The best magazine
Cannot Delete Messages From Outlook Express
This is problem is caused by a corruption of the Deleted Items folder.
You will probably also find that you cannot delete the messages that are currently in the that folder either, and this is again due to corruption of the Deleted items folder.
This is an easy one to resolve because you can get Outlook Express to create a new Deleted Items folder for you.
To do this though you will need to delete the corrupt .
dbx file first, but you cannot do that while Outlook Express or any email messages are open.
Before you close all Outlook Express just make sure that any already deleted messages in the folder are no longer wanted because you will not be able to get these back once you delete or rename the .
dbx file.
I know that might seem strange but I have actually gone to permanently delete the messages in my deleted items folder and then realised there was the odd message in there that I had a change of mind about and decided to archive instead of delete.
Once you are sure that there is nothing worth saving, close Outlook Express.
Now locate the Deleted items.
dbx file You can do a search of your hard drive for this or you can try and locate it manually.
A typical location for it is: C:Documents and Settings_ YOURPROFILENAME**_ Local Settings_ Application Data_ Identities_ {38947742-DZ29-4823-G696-267921E62DT1}_ Microsoft_ Outlook Express Note: YOURPROFILENAME** is where you will find your own name that you use to login to your computer and, {38947742-DZ29-4823-G696-267921E62DT1} is the a unique number for your identity so obviously it wont' be the same as this number here, I just used it as an example.
When you find the Deleted items.
dbx file delete it just like you would any other file.
Now re-open Outlook Express.
You will see a Deleted items folder.
This is because Outlook Express will automatically create a new folder if it cannot locate an existing .
dbx folder of that name.
There, I told you Outlook will create it for you.
Now you have a shiny new folder that you can use to delete those messages you no longer want.
Source: ...