Louise wrote:
"PA Bear" wrote;

Louise wrote:
I am having a problem with old newsgroup messages in Outlook Express 6
on
Windows XP SP2.

I have these settings in Tools Options Maintenance set;

[Ticked] Delete read message bodies in newsgroups.
[Ticked] Delete news messages 2 days after being downloaded.

The messages do not go, they hang around forever!!!

As others have said, neither of those options will delete message
headers,
and it only happens when you compact all OE folders or automatic
compating
kicks in.

Is there any way to set the automatic compacting? I have not found a
setting
to alter it or turn it off or on.

No. Frequently compact all OE folders manually and you'll never encounter
automatic compacting.

Surely the ticked option (As it was in Windows 98SE) "Delete news messages
x days after being downloaded." should do what it says, remove the
messages after however many days you pick?

It just seems to have no effect on this PC.

It does exactly what it did in Win98: It deletes downloaded message bodies,
only. If you want to delete downloaded headers, you must do so
manually...or wait until they expire on the server (when they'll be
automatically deleted in OE the next time OE syncs with the newsserver).

Now, you may have been accessing the newsgroups via a different newsserver
before. Some newsservers only retain messages for a brief period (1-3 days)
while others have a longer retention policy. By default, messages remain on
the MS newsserver for at least 90 days.

There was no reason to run scannow, and that's about how long it takes to
run it.

Fair enough, I guess it did no harm though?

You'll either have to delete the headers and messages manually or use a
manually applied News rule periodically to do it ("Where the message was
sent XX days ago, ...Delete it").

Okay, just seems weird to me that 98SE did all this without any special
rules being set up.

Nope, it works exactly as it did in Win98.

If you do a Catch Up on a newsgroup and find later that OE offers all
messages again, either there's a problem on the newsserver or your
current
identity is damaged and needs to be replace.

Okay, I will keep an eye on that.

General OE Caveats:

- Don't use Inbox or Sent Items to archive messages. Move them to local
folders created for this purpose.

- Empty Deleted Items folder daily.

- Disable Background Compacting [not available in SP2] and frequently
perform a manual compact of all OE folders while "working offline". More
at http://www.insideoe.com/files/maintain.htm

Thanks for this link, seems to have quite a bit of info and is answering
some of my questions from above.

- Do not cancel Automatic Compacting, should it occur, and do not attempt
to close OE via Task Manager or shutdown your machine if Automatic
Compacting is taking place.

- Your anti-virus application's email scanning feature can also cause
such
corruption. Disable it. It provides no additional protection.
--
Thanks for your advice.

YW.
--
~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-Windows (IE, OE, Security, Shell/User)
AumHa VSOP & Admin http://aumha.net
DTS-L http://dts-l.net/