Starting the beginning of this week I get a pop up message stating "To free up disk space, Outlook Express can compact messages". This happens when I boot up. The fact is; I don't use Outlook Express or have it installed. I checked the Windows Components that are installed and verified that. Again; it started just at the beginning of this week. There were a few updates that got installed earlier this week too. No other software was added. I am using Outlook 2003 and have been for years. I will continue to cancel on this message but would appreciate if someone could shed some light on how to prevent this message from poping up.3 people need an answerI do too

You can't uninstall OE, just remove access to it. That said, is Windows Search installed? Bruce Hagen MS-MVP [Mail]

Do you use the News command from within Outlook? If so, you are using Outlook Express.Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]

Evidently it has something to do with Windows Search as you suggest.I opened the Indexing Options and found that Outlook Express was listed and checked as a Indexed location.I took the checkbox off of Outlook Express but left it on my Outlook 2003.Saved the settings and rebooted.The message still poped up but I noticed one thing - The search index icon did not appear in the system tray until I actually acknowledged the message by choosing <Cancel>. I waited about a minute and a half before I did that to make sure my boot completed. As soon I clicked Cancel the search index icon appeared on the system tray.

Brian - I am not even sure where in Outlook 2003 I would look for something like this. Perhaps you can let me know and I would check it out.Thanks

This is what you did, correct?Windows Search. Set Desktop Search Options: http://www.microsoft.com/australia/windows/desktopsearch/search/options.mspx In the Windows Control Panel | Indexing Options | Modify. Clear the check box for Outlook Express.When you see the prompt to compact, let it do so and that should be the end of it. There are other things to look at if it continues. Bruce Hagen MS-MVP [Mail]

Hi, I upgraded the pc to sp3 and outlook express started having this problem. I finally solved it by doing two things:I reset the compact count to 0 using these instructions:Try resetting the compact count in the registry: Start the registry editor. Open this key:HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities\{identity}\Software\Microsoft\Outlook Express\5.0where identity is a string of letters, numbers, and dashes. Right click on compact Check count, and select Modify change value to 0 Click OK Close the registry editor. then I do this: open Outlook Express, click on Tools, Options and then on the Maintenance tab at the top. I put checkboxes in all the following:1. Empty message from deleted items folder on exit2. Purge deleted messages ...3. When compacting messages: delete read message bodies... delete news messages ....then I clicked on the "clean up now" buttonand then clicked APPLY.I rebooted, and no more issues. Hope this helps someone out.Private

The OP was having an issue with OE asking to compact when not even using OE. This is a known issue , especially if Windows Search is installed.Re #2: That only applies to IMAP accounts and not POP3 accounts.Re #3: That only applies to news messages ad not e-mail.If you did what you did to avoid compacting on a regular basis, you are not wise to do so.Why does OE insist on compacting folders when I close it?:http://www.insideoe.com/faqs/why.htm#compact About File Corruption:http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/community/columns/filecorruption.mspx Compacting your folders periodically is a must to keep OE functioning well and at some point, you may lose all your saved messages if you don't. When you delete, or move messages, the space they had used remains until you compact. ***Never touch anything until the compacting is finished.*** See:www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#2 With SP2, automatic background compacting was removed due to problems it caused. Now you will get a prompt to compact after 100 OE closings, which you should do, and don't touch anything until it has finished. If you compact manually, at your convenience, this will also set the counter back to zero. See this for more information:http://www.insideoe.com/files/maintain.htm#compact If you are fully patched, you will also now see a copy of your dbx files being copied to the Recycle Bin as BAK files. Should something go awry when compacting, the messages can easily be restored from this backup. A manual compact will also reset the counter in the registry back to zero now. For more info, see the information outlined in red here:www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#2 To keep things running smooth, and for faster compacting: Do not archive mail in default OE folders. They will eventually become corrupt and you may lose mail. Create your own user defined folders for storing mail and move your mail to them. Empty Deleted Items folder regularly. Keep user created folders under 300MB, and Default folders as empty as is feasible. And backup often. Outlook Express Quick Backup (OEQB Freeware)http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx Bruce Hagen MS-MVP [Mail]

I started getting the same error message as you rgbartley.Same scenario... NO outlook express or outlook 3 etc. etc...But with my message came another error. At the same time I started to get a low connectivity error. And It won't go away, nor can I connect(i'm posting this at work). HELP! I can't seem to do anything to fix it, and other machines work at my connection.Thanx, Deathtaco

If you have Windows Desktop Search installed, then remove OE from indexing via Control Panel | Indexing options. steve "deathtaco" wrote in message news:f92a1caf-e8fe-405f-b27e-6c1f75ef939e...I started getting the same error message as you rgbartley.Same scenario... NO outlook express or outlook 3 etc. etc...But with my message came another error. At the same time I started to get a low connectivity error. And It won't go away, nor can I connect(i'm posting this at work). HELP! I can't seem to do anything to fix it, and other machines work at my connection.Thanx, Deathtaco