Question

Message on Startup "Outlook Express can compact Messages

Asked by: coloradocroat

On my XP Pro machine (actually 2 of them) I now get a message when I boot up that:
"To free up disk space, Outlook Express can compact Messages.  This may take a few minutes."

I don't use Outlook Express and never have.  How can I stop this from scanning and making my boot up time twice as long as it should be?  Is there a way to remove Outlook Express?

Thanks,

David

This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.

Subscribe now for full access to Experts Exchange and get

Instant Access to this Solution

  • Plus...
  • 30 Day FREE access, no risk, no obligation
  • Collaborate with the world's top tech experts
  • Unlimited access to our exclusive solution database
  • Never be left without tech help again

Subscribe Now

Asked On
2009-07-25 at 11:45:13ID24600335
Topic

Windows XP Operating System

Participating Experts
3
Points
250
Comments
8

Trusted by hundreds of thousands everyday for fast, accurate and reliable tech support.

  • "The time we save is the biggest benefit of Experts Exchange to Warner Bros. What could take multiple guys 2 hours or more each to find is accessed in around 15 minutes on Experts Exchange." Mike Kapnisakis, Warner Bros.
  • "Our team likes having a resource that is more secure than just using Google and most experts using this service really know their stuff. It's nice to look here first versus using Google." Dayna Sellner, Lockheed Martin
  • "Anytime that I've been stumped with a problem, 9 out of 10 times Experts Exchange has either the accepted solution or an open discussion of the potential solution to the problem." Kenny Red, eBay Inc.

See what Experts Exchange can do for you.

Got a question?

We've got the answer.

Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Need individual assistance?

Our experts are ready to help.

If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Want to learn from the best?

Read articles from industry experts.

Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.

Screenshot of an Article

Working on a long term project?

Store your work and research.

Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Access the answers to your technology questions today.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

What Makes Experts Exchange Unique?

Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.

Trusted by the world's most respected brands.

image of each brand's logo

Faithfully serving IT professionals since 1996.

Experts Exchange Logo

Try it out and discover for yourself.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

Related Solutions

  1. Compact in Outlook Express
    How can I stop this notice from comming up every time I open Outlook Express "There is a lot of wasted space in your mail folders. Compacting will recover this wasted space." Thanks for any help that you can give me, mike
  2. compacting emails in outlook express
    After compacting all files in Outlook Express 6, how do I get them uncompacted after formatting my hard drive and reinstalling Windos XP Pro?
  3. compact messages in outlook express
    In xp pro, when I close outlook express a message pops up telling me the messages can be compacted to save space. How can I inhibit this message?
  4. Outlook Express Compact crash
    In Outlook Express, frequently when it tries to compact the file folders (prompted on its own), it crashes. Often I lose the message in my inbox. Now, every time I try and close OE, it asks me to compact the folders. How do I stop the crashing or how do I tell it not to pro...
  5. Outlook Express compacting files
    Greetings: A computer friend and I have been having an ongoing discussion about Outlook Express wanting to "compact our email folders." All we've been able to understand is that the compacted folder becomes very large. (On his computer he was able to determine tha...

Free Tech Articles

  1. WARNING: 5 Reasons why you should NEVER fix a computer for free.
    It is in our nature to love the puzzle. We are obsessed. The lot of us. We love puzzles. We love the challenge. We thrive on finding the answer. We hate disarray. It bothers us deep in our soul. W...
  2. SCCM OSD Basic troubleshooting
    SCCM 2007 OSD is a fantastic way to deploy operating systems, however, like most things SCCM issues can sometimes be difficult to resolve due to the sheer volume of logs to sift through and the dispe...
  3. Migrate Small Business Server 2003 to Exchange 2010 and Windows 2008 R2
    This guide is intended to provide step by step instructions on how to migrate from Small Business Server 2003 to Windows 2008 R2 with Exchange 2010. For this migration to work you will need the fo...
  4. Create a Win7 Gadget
    This article shows you how to create a simple "Gadget" -- a sort of mini-application supported by Windows 7 and Vista. Gadgets can be dropped anywhere on the desktop to provide instant information, ...
  5. Outlook continually prompting for username and password
    There have been a lot of questions recently regarding Outlook prompting for a username and password whilst using Exchange 2007. There are a few reasons why this would happen and I will try to cover t...
  6. Backup Exchange 2010 Information Store using Windows Backup
    There seems to be quite a lot of confusion around the ability to backup Exchange 2010 using the built in Windows Backup feature. This stems from the omission of this feature prior to Exchange 2007 s...

Cloud Class Webinars

  1. Avoiding Bugs in Microsoft Access
    Alison Balter takes and in-depth look at avoiding bugs in Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the immediate window to debug your applications, invoking the debugger, using breakpoints to troubleshoot, stepping through code, setting the next statement to execute, ...
  2. Top 10 Best New Features in Visio 2010
    Scott Helmers gives live demonstrations of the top 10 new features in Visio 2010. This webinar will teach you how to create compelling diagrams by adding shapes to the page with a single click, linking the shapes in a diagram to data in Excel (or SQL Server, or SharePoint), ...
  3. IT Consultant Business Secrets Revealed
    Michael Munger, Experts Exchange tech pro and IT consultant, pulls back the curtain on his very successful businesses and answers question on every IT consultant and business owner should know about. He shares secrets on what he did to solve the 5 most common problems in IT, ...
  4. Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
    Quest CTO, Mike Billon, gives an overview of the steps involved in building a dunamic disaster recovery plan. Through case studies and an examination of software/hardware tooles for monitoring and testing, you'll gain a better understandin of where you are, where you want ...
  5. Organize Your Visio Diagrams with Containers and Lists
    Scott Helmers uses cross functional flowcharts, wireframe diagrams, data graphic legends and seating charts to teach you: how to ustilize all three new structured diagram components in Visio 2010, the best practices for organizeing shapes in previous version of Visio, how to organize ...
  6. How to Us Objects, Properties, Events and Methods in Microsoft Access
    Alison Dalter gives an in-depbth look at objects, properties, events and methods in Microsoft Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the object browser, referring to objects, working with properties and methods, working with object variables, understanding the ...

Join the Community

Give a Little. Get a Lot.

Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.

Join the Community

Answers

 

by: PBComputerPosted on 2009-07-25 at 11:51:08ID: 24942734

helllo

you can remove outlook express, bt clicking start, control panel, going to add and remove programs, click on add/remove windows compoents on the right. scrool down the list untick outlook express and click next then click finish and restart, this should fix the fault

 

by: coloradocroatPosted on 2009-07-25 at 11:58:54ID: 24942759

I just tried that on the desktop and it gave me an error when I tried to click on windows components.  What do I do there?  I haven't tries on the laptop.

 

by: PBComputerPosted on 2009-07-25 at 12:01:42ID: 24942774

are you using are administrator account or limited account?
also can you tell us that the extact error was

paul

 

by: jcimarronPosted on 2009-07-25 at 13:08:22ID: 24943000

coloradocroat--You may never have used it, but OE was installed when you installed XP.
I do not know how much you know about compacting, but in brief, compacting is a tool to keep OE message folders from getting too full at which point they will no longer function.  IE7 is set up to give the message you describe every 100 times you use OE.
Ah, --you do not use OE.  But some other program is accessing OE in the background and causing the "counter" to increase to 100.  
See here for one fix to the problem.  http://www.insideoe.com/faqs/why.htm
If this does not work, because the background program is accessing OE so often that you reach 100 every day or so,  you have to determine what the other program is.  Use Process Explorer http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/processexplorer.mspx
Or you could disable OE by renaming (disabling) msimn.exe which you should find in C:\Program Files\Outlook Express

 

by: JamesCsslPosted on 2009-09-23 at 08:50:33ID: 25404597

I have had this problem be caused by Windows Live Search.  The workaround was to delete its shortcut from start->all programs->startup

once doing that, you shouldn't see the message anymore.

 

by: coloradocroatPosted on 2009-09-23 at 13:07:11ID: 31607830

Still not sure how to see the process that is accessing OE through the process Explorer, but I did go through regedit to make the change.  Also on the 3rd option disabling the msimn.exe, I do not have that file!

 

by: jcimarronPosted on 2009-09-23 at 13:35:31ID: 25407645

coloradocroat--You should have msimn.exe in C:\Program Files\Outlook Express.
Perhaps this app will be better to determine what processes start at boot and which MIGHT be the one that is calling on OE.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx
Did you also look in System Configuration Utiliity (run msconfig from a command prompt) to see what processes are starting at boot?

20120131-EE-VQP-002

3 Ways to Join

30-Day Free Trial

The Experts

98% positive feedback on 31,087 answers since March 2000. angeliii is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for his work with MS SQL Server & Develoment.

He has also proven his knowledge of Visual Basic Programming, PHP Scripting and Oracle Databases.

The Experts

97% positive feedback on 10,752 answers since July 2000. lrmoore has more than 18 years experience in the networking industry.

The six-time Mircosoft MVPs specialties include firewalls, virtual private networking, and network management.

Testimonials

"...and excellent source for support... Kind of like having your very own IT dept." Electriciansnet

Testimonials

"I was apprehensive at signing up at first. However... it has already made my life as an IT administrator much easier." JaCrews

Testimonials

"WOW! You guys have great, active, and knowledgeable people on here." moore50

Business Clients

Business Clients

In the Press

"If you’ve got a question... Experts Exchange can supply an answer.”

In the Press

"...an invaluable aid for both IT professionals and those who require tech support."

In the Press

"where IT professionals provide quick answers on just about any topic"

Business Account Plans

Loading Advertisement...