OE6/IE7/XP Cannot open new msgs or address book

My in-laws have been confronted with a problem. Their OE6 no longer opens up any messages (new or old) but the contents can be viewed in the Preview Pane. Attachments cannot be opened. The Address Book cannot be opened as well. I did relocate the wab file but OE would not rebuild a new one. I found a default.wab and stuck it in there but that didn't help. The File/Import function for Address Books will not open, either.

Error msgs:
1. Messages- "There was an error opening this message. An error has occurred "

2. Addy Book- "Unable to open the Address Book. The Address Book may not be installed properly ".

Thanks for your help.

 

Have a look at this. It's related to your address book error but it's possible that if it fixes your address book problem, it may fix the other one too.

Error message when you open the Windows Address Book or you open Outlook Express after you install cumulative security update 911567 (MS06-016)

 

Hi Zander, I just erased my entire response. Here we go again.

Thanks for the link. I had seen that MS Article already and dismissed it as I did not see the update in add/remove. In fact, I saw no updates in add/remove except for the MSXML ones. Is there another way to find that update and remove it like the article says to?

I did go ahead and rename the wab file but OE did not rebulid a new one upon reboot! So, I just put the old one back. The MS article says to copy/paste the wab file then to use a CMD line to delete it. That seemed wasteful so I just cut/pasted it instead. Does the CMD line deletion do something that the cut/paste did not do??

Thanks for the input.

 

Didn't know about that check box for showing updates. Thanks. I will try it again.

The CMD line instruction reminds me of the DOS/Win duality of the past. Maybe its still there? Thanks

 

The MS KB worked and they are back up and running (if you call a P-3 1GHz, running). Thanks again for the support.