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Purge'deleted Items' file Outlook Exprss

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6 replies

by johnm 1 view

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I'm trying to find out how to reduce the size of (purge) the 'deleted Items' file in the Outlook Express 'file store' directory.

The 'deleted items' file just keeps getting bigger and bigger and it is taking up lots of Harddrive space.

Thanks,

John

6 replies

by lizzy

You should simply be able to go to the Deleted Items folder, highlight one of the messages that's in there, press the CTRL key plus the letter A key to select all the messages in the folder, press delete, it will ask are you sure?, say ok, and wait. If there's lots of messages in there it could take several minutes to delete them.

by lizzy

Also, go into tools, options and look for the box to check that will automatically delete all deleted items every time you close Outlook (Express). Press apply then ok.

by johnm

If you read my post, I'm trying to shrink the Deleted Items 'file', not the Deleted Items 'folder'.

Even if you delete all of the items in the Folder, the file size does not change.

by syscokid

Click Tools, Options, Maintenance tab, and look for "Compact message when there is XX% wasted space" and set it to a lower value. That will help, because even though mails are deleted, the corresponding dbx file does not shrink until it's been compacted.

You can also compact at will by highlighting the Deleted folder in Outlook Express, then click File, Folder, Compact.

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