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Question:
My Outlook 2003 email program has suddenly stopped
sending or receiving messages that are to or from
addresses outside my Internet service provider’s email
system. I get no error messages and I see the Outlook
message “send/receive complete” as if all were
normal.
The
problem started on Dec. 15, the same day I received
automatic Microsoft updates; is it related to that? What
should I do to fix Outlook? Should I switch to a free
email system, and if so, how would I move all my files
and folders to the new email system?
Answer:
The Outlook update you received was probably that
recently released change in the way Outlook 2003 handles
junk email. That update shouldn’t have caused the
problem you describe.
To make
sure, use Windows System Restore to undo all software
installations back to the end of November. You can find
System Restore by going to Start, then All Programs,
then Accessories, then System Tools, then System
Restore.
Assuming
the update’s not responsible for your problem, what
is? Outlook 2003 has a number of quirks, but there are
ways to fix most of them.
For
example, there is add-on software that shares
Outlook’s files; you can disable or uninstall the
add-on software.
Another
issue is anti-spam software that gets in the way of
Outlook’s operations; you can update the anti-spam
software or disable its e-mail scanning.
In
addition, the send-and-receive function of Outlook can
become damaged; using the Outlook’s “tools” menu,
you can fix it.
For
specifics on how to do these things, see tinyurl.com/833a4nl
and tinyurl.com/7ddvfdc.
If you
want to use Google’s free Gmail email system, you can
transfer your Outlook files and folders to it by
following the directions at tinyurl.com/yrhlte.
———
Note:
After last week’s column item about corrupted photo
files on a camera card, several readers suggested that I
should have mentioned file recovery software.
It’s
not a cure-all, but it’s worth trying. File recovery
software could rescue the pictures if the photo files
were undamaged and the problem was that the memory card
couldn’t read them properly. Several programs that
retrieve lost photos from camera cards can be found at
tinyurl.com/7d975q5.
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