Outlook Express not workling properly.

[dafordster]

Hi,have recently run Windows 98 setup over an existing drive. Have updated Outlook Express to v6.0. Seem to have a problem...

In outlook express, I cannot create, reply to, foward etc e-mails it says: "cannot open this mail... an error has occurred".

Also, I cannot access my address book: "unable to open address book. The address bookmay not beinstalledproperly"

Ihave tried uninstallingand reinstalling butthe same proble occurs. Anything elseI could try?

[pgriffet]

Did you try to repair IE6 ?
You should have a choice when you want to uninstall it, something like "repair IE" (sorry but I have a French version of Windows, I can't give you the right text).

BTW, IE6 and OE6 are not the best choice for Win98.

Take a look here :

http://www.aumha.org/elistx.htm#trench

HTH

Pierre.

[dafordster]

yup, tried the repair but still the same problem, will have a look at that link now...

PS can i install Win ME directly over my Win 98?

[dafordster]

Hi, tried the thing with the registry as recommended at the link given by pgriffet (thx).

Reinstalled IE6. The on opening OE, I clicked on crete new mail - it said that the address book is not installesd properly - any ideas how I can do this...

I do have a backup of my address book, but I don't think that this is the installation file which I think is what I need...

Any more ideas anyone?

[dafordster]

Tried to import my address book (File/Import/Address Book...) but nothing happens - probably something to do with the installation again...

Also I know that I can run IE6 cos before I reinstalled Windows, it was working fine...

[pgriffet]

Hi dafordster, there is an excellent site which is dedicated to OE (all versions) : http://www.tomsterdam.com . It's another MVP, like the one that I mention. Here is an excerpt about OE's Address book :

The Windows Address Book (WAB) is activated by the executable file wab.exe in the Outlook Express Program Files folder. All WAB files are associated with this application. That means you can create as many WAB files as you want, and launch them by double-clicking, just like any other associated file type. More than one WAB can be open at the same time, but only one WAB can be the active, default Address Book at any one time. This is the WAB that all the Address Book functions in Outlook Express use, such as clicking the To: button, checking names, etc. The path to the default WAB is stored in the registry in a single key. That means you can use saved *.reg files to change the value in the registry at will, and that means you can switch to a different Address Book at will.

To start making WAB's, first make a folder to hold them, named perhaps Address Books. Inside the folder, create a shortcut named New Address Book using the following command line (change the path if you installed OE elsewhere):

"C:\Program Files\Outlook Express\wab.exe" /new

Before you attempt to change the existing registry key, be sure to open Regedit, navigate to this key, then click Registry| Export Registry File, and save the selected branch as "Default Address Book.reg".

To switch the registry value for the current default WAB, you just need to make plain text files, saved with the extension .reg. Double-clicking a REG file will load the new value into the registry, and cause future calls to wab.exe to point to the swapped WAB. The full content of each REG file must follow this form:



REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\WAB\WAB4\Wab File Name]
@="C:\\WINDOWS\\Application Data\\Microsoft\\Address Book\\Tom.wab"

HTH

Pierre.