To free up disk space, Outlook Express can compact messages. This may take up to a few minutes.

Anonymous
2010-01-04T16:48:32+00:00

Every few minutes the message :

"To free up disk space, Outlook Express can compact messages.  This may take up to a few minutes."

This is irrelevant for two reasons :

(1) I do not use Outlook Express, and therefore have no messages to compact.

(2) I do not need to free up disk space as I am currently using only five per cent of a very large disk.

Could someone please tell me how I get rid off this very irritating message.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Internet and connectivity

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous
2012-06-10T21:36:30+00:00

Here are the things I did that resolved the issue for me:

I reset Compact Check Count to 0, and I uninstalled Windows Search 4.0. 

As for Outlook Express: I don't use it.

Thank you for the reply...and thanks for the advice & info.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_xp-performance/outlook-express-can-compact-messages-how-do-i-turn/b7e41d7f-d0db-4930-9c64-19e3c7b7d5cf?tm=1339359499078&page=1#_self

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Anonymous
2010-01-17T22:00:57+00:00

Try resetting the compact count in the registry:

  1. Start the registry editor.
  2. Open this key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities{identity}\Software\Microsoft\Outlook Express\5.0

where identity is a string of letters, numbers, and dashes. 3. Set the value of Compact Check Count to 0. 4. Close the registry editor.

For more information, see Why You Should Let Outlook Express Compact Messages When It Asks You .

Warning: Incorrectly editing the registry might damage your system and prevent Windows from starting. Before doing it, back up your important data, make a restore point, and make sure you know how to repair a damaged system.


Boulder Computer Maven

Microsoft Most Valuable Professional

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  1. Anonymous
    2010-09-26T02:21:35+00:00

    go to control panel-add remove programs-add remove component then untick outlook express to unistall

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  2. Anonymous
    2010-08-17T03:23:20+00:00

    I guess you missed my reference to Nero just a couple of posts above this one.


    Bruce Hagen ~ MS-MVP [Mail]

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  3. Anonymous
    2010-08-17T03:14:31+00:00

    I read many complaints about this suddenly showing up message problem, and the solutions ultimately did not address the cause of the problem. 

    I brought up the task manager and watched which task came when that annoying message showed up. It turned out to be NMIndexStoreSvr.exe, a process of Nero. The solutions provided here and elsewhere with resetting the register counter, etc. didn't work for me. I uninstalled Nero and never saw the annoying message ever since.

    Nero programmers ought to be ashamed of themselves. They created that annoying nightmare, their sin is no less than malware writers.

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