How Big Is My Outlook Express Mailbox?

Q: I read the recent article by Michael Muchmore in Today's Tip newsletter: How Big Is My Outlook Mailbox?. Regarding the article, I could find no Mailbox Cleanup button when I click on Tools in Outlook Express. Can someone provide further directions? - Mike Spears.





A: Outlook is not Outlook Express. Most of the time tips about one don't apply to the other--and this is no exception.
Your Outlook Express messages are all stored in files with the extension .DBX, each file representing a message folder. Here's how you can see how much space they take. Select Tools | Options from the menu, click the Maintenance tab, and click the Store Folder button to see where those are stored. Copy the full pathname to the clipboard and close those Outlook Express dialogs. Click Start, click Run, and paste in the folder name. The size of the contents of this folder is the size of your "inbox". This works for Windows Mail too, though it doesn't use .DBX files.
Chances are good that your OE inbox is anywhere from big to ginormous. Why? OE does not actually delete any message that you send to the Deleted Items folder. Rather, it marks the space in the corresponding .DBX file as "deleted". To regain the space previously occupied by those messages, select File | Folder | Compact All Folders from the menu. Now check the size again; it's probably quite a bit smaller. You can't directly call on Windows Mail to compact all folders, but this tip explains how you can make it happen the next time Windows Mail shuts down. - Neil J. Rubenking.