Are there any Outlook Express experts that can help me figure out what's wrong with my OE?

You can see what's wrong here towards the bottom

try deleting all your temporary internet files and your c:\windows\temp\* and c:\documents and settings\username\local settings\temp\* ... and reboot.

Is OE failing becuase it is trying to download messages that then crash it? Or is it crashing anyway whether it manages to connect to your POP server or not?

In the case of the former, OE can sometimes be tripped up by badly-formatted emails (usually spam) and will hang/error/crash.

Try using something more capable like Mozilla to connect to your account and delete the offending email (set it to leave the messages on the server), then go back to OE and re-connect.

Edit: Just re-read one of the messages in the thread you linked to. Seems this it's the latter.

Personally, I feel that using outlook or outlook express is a security hazard. They don't really have many security settings and sometimes just opening an email can be enough to give you a virus.

That said, have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling outlook express? I've had similar problems before (hanging/crashing at different places), but I've always solved it by reinstalling it.

-Biscuits

I've tried reinstalling it but to no avail.
I think I have Office XP somewhere. If I can find it I'll try installing Outlook this weekend and be done with Express.
I still want to use one of the Outlooks though since I like the interface of them.

Is this W2K or XP? Can you log on as a different user & check if OE still crashes when launched? If it's a fault in the data files as opposed the program's this test might indicate that. Have you tried installing/reinstalling IE 6 (comes with OE bundled), as opposed to just OE? If you're done with it, I can respect that. Remember Outlook (the non-Express version) should be able to import your OE messages & email settings, assuming your data files aren't hosed.

I've noticed much less strange behavior from Outlook than OE, FWIW.

-Zeke

In reply to:

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I've noticed much less strange behavior from Outlook than OE, FWIW.

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I'm convinced msworks and outlook express were created with bugs ( M$ ->features) with the intention of driving you to buy the real product. Seems within M$'s code of ethics.

I don't know about that... We've had more problems with Outlook crashing than with OE. We ended up with using OE instead, and only had a few problems with badly formatted mails crashing OE and some problems printing mails...

Stig