- 1). Compact mailbox folders. Compacting keeps your mailboxes from growing to an unmanageable size. Outlook Express will remind you to compact folders on a regular basis. To manually compact your mailboxes, click the "File" menu, choose "Folder" and then select "Compact All Folders." Do not interrupt the program while it is compacting, since doing so may lead to file corruption and data loss.
- 2). Delete unnecessary mail. Go to the "Tools" menu, click "Options" and select the "Maintenance" tab. Check the box next to "Empty messages from the Deleted Items folder on exit" if you are sure you will not need mail that you move to the Deleted folder. Save individual messages and attachments to your hard drive or removable media using the "File" > "Save As" and "File" > "Save Attachments" commands, and delete the copy in your mailbox.
- 3). Do not keep messages with large attachments. Outlook Express may slow down noticeably due to huge attachments. Try using a Web-based mail service to send and/or receive large files such as videos.
- 4). Remove the splash screen. The splash screen is the big logo you see when Outlook Express starts up. Click the Start menu button and click "Run." Type "regedit" to open the Registry Editor. Go to "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities\yourGUID\Software\Microsoft\Outlook Express\6.0" where the GUID is your profile's unique identifying number in Windows. Right-click on an empty space in the right pane. Click "New" and then "Dword Value." Name it "Nosplash" and assign it a "1" value ("true").(Editor, see http://www.insideoe.com/faqs/how.htm#nosplash)
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