I have been reading some of the replys to other people with same annoying problems. We work all day at our computes and his computer is always asking to compack messges, mine only asks when I exit outlook express. Why? I want to set his to only ask at time of exit. Also please speak in a language I can understand. Most of the reply's I have no clue as to what they are saying.Also after he says yes then all the most resent emails are gone but the real old ones are still there. Not a good situation.1 person needs an answerI do too

Three points of interest here.1: You are experiencing two different problems. If the prompt to compact comes up while you are using OE and not at exit, I have to ask: Is Windows Search installed on this machine? 2: Why does OE insist on compacting folders when I close it?:http://www.insideoe.com/faqs/why.htm#compactAbout File Corruption:http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/community/columns/filecorruption.mspxCompacting your folders periodically is a must to keep OE functioning well and at some point, you may lose all your saved messages if you don't. When you delete, or move messages, the space they had used remains until you compact.***Never touch anything until the compacting is finished.***See:www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#2With SP2, automatic background compacting was removed due to problems it caused. Now you will get a prompt to compact after 100 OE closings, which you should do, and don't touch anything until it has finished. If you compact manually, at your convenience, this will also set the counter back to zero. See this for more information:http://www.insideoe.com/files/maintain.htm#compactIf you are fully patched, you will also now see a copy of your dbx files being copied to the Recycle Bin as BAK files. Should something go awry when compacting, the messages can easily be restored from this backup. A manual compact will also reset the counter in the registry back to zero now.For more info, see the information outlined in red here:www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#2To keep things running smooth, and for faster compacting:Do not archive mail in default OE folders. They will eventually become corrupt and you may lose mail. Create your own user defined folders for storing mail and move your mail to them. Empty Deleted Items folder regularly. Keep user created folders under 300MB, and Default folders as empty as is feasible.And backup often.Outlook Express Quick Backup (OEQB Freeware)http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx 3: When you lose messages when compacting:The two most common reasons for what you describe is disruption of the compacting process, (never touch anything until it's finished), or bloated folders. More on that below.Why does OE insist on compacting folders when I close it?:http://www.insideoe.com/faqs/why.htm#compact Why Mail Disappears:http://www.insideoe.com/problems/bugs.htm#mailgone About File Corruption:http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/community/columns/filecorruption.mspxRecovery methods:If you are running XP/SP2, or SP3, and are fully patched, then you should have a backup of your dbx files in the Recycle Bin, (or possibly the message store), copied as bak files.To restore a bak folder to the message store folder, first find the location of the Message Store.Tools | Options | Maintenance | Store Folder will reveal the location of your Outlook Express files. Write the location down and navigate to it in Windows Explorer or, copy and paste it into Start | Run.In WinXP, the .dbx files are by default marked as hidden. To view these files in Explorer, you must enable Show Hidden Files and Folders under Start | Control Panel | Folder Options | View.Close OE and then in Windows Explorer, click on the dbx file for the missing, or empty, folder and drag it to the Desktop. It can be deleted later once you have successfully restored the bak file. Minimize the Message Store.Open OE and, if the folder is missing, create a folder with the *exact* same name as the bak file you want to restore but without the .bak. Eg: If the file is Saved.bak, the new folder should be named Saved. Open the new folder and then close OE. If the folder is there, but just empty, continue on to the next step.First, check if there is a bak file already in the message store. If there is, and you removed the dbx file, go ahead and rename it to dbx.If it isn't already in the message store, open the Recycle bin and right click on the bak file for the folder in question and click Restore. Open the message store back up and change the file extension from .bak to .dbx. Close the message store and open OE. The messages should now be back in the folder.If the messages are successfully restored, you can go ahead and delete the old dbx file that you moved to the Desktop. If you do not have bak copies of your dbx files in the Recycle Bin, then:DBXpress run in Extract From Disk Mode is the best chance to recover messages:http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/Default.aspxAnd see:http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#4 Bruce Hagen ~ MS-MVP [Mail]