Problems with MS06-016 - Outlook Express
It has not been a good week for Microsoft.
MS06-016 has been causing problems for some users who have been experiencing errors when attempting to open their addressbook and even losing all email contacts. Some users are unable to send or reply to emails and are being prompted to reinstall OE:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917288
There is a workaround available for those of you affected by the address book problems - it works, but you will lose any contact groups that you have created.
1.. Uninstall KB911567
2.. Make a copy of C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Application Data\Microsoft\Address Book\<user.wab> and save it under a new name (backup.wab) to C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Desktop\backup.wab where <user> is your Windows user name. (Make sure there is no <user.wab> file on your Desktop)
3.. Delete C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Application Data\Microsoft\Address Book\<user.*> (that is, any file in that directory called user.* - the star being a wildcard)
4.. Run the Windows Address book as you would normally. It will start up with no contacts present.
5.. Now Click on File | Import | Address Book (WAB) and import from the backup.wab file present @ C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Desktop
6.. Re-install KB911567
Another issue caused by MS06-016, but which is "by design" is that it prevents saved unsent message *.eml files from being opened as unsent messages. Instead, they open as sent messages and cannot be resent. Outlook Express behaviour has been changed so that it now ignores the unsent flag in the message headers, so the message opens as a sent message, even though it has not been sent.
The only workaround for this behaviour change is to uninstall the security patch. To be clear, this change does not affect messages saved to the OE drafts folder. It only affects emails saved outside of OE (such as home-made templates).
There are risks to removing the patch and you will have to balance your desire for each access to templates with the risk of removing the patch - as for me, I say keep the patch and work out a different way of doing things if you like to use sound and motion templates for OE.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms06-016.mspx