[Vanessa13]

My Outlook Express has recently started giving me a pop-up message every time I close it, and I have no idea why it's doing this, as I haven't changed any settings. The message is:

'To free up space, Outlook Express can compact messages. This may take a few minutes'. Then it gives me two buttons to click: okay or cancel.

The problem is that I don't want my messages compressed, and I'm worried that I'll click 'yes' by mistake one day. Does anyone know how I can stop this message from popping up every time I close OE?

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I understand that a count is made within the registry that, when a certain number is reached, the message you have is triggered. As far as I know, compacting will not compress your email. The compacting is all about compacting the database of messages, removing the blanks in the .dbx file from where emails have been deleted.

More info: http://www.thundercl...ips/compacting/

[Vino Rosso]

I understand that a count is made within the registry that, when a certain number is reached, the message you have is triggered. As far as I know, compacting will not compress your email. The compacting is all about compacting the database of messages, removing the blanks in the .dbx file from where emails have been deleted.

More info: http://www.thundercl...ips/compacting/

[Vanessa13]

Thanks for your reply - does that mean that my inbox and folders will look exactly the way they do now? It won't somehow make the mails inaccessible, will it?

[Vino Rosso]

Yes, they will look exactly as they are now. You will not see any change in OE.

If you have emails you would not wish to lose, which is possible if the compacting process is interrupted, I suggest you copy all your .dbx files to a backup folder. Once the compacting has completed, it doesn't take long, and you check that you can access all your email folders in OE, you can delete the .dbx copies and take a fresh copy as backup.

[Rediah]

Hi Vanessa13:

Just my zero cents, could you please check the size of Deleted Items and Junk Mail folder to see how much space you are able to recover in Outlook Express if you delete them permanently?

[Vanessa13]

Hi Vanessa13:

Just my zero cents, could you please check the size of Deleted Items and Junk Mail folder to see how much space you are able to recover in Outlook Express if you delete them permanently?

Hi there,

Where do I check this? My deleted items and inbox that appears in my email itself is pretty small, but I'm not sure where to find the folder on my HDD?

[Vanessa13]

If you have emails you would not wish to lose, which is possible if the compacting process is interrupted, I suggest you copy all your .dbx files to a backup folder.

With my luck, Eskom will have a power failure halfway through... I'm not really willing to risk that :-/

[Vino Rosso]

In OE, go to Tools > Options > Maintenance tab
Click the Store Folder button to find where your .dbx files are stored.

Use Explorer to locate that folder in which you'll find all the .dbx files, one for each folder in OE.

To see how compacting works, empty your Deleted Items folder in OE then look at the size of the deleted items.dbx file.
The deleted items.dbx file is likely to have 'some' size yet the deleted items folder is empty.
Now in OE, click on the Delete Items folder first
Then File > Folder > Compact (this will compact only the Deleted Items folder)
Now re-check the size of the deleted items.dbx file. It will be much smaller.

As suggested, copy all the .dbx files to another location as backup then do File > Folder > Compact All Folders
If anything goes wrong, you simply copy the .dbx files back into the Store Folder and start again.

[Vanessa13]

Thanks for that - I've just checked that folder, and it's only 375MB in total, across all my folders. This seems more or less right, if I look at my actual emails in my folders, inbox etc.

I don't want to compact, though. I want the message to compact to go away. One day I'm going to click it by mistake, and that's going to irritate me bigtime, because I don't want to have to spend time setting it all up again... How do I get the message to go away? Where do I go to change this setting?

[Vanessa13]

PS: I deleted the deleted items permanently, and it only saved just over 2MB.

[Vino Rosso]

Thanks for that - I've just checked that folder, and it's only 375MB in total, across all my folders. This seems more or less right, if I look at my actual emails in my folders, inbox etc.

Compacting is less about saving space and more about cleansing the databases.

I don't want to compact, though. I want the message to compact to go away. One day I'm going to click it by mistake, and that's going to irritate me bigtime, because I don't want to have to spend time setting it all up again...

Setting what all up again?

How do I get the message to go away? Where do I go to change this setting?

It is rumoured that the message is triggered by a registry value reaching 100 *but* I don't know that this is definitely true therefore I don't know the impact of changing the value. If you run a Google search for Compact Check Count, you'll find the relevant information and can decide if you want to proceed in taking a chance in changing the value.

[Vanessa13]

Apologies for taking so long to reply on this string... Work's been keeping me busy.

Okay, so the inevitable happened and I clicked 'compact' by mistake the day before yesterday. Then I hit 'cancel' when it was halfway through. I have lots of emails in my folders, so I have no idea if any of them are now missing from my folders (would they be?). However, since I hit 'okay' by mistake and cancelled it, I haven't been receiving that message again...

Does anyone know what actually happens to the emails that are compressed? Does the programme move them somewhere or limit access to them, or how exactly does it work?

Tks a mill!