iwoagirl2006, Thank you for the info on Microsoft PowerToys, I never heard of it before now. I will have to look this over, it sounds pretty neat. pkponder, is there a check next to Block Images and other external content in HTML email? There is no checkmark in that box. What type of picture file are you attempting to attach? I have some pictures from my camera (Kodak easyshare camera)and I took them from the Kodak gallery and transfered them into a folder. I then resized some of those pictures. I right click on the picture itself then choose send to, then Mail Recipient and it goes to Outlook Express. It's worked before but not now. I just happened to notice when I went to my other clipart folders that when I put my mouse on a clipart it is now showing Kodak Easyshare, those cliparts did not come from Kodak Easyshare they came from the Microsoft website where I got them from Microsoft Publisher to make cards. Why did Kodak easyshare take over my cliparts and how do I get it back to normal? Now I know what has happened the Kodak software is set as the default picture viewer. I don't know how that happened. How do I Change the application back to Windows Media Viewer? When it is set to the Media Viewer I can do everything in Outlook Express as I use to and open the paperclip to see the pictures that come in to me. The search that I did really doesn't help me much with this problem but it did let me know what happened and when I checked out every picture, clipart etc that I have in my folders it shows Kodak Easyshare .gif or jpeg etc. Now that I know what the problem is I need to know how to get my clipart etc to open with the Windows Picture Viewer. Any idea's? thirdfrt!!!

From an OE Newsgroup: Why does OE insist on compacting folders when I close it?: http://www.insideoe.com/faqs/why.htm#compact About File Corruption: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/community/columns/filecorruption.mspx Compacting your folders periodically is a must to keep OE functioning well and at some point, you may lose all your saved messages if you don't. When you delete, or move messages, the space they had used remains until you compact. ***Never touch anything until the compacting is finished.*** See: www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#2 With SP2, automatic background compacting was removed due to problems it caused. Now you will get a prompt to compact after 100 OE closings, which you should do, and don't touch anything until it has finished. If you compact manually, at your convenience, this will also set the counter back to zero. See this for more information: http://www.insideoe.com/files/maintain.htm#compact If you are fully patched, you will also now see a copy of your dbx files being copied to the Recycle Bin as BAK files. Should something go awry when compacting, the messages can easily be restored from this backup. A manual compact will also reset the counter in the registry back to zero now. For more info, see the information outlined in red here: www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#2 To keep things running smooth, and for faster compacting: Do not archive mail in default OE folders. They will eventually become corrupt and you may lose mail. Create your own user defined folders for storing mail and move your mail to them. Empty Deleted Items folder regularly. Keep user created folders under 100MB, and Default folders as empty as is feasible. And backup often. Backup and Restore: http://www.insideoutlookexpress.com/backup/ http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx

Pam you say: "After I enter the incoming (imap@aol.com)and outgoing (smtp@aol.com)mail" Replace the @ with a dot (period) I have mistakenly done the same thing myself while studying the "how to do it" instructions! Colin

Just a quick update to anyone who may (or may not!) be interested in my original problem... After literally weeks of frustrating searches, futile attempts and dead-ends, I wiped Outlook Express from my computer and downloaded Thunderbird...it's a real gem! I did lose my old address book (but luckily I had a replica within Hotmail), but DID keep all sent/deleted/saved messages...can easily rebuild address book as people email me...messages to my old OE address still arrive at new Thunderbird one, so I'm a very happy chappy! Regards to all, Shax