Outlook Express FAQ What is the little push-pin icon in the lower right corner of OE's download window which pops up when you click Send/Receive? "Push" it in with a click to "pin" the download (spooler) window to the display. That will stop it from hiding automatically when the download is finished. Click it again to "un-pin" it. What does the Flag icon mean? The Flag means anything you want it to mean. It's just a simple visual reminder that the flagged message has some special significance to you. Where are my OE message files stored? Click Tools| Options| Maintenance| Store folder to see the location of your current store root. To find files not in the store, click Start| Find| Files or Folders and search for files of type *.dbx. (see also: The OE5 Store) Where is my address book stored? Open the Address Book and click Help| About Address Book to see the path and file (*.wab) being used. If no path is shown, OE is sharing the Outlook Contacts folder and is not using a *.wab file. To change this, click Tools| Options and disable sharing. (Note: Tools| Options only appears if Outlook is installed in Internet Mail Only (IMO) mode). (see also: The Windows Address Book) How do I re-send a message? Unfortunately, OE does not have a re-send function built in. You can work around this lack in several ways. Open your original copy in the Sent Items folder, copy the entire body, then paste that into a new message. Forward your original copy and then edit out the headers that are added before the quoted text. This works only if you have enabled "include message in reply" under Tools| Options| Send. Select or Open the original copy in Sent Items, then click File| Save as.. and save the message to your desktop as type *.eml. Open the saved *.eml file in Notepad and add this line to the headers with the other X- lines: X-Unsent: 1 Save the edited file, then double-click the *.eml file, make whatever changes are needed, and click Send. How do I delete an email message without opening it? Click View| Layout and remove the check mark in front of Preview Pane. You can also add the Preview button to the toolbar to quickly turn it on and off. [more info on OE5 toolbars] How can I block messages with a blank FROM or TO field? Every email address must contain the @ symbol, so you can use that to create a rule for messages with no address in From or To. Click Tools|Message Rules|New|Mail. Under Conditions, select "where the From line contains people" and "where the To line contains people". In the rule Description box, click on the blue underlined "contains people". Type the @ symbol, click Add, then click the Options button and select "where the message does not contain". Repeat steps 3 and 4 for the second blue underlined "contains people". Click on the blue underlined "and" and select "Messages match any one of the criteria". In the Actions box, select "Delete from server". You final rule should look like this: Apply this rule after the message arrives. Where the From line does not contain '@' or Where the To line does not contain '@' Delete it from server Why does OE try to install another language when I click on certain messages? This occurs if the message was sent using a character set different from yours and you have enabled Install on Demand. To prevent this, either install the language requested, or click Tools| Options| Read| International Settings, and check "Always use default encoding for all incoming messages". That will disable Install on Demand inside OE, but will leave it active in Internet Explorer. If you wish to disable it in IE also, do so under IE's Tools| Internet Options| Advanced. Why do I sometimes get the error "550 - Relaying not allowed"? This error message is coming from the mail server, not from OE itself. It means that the SMTP (outgoing) mail server did not recognize you as an authorized user and so rejected your message. Most ISPs configure their SMTP servers to recognize only those whose IP address is on the accepted list, meaning that you are connected directly to that ISP. If you use multiple ISPs, you are likely to encounter this problem. The solution is to change the SMTP server for that mail account under Tools| Accounts| Properties| Servers.