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

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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
    2011-02-01T01:57:00+00:00

    Well - it's like Chief Dan George said in, The Outlaw Josey Wales.  Endeavor to Persevere.  I did everything BUT change the Registry to no avail.

    Changed the Registry and Bingo - it worked. 

    Apparently there are a lot of hooks into this problem, hence so many fixes.  Keep trying till one fixes yours. Backup your registry or write the original value down somewhere just in case you make a mistake.

    Microsoft's own virus.  Thanks to all for your inputs to the forum...

    OE was designed to increase the count in the registry by 1 with each closing. When it hit 100, you got the compact prompt and by compacting, the count was set back to zero so you were not prompted for another 100 closings of OE.

    Now you say you do not use OE. If that is the case, letting it compact would have done the same as what you just did manually, and certainly couldn't hurt anything since you are not using OE.

    If you do not see the prompt again, then that's fine. If it starts popping up again in a few days, then something is affecting OE, such as Nero or Windows Search or something else.

    There are a lot of *possible* fixes. Each person seeing this problem will only find one that works for them.

    Please keep us posted.

    Bruce Hagen

    MS-MVP Oct. 1, 2004 ~ Sept. 30, 2010

    Imperial Beach, CA

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  2. Anonymous
    2011-02-01T01:22:31+00:00

    Well - it's like Chief Dan George said in, The Outlaw Josey Wales.  Endeavor to Persevere.  I did everything BUT change the Registry to no avail.

    Changed the Registry and Bingo - it worked. 

    Apparently there are a lot of hooks into this problem, hence so many fixes.  Keep trying till one fixes yours. Backup your registry or write the original value down somewhere just in case you make a mistake.

    Microsoft's own virus.  Thanks to all for your inputs to the forum...

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  3. Anonymous
    2011-02-01T00:34:12+00:00

    You know - there are about 20 fixes to this so far. I'm about to see if Richard and Chandrakanta are correct... nothing else worked above this entry.

    So - the interesting thing is that I didn't have this problem until two things happened......

    First - I made Thunderbird my default email client because their SPAM filter ROCKs.  And by now we've all learned that Redmond is making money on SPAM.

    Two - I upgraded office to the new Office 10. 

    Bingo - the message starts showing up, so I'll pontificate just a little more and say that my own belief is, Microsoft does these little SW quirks ON PURPOSE as a way to say F&*^ Y(* to all of us that really have found a better solution - they'll just make it hard for us.

    Truth is, with open platforms, death of the desktop and impending death of laptops with web based software, their days are numbered as they've consistantly shown little growth in visions in software other than fixing the bugs they didn't kill last time.

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