outlook express shuts down when deleting spam email

Sometimes I receive spam emails which shut down my outlook express when I try to highlight them to delete and I cannot get them deleted in my inbox. I have tried searching for answers here and other places and have had no luck. I hope someone can help me. Thanks so much.

 

Hi marshk
Welcome to the boards!
As a quick fix, have you tried deleting them while in safe mode? Can you tell us a bit more? Any error messages? What are some of your system specs....what O/S are you running?

Daizy

 

"This program has performed an illegal function and will be shut down "......this pops up when I click on the message to delete it. I have Windows 98. Does this help? Thank you, Daizy

 

It helps a little marshk
Did you try re-booting into safe mode and trying to delete it?

Daizy

 

Hi.......I rec'd another one of those messsages again today and cannot get it out. I got the other one deleted by first deleting all the other 'inbox' messages & then closed out my outlook express. As I opened it back up, I held the delete key down and that worked. But, I do not want to delete some of the messages I have on there now. I do not understand what you mean by 'safe mode'....can you explain that? Thanks.

 

Hi marshk
All you need to do is hold down the CTRL key at the first sign of any text on the screen during boot until the Microsoft Windows 98 Startup Menu appears. (I'm pretty sure it's CTRL on 98......if it doesn't work....try again rebooting..and tapping your F8 key)

Once into safe mode....go back into Outlook Express and try to delete the message that you're having a hard time with.

What version of Outlook Express are you running? Do you have all your critical windows updates done?

Daizy

 

Hi Daizy! I tried the 'safe mode' and that did not work. I did get the most recent message deleted finally, by hitting the 'delete' key and clicking on the message simultaneously. I don't really know what outlook express I have and I have not updated windows in any way....probably should look into those things. I do not spend lots of time on here spring-fall, as I am an avid gardener. I do get many 'illegal function' messages particularly when I use my printer......reinstalled it but that did not help. My scandisk does not work either......just keeps starting over (C drive). If you have any other good suggestions for me, pass them along....thanks for your help.

 

Hiya marshk
I've got heaps of suggestions. Whether you have the time to follow along is another thing.
First thing I'd do is go to Windows Update ......click on productu updates.......and let it find what you need. When the next screen comes along... choose to do ALL your critical updates. Going back and forth to Windows Updates until they are completed. If you've not done any..it may take you a bit. What kind of connection do you have? Dial up...or cable?

Post back once you've got that far......and I'll give you the next step.

Daizy

 

marshk
You might find that Internet Explorer 5.5 SP2 is a critical update at the window update site. Do yourself a favor and do that first and all by itself, especially if you have dialup. You are looking at a very long download, I am sure your garden could use some of your waiting time.
If you do, do it like this. When it is working, accept the license agreement and click on Next, when the window changes select Install Minimal or Customize, then click on Next. Look and you will then see a tab labeled Advanced. Click on it. Another window will popup, select Download Only then click on OK. It will save all this in a folder named C:\Windows Update Setup Files. Just click on ie5setup to install. This way if you need to reinstall IE later on you will not need to connect to the internet.