I’ve had a few emails lately from people who can’t open their Outlook Express emails.  There may be no easy work-around for this.  In the worst case scenario your Windows XP operating system could be corrupt.  It’s important to understand that Outlook Express is installed while your XP operating system is being loaded onto your computer.  It’s not something you can add later, or uninstall and reinstall.  It’s a part of the whole XP system and therefore perhaps requires professional attention.  It also works in harmony with Internet Explorer.  Behind the scenes the two programs utilize alot of shared services.

There are software tools you can buy to fix Outlook Express errors, however, I do not recommend them.  With the amount of fake repair tools and fake antirvirus programs around these days,  one should exercise a great deal of cuation before resorting to a repair tool, expecially one you pay for.

What I do recommend is that if you can’t fix it by rebooting your computer and/or  emptying out your temporary internet files,  follow my backup procedures and backup your Address book and Outlook Express .dbx files if you can.   And backup all your other files as well, such as your My Documents folder, any accounting software you are using, and files you’re storing in other locations on your PC or laptop.

Then, take your computer to a qualified computer technician and get them to reinstall Windows XP for you, if that is the last resort.  (Note:  A really good techie will backup your files for you – just ask if they do that).

You can try installing XP yourself, but unless you are confident in formatting your drive, installing XP and configuring your hardware device drivers, and downloading all the service packs and Windows Updates that is required these days, best not make it worse by trying to self fix it.  There are some things technicians should do and installing XP properly is best done by a professional.  That way you get a nice clean load and everything should work properly again.

Many people also ask me “How does my operating system become corrupt?” and I reply “because it just does”.  Most people need to reload their computer every couple of years.  If you think about the amount of programs that get installed and uninstalled, and the amount of program updates computers do these days (not just for Windows but lots of programs need updates all the time), and then add to that all the times you try to fix things yourself – it’s not too difficult for something to go amiss with the operating system.  It’s life.

Another common problem I’ve seen is that people accidentally fill their hard drives with “too much information”.  Yes, your hard drive is there to store your Operating System, programs and files but it also needs lots of free space as well.   Your computer operating system needs free space to perform.   You can check how much hard disk space is on your C:/drive by going to My Computer, right click on C: drive, select Properties and then look at the diagram on the General Tab.  It will display how much space you’ve got left.

Check how much space is left on your C:\ drive

If your hard drive is getting too full, then you want to think about purchasing an external hard drive and moving your larger files there – the biggest files are photos, music and video.  Don’t ever let your C: drive become so full that Windows cannot function, you’re asking for a very big bill from a data recovery company to retrieve your data if it gets near to 100%.

If your computer is infected with Malaware (fake antivirus programs) then it will be effecting the operating system (XP) and that may also explain why Outlook Expres is not behaving.  A professional computer person can far better identify the issue than any internet support article can.