How to Fix Outlook Express for Free

1. Clean up unnecessary files. If it has been a long time since you have run the Disk Cleanup utility, Outlook Express' performance could be affected. To clean up your hard drive, go to the Accessories menu, select System Tools and then click on Disk Cleanup This will get rid of your cache, temporary Internet files, and other unnecessary files.
2. Compact existing Outlook Express files. If you handle a lot of messages through Outlook, the large file size could be making Outlook perform slowly. To compact files, check the Work Offline option in the File menu and then close all open folders and messages. Then, go to the File menu, select Folder, and then click Compact All Folders. While the compacting is occurring, do not perform any functions on the computer. Once finished, you can uncheck the Work Offline option and then resume working in Outlook Express.
3. Reregister Outlook Express as default mail client. If you have updated your software or installed another email handling client, Outlook Express may not be recognized as your email handling client, which can result in missed emails and a lot of error messages. To reregister Outlook Express, open the Run dialog box (found in the Start menu) and type msimn /reg. Close the run dialog box and open Internet Explorer. Go to the Options section (in the Tools menu) and then select the Programs tab. Under Default E-mail Client, select Outlook Express.
4. Reinstall system and registry files. If you are still getting error messages, there may be corrupted files within Outlook Express' system files. To redownload system and registry files, open the Run dialog box and type'regsvr32 urlmon.dll in the text box and click OK. Then type in the following commands (each followed by the OK button): regsvr32 mshtml.dll, regsvr32 shdocvw.dll, regsvr32 browseui.dll, and regsvr32 msjava.dll. After all of these have been entered, restart your computer to finish the installation.