Outlook Express Dies after Updates

HP Pavilion a1040a running Windows Xp Pro Sp2 and Office 2003 Pro. After installing Microsoft's 7 updates yesterday outlook express which I use as a news reader doesn't work correctly. If I try to reply or post a new message it comes up with an error popup one being the "The address book failed to load. Outlook express is incorrectly configured, please reinstall." The other is "Outlook Express has encountered an error and must close" and it does. I can receive and read news Ok and Outlook 2003 which I use for email appears to work fine.

I have followed the instructions here http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=k...578&sid=global several times to try and reinstall outlook express but it doesn't seem to work. It version 6.00.2900.2180 and if I find stand alone updates for EI 6 and Outlook Express 6 it still says; Setup has detected a newer version of Internet Explorer already installed on this system. Setup cannot continue." The system file checker found nothing. I have tried the registry edits to say both IE6 and OE 6 are not installed (set IsInstalled (REG_DWORD) value to 0) but that makes know difference. Do I in fact need to reinstall all of XP SP 2 and if so how? Any other ideas?

Microsoft has pretty much rolled IE, OE, Outlook, and Messenger into one app with many heads. I would uninstall ALL of them and then reinstall. Hopefully this will foil the version checkers.

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Originally Posted by Aussiblue

After installing Microsoft's 7 updates yesterday outlook express which I use as a news reader doesn't work correctly.

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Hi Aussiblue,
I can't help but think that this problem is related to the 'authentication' update.
I had concerns about it and did not download it, and even posted about it:
http://discussions.virtualdr.com/sho...d.php?t=204620
If you can find it in add/remove, you might want to remove it and see if that fixes your problem.
Just a shot in the dark, hth.

Aussiblue--Did you try the uninstall/reinstall of OE described toward the end of the MSKB link you posted? (You probably should save your email messages somewhere before doing that.)
Some fairly generalized discussion here
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/...orruption.mspx

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Aussiblue--Did you try the uninstall/reinstall of OE described toward the end of the MSKB link you posted? (You probably should save your email messages somewhere before doing that.)

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Yes; didn't work - won't reinstall even if I "uninstall OE and IE6..

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Some fairly generalized discussion here
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie...corruption.mspx

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Saw that too; not sure if it leads me anywhere though.

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I can't help but think that this problem is related to the 'authentication' update.
I had concerns about it and did not download it, and even posted about it:
http://discussions.virtualdr.com/sh...ad.php?t=204620
If you can find it in add/remove, you might want to remove it and see if that fixes your problem. Just a shot in the dark, hth.

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Can't find it to uninstall so maybe I should just install the beta version of IE7 now.

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Can't find it to uninstall so maybe I should just install the beta version of IE7 now.

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'Betas' and I never get along, so I'm waiting, but if you feel adventuresome
and your 'blood-pressure' isn't high to start with give it a go....:rolleyes:

OK after reading the MSKB article more carefully in the cold light of day after a nap the fix I was trying was for SP1 it seems I need to uninstall and reinstall SP2

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Windows XP SP2: Reinstall Windows XP SP2
For additional information about how to obtain and install Windows XP Service Pack 2, visit the following Web site:
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/secu...p/default.mspx (http://www.microsoft.com/athome/secu...p/default.mspx)
For additional information about obtaining Windows XP service pack 2, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
322389 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322389/) How to obtain the latest Windows XP service pack

For additional information about installing Windows XP Service Pack 2, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
875364 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/875364/) Detailed Windows XP Service Pack 2 installation walkthrough

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..but those links really don't tell me how to do that.

OK I have found the XP SP2 installation CD gives the option to remove and add the OE component of XP; however doing this make no difference either.

Fixed it. Used Tools/Options Maintenance/Cleanup/Reset and now everything seems to work fine. I guess I should have tried simple things like this first. :)

Glad you got it resolved.
Thanks for posting back...:)

Aussiblue--

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Tools/Options Maintenance/Cleanup/Reset

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Reset???

Yes "reset." It deletes headers and message bodies and resets the folders so the messages will be redownloaded. This is in Vers 6.00.2900.2180 of Outlook Express used as a newsgroup reader only.

Aussiblue--Same version of OE as I have, but I have no Reset option on the OE Tools/Options/Maintenance tab--not under the "Cleaning up messages" section or nor elsewhere on that tab. This is whether I am looking at emails or newsgroup messages.

AussieBlue,

You wrote:

"This is in Vers 6.00.2900.2180 of Outlook Express used as a newsgroup reader only."

I just downloaded the latest updates two days ago but my Outlook Express is version 6.00.2800.1807.

I am using W2K with all the patches applied but I am wondering why the OE version is different? Anyone have any ideas?

Linda

Linda this is what I have using XP Pro, so the diff may be the OS.
"Microsoft Outlook Express 6
6.00.2900.2180 (xpsp-sp2-rtm.040803-2158)"