Re: Outlook Express takes forever to open

From: Ron Sommer (rsommer_at_nospam.ktis.net)
Date: 09/26/04 

Date: Sun, 26 Sep 2004 06:25:54 -0500



-- 
Ron Sommer
This is from a post by Steve Cochran:
Such is usually due to message store corruption. You can try setting up a 
new Identity via File | Identities and then do the points below as I 
suggested in that new ID.
1. Don't open attachments.
Most computer infections are the result of the user opening email 
attachments. The attachment usually contains a virus or worm or trojan that 
infects the system when it is opened.
Because of this tendency of attachments to infect, Microsoft has now set OE 
to block all attachments. See these articles for explanations:
Cannot Open E-Mail Attachments in Outlook Express After You Install SP1
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=329570
OLEXP Using Virus Protection Features in Outlook Express 6 (Q291387)
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q291/3/87.ASP
Note that Microsoft does not send security patches in email. See this 
article:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/news/patch_hoax .asp
If you choose to adjust OE to allow attachments, make sure you save the 
attachment to disk first and then scan it with your antivirus software.
The most significant thing you can do to prevent such infections, is to 
educate yourself on what attachments may constitute a threat to your system, 
and never open any such attachments, no matter who they are from.
2. Turn off Background Compaction. (Note that with WinXP SP2, this feature 
is already disabled.)
When a message is deleted, moved or marked as read in an OE message file 
(dbx), then wasted space is generated in that file, and the folder must be 
compacted to remove that wasted space.
By default, OE turns on a feature under Tools | Options Maintenance called 
"background compaction", which turns itself on if the folders in your 
message store get too much wasted space. This feature uses 100% CPU time and 
slows down your system, while it is active. In addition, if the process is 
somewhat interrupted, then the entire message store can become corrupt.
To prevent such corruption, turn off background compaction under Tools | 
Options | Maintenance for each Identity you have, and then compact manually 
and frequently using File | Folder | Compact all. This will make OE more 
stable.
3. Turn off email scanning in your antivirus software.
Antivirus software invades the Outlook Express program to try and intercept 
(incoming and, in some cases, outgoing) messages that might contain virus.
The problem with this approach is that the antivirus software can trigger 
the destruction of an entire message folder or the entire message store, 
when it attempts to remove a message containing a potential virus.
To prevent the possibility of such destruction occuring, turn off email 
scanning in your antivirus software. You will still be protected against 
infection. If you attempt to open a message attachment containing a 
potential virus, then your antivirus software will recognize that your are 
attempting to infect your system, and will block you from doing so. The best 
practice on the user's part is to save an attachment to disk and then scan 
it with the antivirus software prior to opening it. Messages opened 
themselves (if you have the latest security updates from Windows Update) 
will not infect your system -- only attachments.
You do not need additional email scanning on top of your system being 
continuosly scanned by antivirus software, so turn off email scanning to 
prevent destruction of your message store.
>From a post by Frank Saunders:
>From 
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/nav.nsf/df0a595864594c86852567ac0063608c/65434372961d321d8825687f000003f8?OpenDocument&src=tr&Highlight=0,email,protection
Disabling email protection does not leave you vulnerable to viruses and 
malicious software in email. It is a separate layer of protection in 
addition to Auto-Protect. Auto-Protect scans any incoming files, including 
email, as they are saved to your hard drive. As long as you keep your virus 
definitions up to date with LiveUpdate, and keep Auto-Protect enabled and 
set to scan files as they are created or downloaded, your system is fully 
protected.
4. Recovering lost messages.
The most significant contributors to lost messages are described in points 2 
and 3 above. Turn these options off to prevent message store corruption.
If you do lose your messages, you can try using my DBXtract program to 
attempt to recover the lost messages. Note that dbx files are hidden in 
Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
http://www.oehelp.com/DBXtract/
Alternatively one can also use DBXpress, which is faster and more accurate 
than DBXtract, and it also has the capability of reading directly from the 
disk and bypassing the file system.
http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/
If you have upgraded your version of IE and OE or your OS version, and all 
your messages are lost, then see this article (note that the technique in 
the article does not only apply to the issue addressed in the article 
title):
OLEXP: Mail Folders, Address Book, and E-mail Messages Are Missing After You 
Upgrade to Microsoft Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;313055
If File | Import | Messages does not work, ignore the error message, which 
is erroneous in itself, and try one of the following techniques to get your 
messages back:
a. Right click on each dbx file or a selection of them and go to Properties 
and clear the read only attribute of the files. Then try File | Import | 
Messages again.
b. Import the dbx files individually. See the last paragraph on this page 
for how to do that:
http://www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx c. As a last resort use DBXtract or 
DBXpress http://www.oehelp.com/DBXtract/ or 
<http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/> See also:
http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/problems/bugs.htm#mailgone 
<http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/problems/bugs.htm>
5. How does one reinstall IE and OE?
This article seems to work for other OSs than just XP:
How to Reinstall or Repair Internet Explorer and Outlook Express 
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;Q318378
See point 11 below first.
6. How does one backup and restore or transfer OE messages and settings:
See: <http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/backup/index.htm> 
<http://www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx> Note that there is also a link in this 
article to MVP David Guess's free OEBackup programs 
(www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/ <http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/>)
7. Links in email don't work:
see the links on this page http://www.oehelp.com/
8. Outlook Express is slow.
See the various performance issues and how to address them on this page:
http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/problems/performance.htm
9. Outlook Express won't start.
This is usually due to a conflict between what is recorded in the registry 
and what is in the message store. Often, one can fix this problem by 
deleting folders.dbx. If that doesn't work, then try moving all the dbx 
files to another directory and see if that fixes it.
Alternatively, see these articles and also point 4 above:
http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/problems/performance.htm#n ostart 
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q245/4/19.asp
10. Address book information:
see The Windows Address Book http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/files/wab.htm
11. Installation issues:
Most of the problems with a faulty installation are due to other programs 
running during the install and interfering with the updating of necessary 
files. Antivirus software is notorious for this. To minimize such 
interference, in Win98, WinMe, and WinXP go to Start | Run and type msconfig 
and disable all startup items and non Microsoft services. Then reboot.
Then proceed with the installation. Startup items can then be re-enabled.
For additional info see:
Win98:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;281965&Product=w98
WinXP:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310560&Product=winxp
Since Win2000 does not have msconfig, one has to manually go to this 
registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVers ion\Run You can 
export this key and then delete all values under it. Then disable all 
antivirus services under Computer Management | Services and then reboot.
Then install. After the installation you can import the key back into the 
registry to restore the values and re-enable the services.
12. Screening unwanted email and Spam Everybody gets unwanted email these 
days. Much of this email is either trying to sell you something you probably 
don't want or else is trying to infect you with a virus via an email 
attachment. What can you do?
a. Never open an attachment. First save an attachment to disk and then scan 
it with your antivirus software to ensure it is not infected (make sure your 
antivirus software definitions are up to date). If the attachment is from 
someone you don't know, don't even bother opening it. Its not worth it. See 
also point 1 above.
b. Screen email. Disable the Preview Pane (you can put a button on the 
toolbar to turn this on and off). Then go to View | Columns and enable most 
of the headers. That way you can scan the headers and pick out the various 
obvious unwanted mail. Once you find messages that you don't want to open, 
select the headers of those messages without opening the messages and 
perform a Shift-Delete to permanently remove them from the folder. Once they 
are removed, they will no longer be accessible, so don't do this on messages 
you might wish to keep.
c. On messages left that might be worth opening, go to Tools | Options | 
Read and check the box that says "read all messages in plain text" 
(available only with IE6 SP1 or WinXP SP1 and higher).
Reading in plain text prevents any returns to the spammer's server, so your 
email address cannot be validated in that fashion. In addition, it prevents 
malformed or malicious HTML code from executing. If you find the message is 
worth viewing as HTML, then you can go back to Tools | Options Read and 
uncheck the option to read in plain text only and then reopen the message to 
view it as HTML (note that you can put this button on a toolbar with OETool 
(www.oehelp.com/OETool/ <http://www.oehelp.com/OETool/>). You can also use 
OETool to view the message details without having to open the message. You 
can also use the "Compact Current Folder" button after deleting to shrink 
the file size.
d. If you get unwanted email repeatedly from the same source, you can set up 
message rules to block out some of these messages.
See the help file in OE and also 
http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/tips/rules.htm and 
http://www.mindspring.com/oe_oh/message_rules.htm.
e. If you find a message that is spam and that offends you or is deceptive, 
go to Message | Forward as attachment and send it to uce@ftc.gov 
<mailto:uce@ftc.gov> .
The US Federal Trade Commission is launching a major crackdown on deceptive 
and offensive spam. Visit their site at www.ftc.gov/spam 
<http://www.ftc.gov/spam> for more info.
13. Messages appear blank From a post by Frank Saunders:
Several possible causes and therefore several possible fixes:
a. Go to Start | Run and type regsvr32 inetcomm.dll and press <Enter>
b. Go to Tools | Options | Read | Fonts and set Western (ISO) as the 
default.
c. Clear Temporary Internet Files and the Temp folder.
d. Turn off email scanning in your anti-virus.
e. Someone else reported that re-installing OE using method 2 in this 
article fixed the problem:
How to Reinstall or Repair Internet Explorer and Outlook Express in Windows 
XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?bid=318378 Method 2 works on earlier versions 
of Windows.
6. Eliminate any scumware.
See Dealing with Unwanted Spyware, Parasites, Toolbars and Search Engines 
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm especially 
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm#Coolwebsearch Note that AdAware and 
SpyBot S & D will each catch some things the other won't. Also, each needs 
to be updated before every use, even when just downloaded. There's also a 
lot more to do than just those two programs.
CWShredder is also available here:
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/regs_edits/cwshredder.zip
**Post your HijackThis log to http://forums.spywareinfo.com/ or the Spyware 
forum at http://forum.aumha.org/ for expert analysis, not here.**
Alternative download pages for Ad-Aware, Spybot, HijackThis and CWShredder 
may be found on this page:
http://aumha.org/a/parasite.htm.
If trying everything at that site does not fix the problem please post back 
in the same thread.
14. Issues with WinXP SP2.
For general information on WinXP SP2 see:
Windows XP Service Pack 2 Resources for IT Professionals 
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/mai 
ntain/winxpsp2.mspx
For Internet Explorer changes with SP2 see:
Changes to Functionality in Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2: Part 5: 
Enhanced Browsing Security 
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/mai 
ntain/sp2brows.mspx
883256 - How to manage Internet Explorer add-ons in Windows XP Service Pack 
2 http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;883256
For Outlook Express changes with SP2 see:
Use the New Security Improvements in Outlook Express
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/web/sp2_oe.mspx
Changes to Functionality in Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 Part 4: 
Email Handling http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/mai 
ntain/sp2email.mspx
Also:
835935 - Release notes for Windows XP Service Pack 2
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;835935
Changes to Functionality in Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2Part 1 
Introduction http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/mai 
ntain/sp2chngs.mspx
842242 - Some programs seem to stop working after you install Windows XP 
Service Pack 2 
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;842242
884130 - Programs that may behave differently in Windows XP Service Pack 2
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=884130
I've left off some issues, but I believe these address the most common 
problems that users encounter with OE. In addition, please check the 
websites of the individual OE MVP's that address other issues not listed 
here:
Tom Koch:http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/
David Guess http://www.mindspring.com/~oe_oh/
Jim Pickering http://home.comcast.net/~jimpickering/
Frank Saunders http://www.fjsmjs.com/OE/index.htm
and my site at <http://www.oehelp.com>
If you don't find your problem addressed, then feel free to post a question 
in these newsgroups and we will be more than happy to respond and attempt to 
help. Just go to Tools | Accounts | Add | News and add msnews.microsoft.com 
as a newsserver and then you can address your question to the appropriate 
newsgroup.
"Michael Mauzey" <pormike@canby.com> wrote in message 
news:OZvXs$6oEHA.1712@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> My OE used to open almost instantly ... now it takes a
> long time .. sometimes almost a minute.  Anyone have any idea why? or even
> better, how to fix?
> Thanks ... Michael Mauzey
>
>