Thanks, that's good news about Windows Mail (I think) - I've since read
about it.

JJ


"Bruce Hagen" wrote in message
...
Closing OE saves no resources whatsoever. Just minimize it.

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. 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.

And this is a very good option:

Steve Cochran has added a button in his new version of OE Tool
that will not only Compact All Folders, but at the same time,
resets the "Compact Check Count" to zero whenever you compact
manually. You will see the prompt again if you do not compact
before 100 closings.

http://www.oehelp.com/OETool/

It is still advised to check Work Offline before you compact.

And Windows Mail (in Vista) should prove to be a much more user friendly
e-mail client.
--
Bruce Hagen
MS MVP - Outlook Express
~IB-CA~

"JJ Sugarbear" wrote in message
...
To conserve resources I shut down and reopen OE twenty or thirty times a
day. So that means every day or so the dang thing starts up that infernal
compact routine. Now I know I can try to cancel it, and sometimes it
stops,
but the point is it hogs resources something shocking and DOES NOTHING.

Yeah yeah, I know it's supposed to be like making it eat fibre, but I'm
happy to do it once EVERY BLUE MOON and at the TIME OF MY CHOOSING.

So does anyone know a way of hacking the registry or something to disable
this annoyance?

JJ

PS. I love Outlook Express and think Microsoft's biggest crime against
humanity is its ongoing neglect of this program. It would be different if
Outlook were like a premium edition, but it's just horrid. Horrid.

Please Mr Gates, we don't mind donating an 50 cents for Windows Vista, if
it
means you can employ ONE FULL TIME PROGRAMMER on this wonderful wonderful
program that the whole world needs to survive. You can even take 49 of
those
cents out to build a champagne swimming pool and still have money left
over
to pay them a fortune.