A colleague is having problems with Outlook Express. On opening the application, the following message appears: ‘msimn.exe has generated errors and will be closed by Windows. You will need to restart the program. An error log is being created’. I have located this problem in the Microsoft Knowledge Base - Q258034. One of the possible causes mentioned is that the .DBX files are marked as read-only, but I have been unable to locate any .DBX files on the local hard drives. These are clearly essential files, but what might have caused them to go missing? Is there any way to fix this problem, other than re-installing either Outlook Express or Windows 2000?

It is very strange that your friend does not have any .DBX files on their computer as these are the mail store files used by Outlook Express. To find the files you must enable the option to show hidden files and folders (as the folder which contains the Outlook Express files is normally hidden by default). To do this in the ‘Windows Explorer’, go to the ‘Tools’ menu > ‘Folder Options’. In the window that appears, click the ‘View’ tab. There will be a settings ‘tree’ with a ‘Hidden files and folders’ branch. If this is not expanded already, double-click on it and then enable ‘Show hidden files and folders’. Click the OK button. You should now be able to browse to the location, noted in the Microsoft Knowledge Base article, containing the .DBX files. However, if there are still no .DBX files on the computer or the problem persists after following the instructions in the article, could you please email me the error log which was created, so that I can do more research on the problem. The file name should be ‘drwtsn32.log’ and should be located in Documents and SettingsAll UsersApplication DataMicrosoftDr Watson. Also, before emailing this file, could you please trigger the error so that fresh information is recorded about the error.