BleepingComputer.com: Just disable Outlook Express

After checking in this forum and the XP forum, I am aware of "Uninstall Windows Components", but I wish I could just disable Outlook Express. Uninstalling it is not really what I want. This program is sometimes a nuisance and is still confusing. I rely on webmail directly and so I never use Outlook Express anymore. Once in a while, I click on a hyperlink, and find that (because I did not check the link carefully) it was an email link, and Outlook Express v 6 opens and I must wait until it finishes opening before I can close it to get back to business.

Can OE simply be disabled and left as installed on the machine, or must it be REMOVED by unchecking in Windows Components? If REMOVING is done, is it then really removed, or is it actually disabled but still present?

Also, is it possible to make this Outlook Express to NOT be the default email client?

(Eventually I want to try to learn to use Thunderbird, and study this using new email webmail accounts).

System:
Windows XP s.p. 3, Internet Explorer 8, Outlook Express Version 6
Laptop computer is 9 years old.

It is functioning as designed due to the fact that mailto: is a way to brng up the default email client. As such you cannot tell it to use webmail by default.

What web mail service do you use?

cryptodan, on 06 February 2012 - 04:10 PM, said:

The goal is just to keep Outlook Express out of the way or disable it.

My webmails are AT&T, Yahoo, and AOL. The Outlook Express was set-up to use one of the AT&T-Yahoo accounts.

I avoid the O.E. through use of browser tabs and composing emails in a separate tab, copy & paste, and if necessary, retyping email addresses. This is not really a problem; it gets the job of emailing done, avoids O.E. getting involved, but is a little less efficient.

A basic problem I have is not understanding O.E. too well, now getting some message from it at times which I do not understand, and wishing to not let O.E. interfere with messages in my email account. I want the messages to be kept in the webmail account. I have good control of what I do through the various webmails. Outlook just complicates things. If I open O.E., it might do something to the account that I do not want it to and i am not clear on how to prevent anything. (That's why I might try one or two NEW email webmail accounts and try to learn to use Thunderbird, so as not to disturb my more important email accounts).

In OE there is an option to keep messages on the server see the following: http://help.expedient.com/mailnews/messages_left_on_server.shtml