Re: Outlook Express message??

[Repost of my reply to your thread in OE General]

You should be aware of a few things, Jo:

1. Come April 2010, you will not receive any more Windows Updates unless SP3
is installed. With SP3 installed, you'll receive updates through 2014.

2. The free installation and compatibility support for WinXP SP3 that you
used will only be available through 09 April 2009.

3. With a little perseverance on your part, we probably could have assisted
you in getting that constant nag to compact OE folders to cease. (Only a
very small minority of WinXP SP3 users are experiencing this issue.)

4. It is perfectly safe for the majority of users to uninstall WinXP SP3 via
Add/Remove Programs. The tech told you not to do it that way, which
suggests that you may have had a "horked" (bad; faulty; incomplete) install
to begin with.

Best of luck to you.
--
~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-IE, Mail, Security, Windows Desktop Experience - since 2002
AumHa VSOP & Admin http://aumha.net
DTS-L http://dts-l.net/

Jo wrote:
Thank you very much to everyone who replied. At about 5:00PM I finally
decided to just uninstall SP3. It was a nightmare, but I did it and I'm no
longer getting the OE message. I was at least an hour on the phone with
Microsoft Tech Support (he was extremely nice and helpful) just getting the
video to behave. Then another 3.5 hours to download and install all the
other updates and security patches to bring SP2 up to date. I *think* it's
okay now. Interestingly, my scanner that I haven't been able to install
since installing SP3 is now working perfectly.

SP3 is a lemon and I'm glad to be rid of it. Good luck to anyone else who
wants to change their mind after installing SP3. A word to the wise - find
out how to do it properly. The tech support guy said *do not* uninstall it
through Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel (which is what I did). Why
MS put it there if it isn't the right way to uninstall it, is anyone's
guess. Thanks again for everyone's help, information and support!

Jo


"Jo" wrote:

My apologies if you see this post more than once, since I'm not quite sure
which group to post it in, so I'll post it in a few that might be relevant.

For the last 3 days or so, I've had a message window appear when I boot up
Windows (XP SP3). It says "Outlook Express. To free up disk space, Outlook
Express can compact messages. This may take up to a few minutes." And then
the OK or Cancel buttons. I have always clicked Cancel.

Here's the weird thing -- I run Office Outlook (2003), NOT Outlook Express!
I've never run Outlook Express -- not on this Windows installation anyway.
Just in case this was an echo from Office Outlook, I compacted all my
Outlook PST files, but I'm still getting the message.

I find this message disturbing because, since I'm not running Express, I
wonder if it might be some kind of malware. But I run an anti-virus and
anti-spyware and firewall and I scan pretty much daily. It hasn't gone away
after scanning.

Has anyone else had this happen before, when you aren't running Outlook
Express? Thanks.

.

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