Thanks. It's nice to know that "delete" really doesn't mean "delete" in the world of Microsoft. I really don't want to waste time compacting the files. I want them totally deleted. Forever.
JJK

If you're willing to leave the MS nest for something better, I'd suggest you take a look at Thunderbird, a free and popular email program created by the same folks who created Firefox. I've been using it for several years now and am very happy with it.

Still a little bit wonky but very popular.

Review

What Riredale said.

John

I don't know why people insists on not answering people's questions. Answer:

Tools -> Options -> Maintenance Tab

Look for the "Compact Messages in the Background" option, and uncheck it.

Thunderbird is Go!

There is no "compact messages in background" on my maintenance tab.
JJK

Take a look at seamonkey. It's got the mozilla browser (same as firefox) and the email client, and a few other tools all rolled into one application, which is a much nicer way to work. The interface is also a little cleaner and less cluttered than either firefox or thunderbird, closer to the old Netscape classic style, which is also a much nicer way to work.

Oh, and for that matter, Thunderbird/Seamonkey/Netscape also do not remove messages from the file when they're deleted. Compact is necessary for these email clients too.

There is no "compact messages in background" on my maintenance tab.Well, maybe Microsoft removed it. I am running Outlook Express version 6.00.2800.1123 on Windows XP Pro. Here's what the maintenance tab looks like:



Perhaps it has been moved to another part of the UI? I would do a Google search to find out where it has gone.

My menu does "not" have that option listed. I have 6.00.2900.5512.
JJK

JJ,

Didn't mean to brush you off by simply agreeing with Riredale, but the truth of the matter is that there is no way to turn compacting off in Outlook Express. Every hundreth message you will face the Microsoft embedded "feature". Even if you found that box John showed you it wouldn't "turn off" compacting. It would just do it automatically.

Most other e-mail clients will allow transfer of Contacts, etc from Outlook. I like Thunderbird and before that I used Eudora (older versions were better). If you look back over the lists of Security patches for Outlook (and IE) you will realize that integrating their browser and e-mail client into the OS serves Microsoft, not the consumer. That's why I chose Thunderbird, Firefox, and Opera.

John

My menu does "not" have that option listed. I have 6.00.2900.5512Ain't Microsoft wonderful? I went to another computer that is more modern, and sure enough, it doesn't have this option either, and it is only one rev further along that the one I posted above.

I did some quick checking and apparently once you install XP service pack 2, it quietly removes this feature. What's worse, once you install service pack 3, some users report getting this compaction even if they don't use Outlook Express!! Thus, switching to another email client, as suggested by some, actually may not solve the problem.

I don't have time to research this too much, but I did find a VBS script posted here:

After installing XP SP3 Outlook Express keeps popping up to compact messages

which may fix the problem. I also quickly scanned the registry (something you should only mess with if you've done it before) on my computer that has the same Maintenance dialog as your computer, and found a key:

Compact Check Count

which was set for 24. I suspect that setting it either to zero or to a really large number might solve the problem. [edit] I just found at least one user that reported success setting this to zero, which is what I would have tried first. Always first backup (via the export function in regedit) the key you are about to change.

There is also one called:

Compact Do not Ask Again

It was set to 1. I closed Outlook Express, set this to 0, and then re-opened OE. Nothing changed, but I suspect that when OE decides to compact, at least I will now get a dialog, and I can tell it to stop before it gets carried away. I exported that key. You can copy this into Notepad, save it with the extension REG and then when you double-click on the file, it will update your registry (don't copy the words "code block"):

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00



[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities\{4E3254D7-522A-412A-9296-3F4767B3A2CB}\Software\Microsoft\Outlook Express\5.0\Dont Show Dialogs]

"Compact Do not Ask Again"=dword:00000000

"Saved in Saved Items"=dword:00000001

I did a little more research, and apparently there may be a bug that is causing the OE counter (which determines when to do another compaction) to increment rapidly, so that the darned thing compacts almost all the time. Nero, the, IBM Rapid Access keyboard, and Norton were all implicated as possible culprits.

[further edit]
OK, I found a small tool:

OE Tool

I haven't tried it, but it does a bunch of really cool things. If you use System Restore, set a restore point before you try it. It will let you manually compact the files and will set the Compact Check Count to zero. Now that I've read some more, this appears to be a key setting. It gets incremented every time you open/close OE. When it gets to 100, OE starts the compacting process. So, if you set this to 0 AND make the change to the Compact Do not Ask Again setting I mentioned above, I think you might "solve" the problem.

Nice, thanks John.

/Ulf

. . and while we ARE discussing OE, how can I force OE to use the "Name" I type in the "To:" field to become active as an email should be?

What I mean is, when I DO type in John Smith, it will automatically fill in John<space> to John Brown or Smith and then John Smith when I enter John S - So OE KNOWS I have these individuals present in my Address book . . But but but . . for "all that is digital", it WONT convert these to a "live" email address. "John Smith" just gets filled in without that reassuring underline John Smith! It stays as an auto entered name without the value of then being able to be sent!!! I've tried, OE says "no addressee" or something like that . .

I have been living with this for years now. Now, I always have to click on the the "To:" icon and that brings up the Address book and I then "search" for John Smith and then it will work. Oh yeah, this is "good", I can have OE auto fill "John Smith" and NOT being email-active while simultaneaously ALSO have "John Smith" being found through the "To:" Icon on the email "form" being email-active!! Arrgghhh .. 1

So, OE knows I have "John Smith" and auto-fills, but auto-fill doesn't and is incapable of making it email-active.

Solutions please - oh wise ones??

Grazie

OE knows I have "John Smith" and auto-fills, but auto-fill doesn't and is incapable of making it email-active.Does it do this for ALL your email addresses, or just some of them?

Also, I just tried it, and I don't get an underline when I type the address, but it does indeed become active and convert to the address when I send the email. Thus, I don't think you have to worry about it. Just send it.

Using your advice, I sent you email!

G

Ah! Yes that works, what I AM getting is when I want to ADD additional emails, more than just "John Meyer", from the Address book, I click on the "To:" icon and now John Meyer has a question Mark over it? And the "Properties to it are greyed out. that was why I was also thinking that the email wasn't live.

John, see if you ALSO get that red question mark?

Grazie

Johnmeyer: Thanks. I didn't realize there was that much too it. I set one computer to "0" compact and it worked ok. I will try this one shortly with the other things you mentioned. I just set this one and it worked.
JJK

> I really don't want to waste time compacting the files. I want them totally deleted. Forever. <

If you hold down Shift while pressing Delete it will delete the selected message(s) permanently without moving them to the Deleted folder. But it still leaves the deleted message(s) in place until the next time you manually compact.

--Ethan