Outlook Express is the basic email program supplied with Windows XP and prior Microsoft operating systems.
Microsoft's Outlook Express email program is designed to work best with email compression. When emails are deleted or moved to another folder, the space taken by the emails is kept open by Outlook Express. The only way to reclaim the space is to do a compression, which will free up disk space. Outlook Express will display a message after being opened and closed 100 times asking if you would like to "free up disk space" by compressing files. The process will not affect any email contents. To avoid seeing the message, manually compress emails to reset the counter.
Instructions
1. Open Outlook Express on the computer.
2. Click "File" and check "Work Offline" so no new email is received.
3. Click "Outlook Express" on the folder list to the left so you are working on an open email.
4. Close the "Folder List" by clicking the "X" in the upper right corner of the panel.
5. Click on "File," move the mouse to "Folder" and click "Compact All Folders." Wait for the process to finish, which can take several mintues. Resume using Outlook Express when complete.
Tags: Outlook Express, Click File, disk space, email program, free disk