G), and then do a File | Folder |
Compact all.

steve



"Philip" wrote in message
...
I am using Outlook Express on Windows XP with IE7. For the last few months,
every time I close it, it prompts me to "compact" the folders to save disk
space.

Well, having several years' worth of email secure and available is worth a
lot more to me that a few Mb of disk space. I can't put into words just
how much I do NOT want to compact my precious email folders. But I can't
find a way to stop this annoying prompt. Once I accidentally clicked "yes"
and just managed to hit "cancel" in time.

This might have happened around the time I install IE7 - yes, I know this
is an IE6 newgroup, but this is the only place I can find that discusses
IE/OE integration issues. I'm not sure that this is connect, I'm not sure
that this happened at the same time, but I do know that I DON'T want this
stupid prompt to come up every time I close OE. Is there any way to stop
it?

Philip

*Every* time you close OE?

Are there a bunch of BAK files in your recycle bin (e.g., Inbox.bak)?

If you don't compact all folders on a regular basis, you risk losing
messages, if not your entire message store, Philip. See:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/...orruption.mspx
--
~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-Windows (IE, OE, Security, Shell/User)


Philip wrote:
I am using Outlook Express on Windows XP with IE7. For the last few
months,
every time I close it, it prompts me to "compact" the folders to save disk
space.

Well, having several years' worth of email secure and available is worth a
lot more to me that a few Mb of disk space. I can't put into words just
how
much I do NOT want to compact my precious email folders. But I can't find
a
way to stop this annoying prompt. Once I accidentally clicked "yes" and
just
managed to hit "cancel" in time.

This might have happened around the time I install IE7 - yes, I know this
is
an IE6 newgroup, but this is the only place I can find that discusses
IE/OE
integration issues. I'm not sure that this is connect, I'm not sure that
this happened at the same time, but I do know that I DON'T want this
stupid
prompt to come up every time I close OE. Is there any way to stop it?

Philip