Need to disable offer from Outlook Express "to free up disk space, outlook express can compact messages"

Every time I close Outlook Express, I get the following message: "to free up
disk space, outlook express can compact messages."

I have read about this and I understand it does not diminish the integrity
of my messages.

However, the problem I have is that I cannot stand it when programs like
this keep bugging me relentlessly until I do what they want me to do. I
want to have the choice to say yes or no. This program does not give me
that choice because it keeps bugging me until it gets its way.

I would greatly appreciate it if someone could tell me how to stop these
annoying pop-ups.

Microsoft went to this because people didn't compact space as they should
have. You either let things go too long (in which case you should get the
message) or you have enourmous space requirements (do you keep ALL of your
emails?). The prudent thing to do is to compact periodically, manually
before the message screams at you to do something you should have already
done.

Thank you for your response. It is nice to know I can compact manually if I
want to. However, I would still like the decision to be mine. I wish to
have a choice but Microsoft gives me no choice. I guess it was in one of
the updates I received from Microsoft. Thank you, that gives me a clue, I
could start uninstalling the updates until the problem goes away.

The reason it was changed to automatic was that if you do not compact OE
folders on a regular basis (and the setting for the automatic compaction is
having launched OE 100 times - so if you only open it once a day then
automatic compaction is only offered just over every THREE months.....)
there is grave danger of folder corruption.....and there were many posts on
the OE groups complaining about sudden corruption of folders and loss of
data, all due to not compacting on a regular basis.


Forget the LaunchOE.bat suggestion....it doesn't work.

I use the following because my computer is on at 1:00AM every morning:

Click Start, point to Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools,
and then click Scheduled Tasks.
Add Scheduled Task

Under the Task tab > Run: , type C:\Tasks\RunTasks.bat
Under the Task tab > Start in: , type C:\Tasks
Under the Task tab > Run as: , your computer name\your account name
(Note: the account name must have a password (not blank), for Scheduled Task
service to run)
Under the Task tab > check the box for "Enabled (scheduled task runs at
specified time)"

Under the Schedule tab > Schedule Task:, enter Daily
Under the Schedule tab > Start time:, enter 1:00AM
Under the Schedule tab > Every:, enter 1
Hit OK and exit .

Open Windows Explorer.
Create the directory Tasks on the C: drive (C:\Tasks)
Use Notepad to create the following .bat files and .reg file in C:\Tasks

----RunTasks.bat----------------------
@ECHO OFF
REM ---------change registry so email wont compress---
call C:\Tasks\NoCompact.bat

----NoCompact.bat-------------------
regedit.exe /s C:\Tasks\NoCompact.reg

----NoCompact.reg-------------------
REGEDIT4
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities\{......what ever your idenity
is.........}\Software\Microsoft\Outlook Express\5.0]
"Compact Check Count"=dword:00000000

The above registery change makes sure that the count never gets to 100
(which causes the compress or pop-ups).
The counter is set to zero every night at 1:00AM.
I can compress the email whenever I think about it...which is not to often.


If you do NOT want to run a scheduled task every day, then create a batch
file
that launches Outlook Express.
The batch file also includes the procedure to zero the count.

----LaunchOE.bat-----------------------------
@ECHO OFF
REM ---------change registry so email wont compress---
call C:\Tasks\NoCompact.bat
MSIMN.EXE


Create a shortcut from LaunchOE.bat
Drag the shortcut to the desk top.
Use the shortcut to launch OE.

It's not a problem, it's behavior you dislike.

If you want to risk corruption of your OE store (possible loss of some or
all of your messages) and run a much-less secure version of OE, go right
ahead and do that, Keven/Kevin. You'd be cutting off your nose to spite
your face IMHO.

You have to use:
start C:\Progra~1\Outloo~1\MSIMN.EXE

It is my understanding that the only way I would risk corruption is if I
wait too long between compacting OE messages. If I never compact OE at all,
I have no risk of corruption.

That is exactly what I would like to do.. Never compact my messages. I wish
to never risk my messages at all. I have plenty of HD space and I am not
worried about the space requirements, I simply want to have a choice.

Are you guys going to keep hekling me or does someone have an anwer to my
question

That's not correct AFAIK - many problems in OE with regard to corrupt
folders and loss of data seem to be caused precisely BECAUSE the user did
not compact on a regular basis....

Your question has been answered. To disable Compact Count from being reset
to 0 (zero) after compacting manually, uninstall KB923694. To disable
Automatic Compacting, uninstall WinXP Service Pack 2.

Thank You very much Jerry Ed. That is exactly what I was looking for. It
is nice to be able to have more control over my computer.

Also, thank you to every one else who helped me see the light. Thank you
especially to Pa Bear for sending me that link so I could learn more about
Outlook Express.

[MikeSaunders]

Stumbled upon this thread when googling around about Outlook Express nagging about compacting its database files.

The funny thing is, that I've never used Outlook Express because I use Outlook 2007. When the "question" about compacting the files started to appear I clicked "Cancel" but the message just keeps on coming again and again, even if I've never used Outlook Express.

So I decided that to get rid of the message, I'll uninstall the whole product. So through the "Add/Remove Programs" feature, I got rid of Outlook Express alltogether... But the nagging message STILL keeps appearing every time I start up my computer.

Guess I'll have to check out the registry hack mentioned above...

And yes, I have to agree with Kevin above: There should be a button labeled "No thank you, I don't want to compact my messages and please don't ask me again." Of course, there could be an additional warning about possibly corrupting the message store, but the user should always have the option to do whatever he/she wants to do.

[BigAl]

Well I don't know about you chaps but all my system files and programs are on my 'C' drive. I use Firefox as a browser and Thunderbird as my email client. I have four HDDs the final one of which is my backup and is 150 GB. I use Acronis to do daily backup then burn the latest file to DVD each morning. It is when I use Nero to add a new file to my DVDs the the message appears - but only for about 3 seconds. It then goes away again of it's own accord. I can carry on and work through it it doesn't seem to matter. None of the posts above seem to address this so I am still at a loss to understand. I cycle backups on a weekly basis so only keep the last four complete weeks on the machine so space is never a problem on that drive (or on any of the others for that matter)

I have a feeling that is since SP3 that this started but cannot be sure.

BTW isn't Outlook Express and Outlook much the same thing? Of course any MS user will be using Outlook to view directories and files.

[cbremner]

I get this "to free up disk space" message too. But that is not my problem. When I click on OK, I get another message "The folder is currently in use by OE or another application" How do I fix this?

In Outlook Express, in the Folders window on the left, click Outlook
Express at the top. Next, on the menu bar, click File, checkmark Work
Offline, if it is not already checkmarked. Next, click File again, click
Folder, click Compact All Folders. Wait for it to finish. If it still says
that a folder is in use, close OE, re-open OE, repeat above instructions
to compact.

Here is the Outlook Express newsgroup:
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsof...xpress.general