Getting rid of compact messages popup

How can I stop the "Do you want to compact messages" from outlook express. I don't want to compact, and I never want to see the pop up again. Simple language please.

Mine stopped after I accidentally clicked ok (my mouse is set to go to the buttons whenever they appear, which is sometimes useful, sometimes not, if I think I'm doing something else and click when a button has just appeared, as in this case). I then quickly cancelled, but it's not come up again since. There is presumably a better way to stop it.

Use Thunderbird.

witheze;142919 wrote: How can I stop the "Do you want to compact messages" from outlook express. I don't want to compact...

Why ever not [?]

It will reduce all the wasted space in the files and make things faster afterwards. Compacting doesn't take very long really you know [)]

Just leave your PC running while you do something else.

witheze;142919 wrote: ...I never want to see the pop up again. Simple language please.

You won't see the popup again for quite a long time once you have Compacted the Messages

This is the only way to make it go away...

What does the compacting actually do? Is the data still as accessible?

I have no idea what it does but I alway compact and am able to access all my files. The message only pops up once in a blue moon.
This is from somebody who still has no idea of what goes on in her computer's brain[:0]

Cheers,
Ronnie

Ok, here's why you should let it run, what it does, and what could possibly go wrong:

email.about.com/od/outlookexpresstroubles/qt/et_compact_oe.htm

I still maintain you should not use Outlook Express, particularly due to the risk of corruption. Thunderbird saves your mail in a well-known open text format. You can easily find the files on disk, read them, copy them, back them up, and use another mail program later if you so decide.

A

Isla;143138 wrote: What does the compacting actually do? Is the data still as accessible?

Thanks to Ame for posting the link above. To save others wading through what is quite a lengthy article, here is the relevant part which directly answers your question Isla:

What Does Compacting Messages Mean, and What Happens?

When you delete an email in Outlook Express, it is moved to the Deleted Items folder. The message disappears from its original folder, and when you empty the trash, it disappears from there, too.
In neither case is the message removed from the file on your disk immediately, however. Editing files for this is a slow process, and you'd have to wait or experience Outlook Express responding slowly whenever you deleted a couple of emails. This is why deletion merely hides the messages from view.
Of course, having all your deleted messages still on disk means a lot of space that can be reclaimed is wasted over time, and if Outlook Express has to keep track of too many obsolete messages this itself can mean a slowdown of certain actions. So Outlook Express tries to remove these deleted emails physically from time to time. This it calls "compacting". Every 100 times you close Outlook Express, you are asked to start that process.

I should also respond to what Ame says about "the risk of corruption" when running Outlook Express.

I have been using various versions of the Microsoft Exchange Client, Outlook and Outlook Express since 1994. In all that time, I have never experienced any corruption whatsoever. As a matter of course, I do make backups every so often, but have never needed to restore any Outlook/Outlook Express files from a backup during all that time.

I think it is fair to say that Outlook and Outlook Express are among Microsoft's most reliable programs, so there is no need to rush out and install some other program unless there is some compelling advantage in doing so.