Did you know that Outlook Express constantly stores and accumulates every kb of the posts that you view?

The larger your folder sizes get, the poorer Outlook Express will perform.

 

Automated Clean Up sounds like it will keep you clean and running smoothly, but unfortunately doesn't seem to do its job well and by many accounts, corrupts files.  If you're just reading "Plain Text" email, the automated function probably works well enough, but when viewing Email in Rich Text (HTML) format, OE saves everything you read in many places and it can really begin to cause chaos, the program begins to suffer, files begin to corrupt, and the whole program begins running poorly.

 

Keep it Clean and Running Lean!

 Many people recommend that that you disable the automatic clean up function, by going to Tools/Options/Maintenance and unchecking the box for "Compact Messages In The Background", this will remove the automated function, there are some routine maintenance chores to be done atleast once a week manually to be sure your keeping OE and it's hiding places cleaned out.

 

Go to Tools/Options/Maintenance and select "Clean Up Now".

 

Also atleast once a week or so select "Remove Messages".  This will remove the message bodies, the heaviest portion of the posts that you have already viewed, while leaving the message headers for reference, if you want to look back at something. (This step is important if your reading newsgroup mail.)

 

Unfortunately, after a few days, even the headers alone will add up to several megabytes and then it is necessary to select "Delete", which will remove all message headers and message bodies, but continues the next download where you left off, keeping your place.

Reset does the same as Delete, but starts over from scratch and the next time you go to a newsgroup, it will be as if you just subscribed and will re download posts you have already read.

After every "Remove" or "Delete", you must Compact.  Although you have removed the headers and/or the bodies, the file size does not change unless you select "Compact" to remove unused space.

One other bad guys in this game is the "Sent Items Folder".  It does not clean itself out.  The posts in this folder should also be deleted by simply selecting Edit/Select All and then choosing "Delete".  Follow this up by repeating the process in the "Deleted Items Folder".

After deleting the posts in these folders, you must also Compact, again, by selecting File/Folder/Compact All Folders. Also be sure your settings are to "Empty messages from the Deleted items Folder on Exit" this way it's cleaned out every time you close OE.

Now Close Outlook Express completely down because the next you need to to clean up your Temp Folder.

 

Open Windows Explorer and go to C:\Windows\Temp, up top click on Edit/Select All the right click on the highlighted files and select DELETE!  and yes delete EVERYTHING in that folder. 

Yes........ EVERYTHING.  Even if it looks Important, DELETE it, you don't need it!

If OE is open when you do this, some files won't delete.  Just close OE and IE and try again.

And the last step is to Open Internet Explorer and go to Tools/Options/General
Select the Delete Files button in the Temporary Internet Files Section
Then select Settings and move the slider bar to its lowest setting
Then go to the Advanced tab and in the security setting put a check in the box for Empty Temporary Internet files.

Now your Outlook Express Program will be clean, and ready for more reading! If you keep up with your maintenance you will find a marked difference in the way it runs!