Why does OE insist on compacting folders when I close it?

OE has a long and troubled history with compacting folders. In the most current version, OE compacts all folders automatically after you open and close the program 100 times. Compacting folders is absolutely essential for maintaining your files in good working order. Therefore,

• Do not interrupt the process once it has begun.
• It is best not to use your computer at all until the process is complete, which can take a few minutes.
• Under no circumstances must you ever use Task Manager to kill the msimn.exe process, or put your computer on Standby, or turn off the power, or use a memory-intensive program while compaction is occurring. Any of those can cause destruction of your files and the loss of your messages.

If you don't like waiting for that 100th closing, you can compact all folders manually at any time. For best results always use this procedure:

1. On the File menu, click Work Offline so that no new messages will be arriving.
2. In the Folder list, click on Outlook Express so that no e-mail or news folder is open.
3. Close the Folder list by clicking the X in the upper right-hand corner of the list panel. Alternatively you can click Layout on the View menu, and then clear the checkbox for "Folder List".
4. On the File menu, point to Folder, and then click Compact All Folders. Do not use your computer until the process is complete, which might take several minutes.
5. If an error occurs, close Outlook Express, re-open it, and begin the process again from the top. If the same error occurs again, close Outlook Express, restart your computer (or log off and then log on again), open Outlook Express and then begin the whole process again.

Unfortunately that does not reset the internal counter to zero, so OE will still compact after the 100th closing. You can edit the registry manually to reset the counter, or you can use OE Tool to compact all folders and reset the counter at the same time. To reset it manually:

1. Close Outlook Express and all message windows.
2. Click Start, click Run and type without quotes "regedit".
3. Navigate to this key
   
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities\{GUID}\Software\Microsoft\Outlook Express\5.0
   
   where GUID is the long number used for your Identity.
4. In the right-hand pane, double-click "Compact Check Count", then change the value to zero.