Outlook Express Address Book

Been trying to help a friend with an Outlook Express
address book problem:

Summary: After upgrading from ME to XP Home Outlook
Express and
Address Book would not work properly. Everything else
appeared to be
working properly. She could receive mail in OE but was
unable to
create new mail or reply to incoming mail.

After spending 2 hours trying to get her Address book and
email
program to work, using the msoe50.inf file and other
methods. It
still didn't work.

I couldn't find IE6 or Outlook Express in the Add/Remove
Programs
area. If I did, I was going to delete it/them and start
over.

I went to MS Family page to download IE6. It told me that
there was
a newer version on my computer and wouldn't. Checking the
version
number on the computer it showed IE6, SP1; xpsp2; and
some Q numbers
for recent updates. I guessed that the xpsp2 was the
reason I
couldn't download IE6 SP1 from their site.

Then Lois mentioned that she had created a second user on
the
system. I logged off the one and went on the other and to
our
surprise Address Book opened with no problem. It even had
a list of
names that Lois recognized!! All of her applications that
were
imported during the upgrade and what she has put on since
were
accessible. So the two accounts are interdependent.

I then set up her email accounts on it and tested it by
sending and
receiving messages. All worked just fine.

Now, here is what I don't understand. After the initial
installation
of Win XP Home (the upgrade over ME) her address book
didn't seen to
work. But when she created the second account, XP used
the very same
files to create it and the address book and email program
works just
fine. When I say XP used the same files, I mean, Lois did
not have
to insert a disk or have any interactivity with the
process.

The question is, how do I correct the first installation?
Lois does
not want to have to remove all her data and do a
reinstallation of
XP. I did reinstall it last week, but the problem did not
disappear.
Can we safely remove that account without losing any data?
Thanks for any suggestions.

"JimF" wrote in message

Been trying to help a friend with an Outlook Express
address book problem:

Summary: After upgrading from ME to XP Home Outlook
Express and
Address Book would not work properly. Everything else
appeared to be
working properly. She could receive mail in OE but was
unable to
create new mail or reply to incoming mail.

SNIP

I then set up her email accounts on it and tested it by
sending and
receiving messages. All worked just fine.

Now, here is what I don't understand. After the initial
installation
of Win XP Home (the upgrade over ME) her address book
didn't seen to
work. But when she created the second account, XP used
the very same
files to create it and the address book and email program
works just
fine. When I say XP used the same files, I mean, Lois did
not have
to insert a disk or have any interactivity with the
process.

The question is, how do I correct the first installation?
Lois does
not want to have to remove all her data and do a
reinstallation of
XP. I did reinstall it last week, but the problem did not
disappear.
Can we safely remove that account without losing any data?
Thanks for any suggestions.

In the first installation of OE go to Tools | Options | Maintenance | Store
Folder and note where that set up is storing its data. Write it down.

As the other user, go to File | Import | Messages | Outlook Express 6 and
choose the option to import from an OE store directory. Browse to the
location you wrote down.

Still in the second user open the Address Book and export it as a Text
(Comma Separated Values) file and save it someplace convenient.

Go back to the first user and make sure that Search is set to show hidden
files and folders. Search for *.wab - you want to delete the WAB file, but
make sure you are deleting the one for that user. Then open OE and import
the CSV file into the new, empty Address Book.

--
Frank Saunders, MS-MVP
Please respond in Newsgroup. Do not send email
http://www.fjsmjs.com