Re: OE lost folders

From: Boyd Morris (RBMorris_at_wil.net)
Date: 10/31/04 

Date: Sun, 31 Oct 2004 15:46:04 -0500

Steve & Bruce
A combination of both recommendations fixed the problem.
I still need to open an incident with MS on creating the problem in the first place by automatically creating duplicate identities.
Boyd

"Steve Cochran" <scochran@oehelp.com> wrote in message news:%233PL99esEHA.2956@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
> Go to File | Identities and set up a new Identity. Then do points 2 and 3
> below and see if that works okay. Then see point 4 about recovering the
> messages, and incorporate them into that new ID. It will have a new GUID
> and that should fix the conflicts.
>
> steve
>
> "Boyd Morris" <RBMorris@wil.net> wrote in message
> news:erzwr6VsEHA.3076@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
> Bruce - did not work. Everything appears to work fine except I don't get an
> option to "Select Move Here". After I go through all of your instructions I
> open OE again and the folders I created are gone - only the system folders
> are still there. I really think it has something to do with there being 2
> entries in Desktop Documents and Settings for the same user - 1) UserA & 2)
> UserA.System2. The identity number for each of those in Documents and
> Settings\(UserA)\Application Data\Identities\(identity
> number)\Microsoft\Outlook Express is identical and I think this is confusing
> OE.
>
> Boyd
>
> "Bruce Hagen" <Nospam@mymail.invalid> wrote in message
> news:OQTl78urEHA.2904@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
>> Right click on the folders and drag them to Desktop. Select Move
>> Here. Open OE and Create folders with the same names as the ones on
>> your desktop. ***Copy a message from any folder to the new
>> folders.*** Close OE. Go to back to Windows Explorer and Click
>> Desktop and drag the folders from the Desktop to the OE store folder
>> that you clicked on to reveal the .dbx files. Prompt - "Do you want
>> to overwrite......."? Click Yes.
>>
>> Bruce Hagen
>> MS MVP - (IE/OE)
>> ~IB-CA~
>>
>> "Boyd Morris" <RBMorris@wil.net> wrote in message
>> news:ezfM04urEHA.556@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
>> I have a LAN with 2 systems running XP (one XP Pro - "system1" - and
>> the other XP Home - "system2"). After temporarily sharing drives to
>> remotely maintain the XP Home system a new user id showed up in the
>> Documents and Settings folder on the XP Home system. In addition to
>> the existing "userA" there is now a "userA.system2". In order to get
>> all of the user settings back when UserA logs in I had to copy all of
>> the folders under the Documents and Setting\UserA folder to the new
>> Documents and Setting\UserA.System2 folder.
>>
>> Now all is well except for Outlook Express. Mail and news account
>> setup is correct but all mail folders are missing (except of course
>> the default folders - inbox, outbox, etc.). All of the folders
>> (*.dbx) are in the same directory where the inbox folder is but OE is
>> not recognizing them. I'm guessing that they are not in the registry
>> under the new user name. Question is how do I fix this? - and how
>> could this have happened?
>>
>> --
>> Boyd Morris
>>
>>
>
>
>
> 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://www.insideoe.com/problems/bugs.htm#mailgone
>
>
> 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://www.insideoe.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/)
>
>
>
> 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://www.insideoe.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://www.insideoe.com/problems/performance.htm#nostart
>
> http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q245/4/19.asp
>
>
> 10. Address book information:
>
> see The Windows Address Book
>
> http://www.insideoe.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\CurrentVersion\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/). 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://www.insideoe.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 .
>
> The US Federal Trade Comission is launching a major crackdown on deceptive
> and offensive spam. Visit their site at www.ftc.gov/spam for more info.
>
>
> 13. Messages appear blank
>
> From a post by Frank Saunders:
>
> Several possible causes and therefor several possible fixes:
> 1. Go to Start | Run and type
> regsvr32 inetcomm.dll
> and press <Enter>
> 2. Go to Tools | Options | Read | Fonts and set Western (ISO) as the
> default.
> 3. Clear Temporary Internet Files and the Temp folder.
> 4. Turn off email scanning in your anti-virus.
> 5. 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/?kbid=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/maintain/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/maintain/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/maintain/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/maintain/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://www.insideoe.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.
>
>