***This tutorial was written in/for Win98/98SE, but also applies to WinXP.  The boxes in the screenshots below will be different but the settings are the same.

Cleaning up your email folders and compacting files is a sure way to keep OE running smoothly.  It's not good to keep hundreds of email in your OE folders.  You will find it slows it down and will take longer to open and can be the cause of freezes and crashes.  If you need to keep large amounts of email, make a folder on your desktop or hard drive and copy them to the folder.

1.  Right click on the folder Deleted Files.  This menu box will pop up.  Click on Empty 'Deleted Items' Folder and answer yes to the box asking if you want to remove all the files from the deleted folder.

*** Go to File, check Work Offline.  If you try to "compact" while your email program is checking for new mail, this can possibly result in losing some of the messages you have in your folders and damage your 'Store' folder in OE. 

2.  Go back up to File, Folder and click on Compact All Folders.  I do this many times a day because I receive a ton of mail and I'm constantly deleting or moving email to other folders.

That was pretty easy huh?!  That's all there is to it.  By doing Part 1 & 2 of this tutorial often, your surfing and email experience should be more pleasant.

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