# Solved: Outlook requires Microsoft Outlook Express 4.01 or greater.



## oldkiwirocker (Oct 17, 2007)

Hi,
Recently I have noticed my Dell Vostro laptop has been very slow in booting to a point where I can actually do something with any speed.

I had been reading various forums regarding the problem and the general consensus was that removing unnecessary start-up programs would assist. This I did, and included in it was the removal of Outlook Express as a start-up as I never use it.

I was rather startled to find that the next time I started up Outlook I get the message indicated in the title. When acknowledging the message, Outlook still opens and functions correctly as far as I can see, but this message always coming up is getting a little tedious.

Why would a company require the lesser of two programs to be loaded and started in order that their more powerful program should work? Amazing thought processes at MS.

I have seen answers for this question elsewhere and I have tried their solutions but to no avail. That includes setting IsInstalled in registry key 881dd1c5-3dcf-431b-b061-f3f88e8be88a to a Dword value of 1.

What I have found, is the key {44BBA840-CC51-11CF-AAFA-00AA00B6015C} and {7790769C-0471-11d2-AF11-00C04FA35D02} in registry directory HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Active Setup\Installed Components\AutorunsDisabled. As the first refers to Outlook Express 6 and the other to Address Book 6 I assume that this may have something to do with my problem.

If they are the problem, is there a way of moving these keys out of AutorunsDisable and back into Installed Components? Or is there something else I should be doing?

I can post a HJT log if that helps any, especially on my other concern of slow start-up.


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## EAFiedler (Apr 25, 2000)

Hi *oldkiwirocker*

Are you using Windows XP Home or Professional?
What version of Outlook are you using?
What method did you use to remove Outlook Express from startup? Did Outlook Express actually start when the computer was started?

I'll see if I can duplicate your results.


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## oldkiwirocker (Oct 17, 2007)

EAFiedler said:


> Hi *oldkiwirocker*
> 
> Are you using Windows XP Home or Professional?
> What version of Outlook are you using?
> ...


Hi,
Sorry, there's always something I forget to mention.

 XP SP3
 Outlook in Office 2000
 I downloaded from the MS site a thing called "autoruns" as recommended in Windows Secrets 28th May and used that.
 OE did not actually start, in that it did not open. I only ever use Office Outlook so I am not interested in OE, which is why when I saw it in "autoruns" as an auto start-up I decided to disable it.

I have since read the 'help' that comes with autoruns (of course _after_ I had used it) and found that it is autoruns which created a folder in the registry called "Autorunsdisabled".

Here is the direct quote from the help:

"For items stored in startup folders Autoruns creates a subfolder named Autorunsdisabled. If there are disabled items in these folders when you logon Explorer will create a window to the folder on the desktop (but not execute the images within it). Check a disabled item to re-enable it."


The problem is that when I run it (autoruns) again, although I can quite clearly see the entries for OE 6 and Contacts 6 in the the registry disabled folder, I can't see anything in autoruns that I recognise as being connected to OE to uncheck it to re-enable it.

It's probably something fairly obvious that I am not seeing - I hope.

Thanks for any help.


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## oldkiwirocker (Oct 17, 2007)

OK. I've solved it. I couldn't see for looking. I have another laptop which works against which I ran the "autoruns" program and saved the output file.

After fiddling about with it in Excel and searching for anything with Outlook Express in it, I discovered the required information and under which registry key it was.

Using that info I ran "autoruns" against the current laptop and found the key and under it was the 'unchecked' required components which I had missed visually first time through. I re-checked both components in "autoruns" then looked in the registry and the AutorunsDisabled folder had disappeared and the OE keys were back where they should be.

Thanks to EAFiedler for at least taking the time to look at this.

Cheers


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## oldkiwirocker (Oct 17, 2007)

oldkiwirocker said:


> OK. I've solved it. I couldn't see for looking. I have another laptop which works against which I ran the "autoruns" program and saved the output file.
> 
> After fiddling about with it in Excel and searching for anything with Outlook Express in it, I discovered the required information and under which registry key it was.
> 
> ...


For anyone remotely interested (obviously not a lot) the key in question as seen in "autoruns" is HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Active Setup\Installed Components and the two items are for Address Book 6 and Outlook Express 6 both of which invoke the user path of c:\program files\outlook express\setup50.exe.

There's a screen shot here or attached:- http://forums.techguy.org/members/3...lbum218-outlook-express-pic1372-autoruns.html










Cheers


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## EAFiedler (Apr 25, 2000)

Glad to hear you were able to solve the issue.
Thanks for posting back and letting us know your solution.


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