Outlook Express 6 won't open links?

I have a copy of OE 6 on windows 2000 (native then upgraded with windows update) on a laptop I'm rebuilding. It used to open links fine when clicking on a link in mail... now it won't. I'm not familiar with this and couldn't find any options where this might have gotten disabled.

Oh, and for whatever reason I don't have an option for spell check either (button is greyed out). Once again I haven't seen this either. Must I upgrade OE 6 again to get the spellcheck?