Troubleshooting Outlook Express

For help identifying and solving some common problems, Outlook Express provides an excellent troubleshooting resource called the Outlook Express Troubleshooter. You can access it by opening the Troubleshooting topic in online Help.

Setting Logging Options

Outlook Express provides three different logging options to aid in troubleshooting. When an option is selected, a LOG file that contains all activity within the specified process is created. The following LOG files are created, depending on the options that are selected.

• Pop3.log
• Smtp.log
• Inetnews.log
• Imap.log

To configure logging options

1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
2. Click the Advanced tab, and then select the desired logging options.

Note

The LOG files are created in different directories depending on whether Internet Mail and News existed previously on your computer. If it did, the locations are:

C:\Program Files\Outlook Express\<username>\Mail for mail protocol logs, and \News for news logs

If Internet Mail and News were not previously installed, the file locations will vary slightly depending upon whether the user profiles feature is turned on or not:

C:\Windows\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook Express\Mail for mail protocol logs, \News for news logs, and \IMAP for IMAP protocol logs (without user profiles)

C:\Windows\Profiles\<username>\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook Express\Mail for mail protocol logs, \News for news logs, and \IMAP for IMAP protocol logs (with user profiles)

Verifying Internet Connection Wizard Files

The Icwconn1.exe file should be located in the C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\Connection Wizard folder, and should be version 4.71.465.5.

The following files should be located in the Windows\System folder:

If any of these files are missing, reinstall Outlook Express. If any of these files are the wrong version, rename the file, and then reinstall Outlook Express.

Additional Resources