Address Book Won't Open

Hi I'm running XP Home and all of a sudden I can't open my address book.
It says to reinstall outlook express. I went to add/remove windows components and removed outlook express. Then I rebooted and when I clicked on outlook express it opened!!!! I thought I just uninstalled it.
All my e-mails were there and I still can't open my address book.
I go into add/remove windows components and outlook express is unchecked.
What gives?? If I go into C:\Program files\Outlook Express everything is there!! I can't delete the folder it says its being used by another application.
Please help
Dave

In Outlook express can you click on "tools" and then "select recipient"? When you are sending an e-mail.

No, I don't see any "select recipient" in tools

What version of OE?
Run a Search for *.wab. That is your address book. It probably is named UserName.wab. If you find it, and it is not in C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Application Data\Microsoft\Address Book drag and drop it into that folder. If you do not find the .wab file, do you find one in that same folder named UserName.wab~ ? If yes Rename it to UserName.wab. Does Address Book work now?

If you have IE ver 7 installed, when you uninstalled OE, it went back to version 6.

If you go to Google and type in "address book for OE" you will see some ways to fix it. Here is one of them.
Re: Lost address book by Bruce
Bruce
Sat Oct 13 14:23:56 PDT 2007

Reset OE as default as per these instructions. You will have to do this
every time you get an Outlook update. (See that link). Another great job by
MS. If you still have an old Address Book, do an Advanced search and include
Hidden Files and Folders and search for *.wab

You may find a few and one should be the current one.

Make OE the default e-mail client:
http://www.oehelp.com/oedef.aspx

For links in e-mail:
http://www.oehelp.com/oelnk.aspx

And:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=306098

Restores OE to the E-mail clients list in Internet Options
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/scripts_desc/oe_client.htm

If you have MS Outlook installed, also see:
http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#13

"Send To" and E-mail Links Do Not Work Using Outlook Express as Default:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=306098
--
Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
Imperial Beach, CA

Hi I found the WAB file in C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Application Data\Microsoft\Address Book. I doubled clicked on it and it gave me an error occured while trying to open this. I removed it from the folder and restarted OE. I could now open the address book but it is empty. So I tried to import the WAB file I had removed and it says an error occured while trying to import. Could it be my wab file is corrupt? Also the icon is all wrong it doesn't look like the normal wab file icon.
Dave.

Was it wab.exe?
What was the error, when you tried to open it?

The file was dave.wab As soon as I removed from the folder I could open my address book again but now its empty. I tried to import the dave.wab to the address book and it says "An error occured while trying to import"
If I try to double click on the file it says "unable to open address book"
Dave

As I look at my XP, OE address book is wab.exe file. When I double click on it, it opens address book.

Broni--wab.exe is the executable to open the Address Book. UserName.wab is the Address Book itself.

lonewolf--

Quote:

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I removed it from the folder and restarted OE. I could now open the address book but it is empty

---

It sounds like your original Address Book was corrupt. When you moved it out of its folder, and then restarted OE, you automatically created a new Address Book (UserName.wab file), which, sadly is empty. Do you find a UserName.wab~ file in C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Application Data\Microsoft\Address Book? If so that should be a backup of your old Address Book, which should contain all your email addresses. Click on it. If it works, remove the empty UserName.wab file and rename UserName.wab~ to UserName.wab.

Quote:

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Broni--wab.exe is the executable to open the Address Book. UserName.wab is the Address Book itself.

---

Thanks, Jim. I'm not that familiar with OE, so I better shut up...hehe

I tried the back up file with the same results. Not really sure what went wrong I thnk it has something to do with the icon being different, it almost looks like a Win98 icon, I'm not sure been so long since I've seen one.
Fortunately everybody in my address book e-mails weekly if not daily so it won't take long to put everyone back in. In fact as I write this I'm about 3/4 done.
Thanks for the help everyone!!!
Dave.

lonewolf--Sorry to hear the problem was not solved, but your attitude is great!
I assume you RENAMED UserName.wab~ to UserName.wab. In other words you dropped the ~ .

Yes I did.
Thanks

lonewolf--Well, I goofed. It is the UserName.wa~ file you want. If you have not already removed the corrupt UserName.wab file from C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Application Data\Microsoft\Address Book folder do so. Now you should still have a UserName.wa~ file in that same folder. Rename it to UserName.wab. Your Address Book should be restored. (Do not forget to open the left panel options to see your contacts.)