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I cannot send e-mail in AOL. The Compose Mail Send box wants to add the @aol.com extension to everyone’s e-mail address. How do I get rid of it? I went into AOL’s “compose mail settings” and nothing is there to get rid of this redundant thing.

Problems with email applications are often resolved in one of two ways. Start by using whichever suggestion you find to be the least problematic for you. If that one does not work, move on to a different suggestion. While I have not found any specific information or similar complaints with this particular problem, the following information should be of some help to you as it does resolve other problems.

AOL recently experienced some widespread issues with their email system. The problem has since been corrected and hopefully this has solved your problem as well.

Troubleshooting AOL Email Sending Error: Disable Auto-Add and Clean Out Contacts

The problem that you are experiencing could be the result of having your contact list on AOL®WebMail filled. Follow the directions here to free up your contact list.

1)   Click “Settings” on the upper right corner of your AOL Mail page.

2)   Click “Compose” on the left.

3)   Look in the “Sending” area and select the box in front of “Automatically add email addresses to contacts,” and click on the “Save” option.

4)   Delete unwanted contacts to free up the contact list.

Troubleshooting AOL Email Sending Error: Check for Updates

Quite often, software fails to work properly if updates are available, but they have not been installed. Visit the AOL website and check for available updates for your email application.

Troubleshooting AOL Email Sending Error: Quick Restore

If you have already obtained the latest updates for AOL email and you are still experiencing an email address error, then you should access the Quick Restore feature and see if this resolves the problem.

The Quick Restore feature resets your AOL email software back to the default status. It deletes any existing updates that you have downloaded. The purpose behind this is to resolve problems resulting from faulty downloads. Plus, if you use the Quick Restore feature and it works, you get to avoid having to download the software from scratch.

Once you have gone through the Quick Restore process, you can then install any AOL updates for the software.

Troubleshooting AOL Email Sending Error: Miscellaneous

• Clean out your email folders. Delete unwanted emails and empty the trash.

• Check your AOL address book and make sure that the email addresses have been entered correctly.

• Contact AOL directly to request a solution to the problem.

How do I get rid of this annoying popup: “Outlook Express - To free up space, Outlook Express can compact messages. This may take a few minutes.”?

What is Compacting?

Before going over how to make the annoying popup disappear, let’s first look at what Outlook Express is asking you to do. The popup is prompting you to “compact” the messages that you have stored on your computer. This is a maintenance chore that should be done periodically to improve Outlook Express’s performance. While in this case the compacting procedure is applied to email messages, the term compacting is often used with databases. In both cases, compacting cleans up a master index that keeps track of the location of records, in this case, email messages.

For example, whenever you delete a message, it goes to the Deleted Items folder. When you empty the Deleted Items folder, the email disappears altogether. However, the message is not really gone (yet). Rather changes have been made to Outlook Express’s index instructing the software not to display the selected file. Compacting is a process where the deleted emails are finally removed, the index is rebuilt, and related entries removed.

Benefits of Compacting Messages

Periodically compacting messages doesn’t affect your current messages, so you don’t need to worry about losing emails. It simply finalizes older deletions and cleans up the leftovers. By compacting messages, you may also notice benefits such as faster loading of Outlook Express, faster email loading, faster previews, and so on.

How to Make the Compacting Messages Popup Go Away

You are likely receiving the popup right now because Outlook Express has reached a predetermined point where it is set to prompt you to compact messages. This setting is variable and is based on the number of times Outlook Express is opened and closed. To make the message go away for the short term, either click Cancel (or No depending on your version) or allow Outlook Express to compact your messages. If you allow the compacting to take place, do not interrupt the process. It may take a few minutes to complete.

To change how often you are prompted to compact messages, go to Tools > Options > Advanced and click on the Maintenance section. Find “Compact the database on shutdown every ___ runs” and enter the number of times you want to open and close Outlook Express between compacting sessions.

When I forward some e-mails to my friends, they receive only text and not pictures with the text. How do I fix this?

This can happen due to several different settings, both on your own computer as well as on the computers of your recipients. Let’s start by looking at your outgoing message settings and then we’ll look at the settings your recipients may need to tweak.

Outgoing E-mail Settings

When you send an e-mail, your e-mail program will send the message in HTML or plain text format. HTML, Hyper Text Markup Language, is the language commonly used for Web pages. When your e-mails are sent in HTML format, fonts, stationary, smiley faces, images, and other settings are sent. In other words, your e-mail messages look “pretty.” When your e-mails are sent in plain text format, all of the pretty formatting is discarded. Your recipients will see plain old text and any embedded images will disappear.

Check to see if your e-mail client is sending messages in HTML or plain text. If it’s sending plain text, change this setting to HTML. The steps vary from one e-mail client to the next. Using Windows Live Mail as an example, you would to Tools > Options and click on the Send tab. Under Mail Sending Format, click HTML.

Another possibility involves the “send pictures with e-mail” setting in Windows Live Mail. When forwarding an e-mail with embedded pictures, click on the Format menu from within the message that you are composing and make sure that “Rich Text (HTML)” and “Send pictures with message” are both selected.

Incoming E-mail Messages

Even if you are doing your part and sending the e-mail messages properly, it’s still possible that your friends will not receive the images. Several possibilities include:

• File size restrictions imposed by Internet Service Providers
• Plain text setting for incoming messages
• Computer security software blocking images

ISPs often block large messages and photos are notoriously large. However, since your friends are receiving text, this doesn’t appear to be the case.

Just as your outgoing settings could have been set to send messages in HTML or plain text, so too can your friends’ e-mail settings be set to read messages in plain text. As an example, in Windows Live Mail, your friends would need to go to Tools> Options and click on the Read tab. Under Reading Messages, they would need to remove the check mark next to “Read all messages in plain text.

Finally, computer security programs often block suspicious images. Spammers use embedded images to gauge whether or not a user has opened the spam e-mail message. Since the images are linked to a remote server, the spammer can verify if you opened the e-mail by looking at server logs. By blocking the images, the server is never contacted and the spammer can’t verify if you opened the e-mail or not. Usually, there’s a link that says, “unblock images” when this occurs. Your friends may also be able to adjust these settings. In Windows Live Mail, these settings are found in Tools > Safety Options. Your friends should add you to their Safe Senders list and then click on the Security tab. From there, they should place a check mark in the option that says, “Show images and internal content sent from e-mail addresses in my Safe Senders list.”

Incredimail problem: I have been trying to find an answer for this for about 4 days now. I called my ISP and they of course said uninstall it. When I open Incredimail it wants to know if I want to “Download -Open or Save. It does the same thing when I try to send. I had ESET on my computer and had to use their uninstall program to get rid of it. I was wondering if that took out something I needed. I have uninstalled Incredimail and reinstalled it (it didn`t help). I have asked for help all over and no one seems to know what the problem is. I have Vista Home Basic 32-bit, FireFox, and IE for browsers.

Incredimail can be difficult to uninstall. If all of the files haven’t been uninstalled properly, then the reinstallation of Incredimail will not work properly. Incredimail can also offer some incompatibility issues with other programs. Without knowing for sure which problem you are dealing with, you’ll have to go through each one of the following suggestions until you find out which one solves the problem for you. Start at the top with the directions for ESET as that is the most likely solution to your problem.

Incredimail Problems: ESET Security Setting

If you are using the ESET Smart Security application, you might be experiencing a common problem between this application and POP3 accounts. The security settings are high to disallow the intrusion of spam. This creates problems with certain email applications including Incredimail. What you need to do is to adjust and possibly even disable the NOD32 email protection. Try this fix:

1. Click the ESET icon (should be located in the system tray) to open the program or follow this path: Start>All Programs>ESET>ESET Smart Security or ESET NOD32 Antivirus.
2. Press the “F5” key to show the Advanced Setup dialog screen.
3. Search for the following in the display: Antivirus and antispyware>Protocol Filtering.
4. Select the option labeled, Applications marked as Internet browsers or e-mail clients’ option.
5. Select “Antivirus and antispyware>web access protection>’HTTP’>web browsers   from the Advanced Setup dialog screen. Make sure that the only entries are for the web browsers or email clients that you use.
6. Select POP3>email clients.
7. Look for the slider in the following area: Email protection>POP3>Compatibility. Once you find it, slide it over to the left.
8. Select OK to save the changes that you have made.
9. Try to use the Incredimail application. If it still does not work, repeat these steps only this time move the slider all of the way over to the left and try again to use Incredimail.

Incredimail Problems: ESET Real Time Protection

ESET has been known to freeze up email applications due to its real time protection capability. This causes the program to freeze or act oddly in the manner that you have stated. Excluding Incredimail from the real time protection might be the fix that you need. Follow these steps:

1. Click the ESET icon (should be located in the system tray) to open the program or follow this path: Start>All Programs>ESET>ESET Smart Security or ESET NOD32 Antivirus.
2. Press the “F5” key to show the Advanced Setup dialog box.
3. Search for the following in the display: Antivirus and antispyware>Exclusions. Now, select “Add” from the bottom of the dialog box. This generates the “Add exclusion” box.
4. Search through the directory and select the main exe file for Incredimail in order to exclude it. This file should now appear in the exclusion field.
5. Select ok.
6. Select ok again.
7. Go back to the Advanced Set up and select Antivirus and antispyware>web access protection>HTTP>web browsers.
8. If Incredimail is listed, then you should double click on the box that is next to it to generate a red X. Click ok. If you don’t see it listed, select Add from the bottom and search for the .exe file for Incredimail. If you see it double click it to generate the red X. Click ok.
9. Reboot your computer.

Incredimail Problems: Use the Repair Feature

The Incredimail program has a repair feature that can be used at anytime when you are having problems with it. All of the information that you already have in the application is saved during the repair process too! If you haven’t already tried this strategy, do so now. Just follow these steps:

1. Click on Start.
2. Select Programs.
3. Search for and select Incredimail.
4. Select the Uninstall Incredimail Option.
5. Select the Repair Incredimail Option that is listed.
6. Select Next.
7. It is necessary to restart your computer at this point.

I keep getting a runtime message and would like to stop reloading IncrediMail each day in order to use. How can this problem be fixed once and for all?

Runtime Error Messages

A runtime error is an error that occurs with a program when it is running. As you can imagine, programs run into all types of errors when running. Thus the runtime error category is broad with all types of possible causes for errors that occur. The runtime error message may provide you with a clue, but then again it may be incredibly vague to the point of being useless. Vague as it may be, the error message itself is our first clue.

Does the error message appear consistently when performing a specific operation? For example, does it appear every time you print? Every time you try to open an email attachment? Or is it intermittent, only appearing when your computer is running multiple programs or has been on for extended periods?

Dealing with Runtime Errors

Let’s say that you can pinpoint the general nature of the problem. For example, if the runtime error message only appears when you try to open an attachment, it could be related to your IncrediMail security settings. You might try lowering the settings (if the attachments are from trusted senders, of course). If the IncrediMail runtime error occurs only when you try to print, you may need to update your printer drivers as this could be the result of an incompatibility between IncrediMail and your printer.  

If the runtime error seems to occur when your computer is running multiple programs or after it’s been on for a long time, the error could be caused by a lack of sufficient resources.

Steps to Take

While we may never know the exact cause, there are a few steps that you can take to try to stop the errors. Try the following steps and see if your runtime errors stop occurring when you run IncrediMail.

• Update IncrediMail. It’s possible that you are not the only one who has encountered this particular runtime error. It’s also possible that IncrediMail has since issued a fix for it. If so, updating your version of IncrediMail will apply the fix and the problem will stop.
• Update your operating system. Your operating system may also be to blame. If Microsoft has issued an update that addresses incompatibilities with IncrediMail or one of its components, updating Windows with the update will solve the problem. Go to Windows Update and look at all available updates for your operating system, including “optional” updates.
• Take control of your system resources. If your computer is running low on resources, limit the number of programs that launch at startup as well as the number of programs you have running at any one time. In addition, computer viruses and spyware could be gobbling resources so make sure to scan your system for these threats.

Hopefully, you’ll be able to solve the problem by updating IncrediMail and your operating system or by freeing up memory. If not, let us know the exact runtime message and describe the circumstances in greater detail and we can try a few more possible solutions.

I inadvertently downloaded Live when I upgraded to Explorer 8. I have Outlook Express as my default email program. However, now when I go to open an email that has been forwarded as an attachment, it opens with Live. It’s slow and I want the attached emails to open via Express as they did before. I can’t find what I need to change the default in ‘File Types’ back to Express. Do I have to delete Live and how can I do that? It isn’t listed as a program in the Control Panel. 

Downloading Windows Live seems to lead to this problem for many people. Apparently, it sort of takes over and your emails open up in Windows Live Mail rather than Outlook Express, even if you have OE set as your default program. Windows Live is designed to facilitate the transfer of digital photos and slide shows through email services. Typically, it isn’t necessary to delete Windows Live to fix the problem. Go through the suggestions listed below, complete one at a time or check that the settings are correct.

Setting Outlook Express as the Default Email Program: Add/Remove Programs

In some cases, even when Outlook Express has been set as the default email program, downloading another application changes this default setting. Follow this set of directions to change Outlook Express back to the default email program.

1. Navigate to and select Start in the lower left-hand corner.
2. Select Settings.
3. Select Control Panel.
4. Select Add/Remove Programs.
5. Select Set Program Access and Defaults.
6. In the dialog box that pops up, you should see a list of configurations (Microsoft Windows, Custom, Other, etc.) Click on the small downward arrows to the right of the configuration that has already been selected.
7. In the section for “Choose a default email program,” choose Outlook Express.
8. Select OK.

Reconfigure Outlook Express When Using Internet Explorer 8

Use the instructions included here to change the settings in Outlook Express to use POP3 instead of DAV.

• Open Outlook Express
• Navigate to Tools and select Accounts.
• Select Add.
• Select Mail.
• In the box labeled “display name,” type in your name and select Next.
• In the box labeled E-mail address, type in your web mail e-mail address and select Next.
• In the “my incoming mail server” drop down menu, select POP3.
• In the “incoming mail (POP3, IMAP, or HTTP) server” box, type in: pop3live.com.
• In the “Outgoing mail (SMTP) server” box, type in smtp.live.com.
• In the next dialog box, type in the name of your account and the password.
• Select Next.
• Select Finish.
• In the Internet Accounts dialog box, select Mail, the name of the account that you just added, and Properties.
• Select Settings.
• Check the box labeled, “My server requires authentication” under the Outgoing Mail Servers category.
• To the right of “My server requires authentication,” select “Settings” and choose “Use same settings as my incoming server.”
• Select the Advanced option that is located beneath “Server port numbers.” Type in 995 in the “Incoming Mail (POP3) box; 587 (or 25) in the “Outgoing mail (SMTP) box; and check the boxes in front of each selection labeled “This server requires a secure connection (SSL).
• In the section labeled “Delivery,” check the box in front of “Leave a copy of messages on server” if you want your messages to continue to remain available after you download them.
• Select OK.
• In the “Internet Accounts” dialog box, select Mail and look for your old setup with “HTTP.” Remove the account.