[Rivera42]

System is Win XP Pro SP2, IE7, Firefox 3.x, OE6

I went into Outlook Express today (not my default mail client - that's Windows Live Mail) to edit my address book. Everything was going well, but after editing a contact, the window began to flash and the program became unresponsive. I force-quit the program. When I went back into Outlook Express, it popped up some dialogs stating that the address book failed to load, and that OE was "incorrectly configured" and to please reinstall, followed by another that said the address book was unable to open and may not be installed properly. I tried a reboot, which didn't help. I did a system restore, which also didn't help. I undid the restore. I tried using this thread as a guide, with mixed results. I found the /application data/microsoft/address book folder, which contained a file called "administrator.wab" which supposedly is 175kb or so. Double-clicking this opens a blank, but operational, address book (I should mention that I cannot use the "address book" Start Menu shortcut). I've tried importing into it, using the same location, and also by trying to browse to \Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\{string of random characters}\Microsoft\Outlook Express, but the files in there have .dbx extensions. Even with the blank address book from AppData open, every time I launch OE the in-client contacts do not display and I get the same error messages. In OE, clicking "New Contact" does nothing. In C:\Program Files\Outlook Express the file wab.exe does not open - I get the same "configured incorrectly, please reinstall" dialogs. I even reinstalled Thunderbird, and while I was pleased to see all my old settings and add-ons intact, I was unable to import any contacts from anywhere. I also tried using a DIXML backup image to locate an older copy of the address book, but I either came up empty-handed or else got the same error messages. The image was created prior to this happening, I mean obviously, since this only just happened today, but my point is even if the contacts are in the backup image somewhere, I can't get to them.

UPDATE: I found a very, very old backup copy of the address book in a DIXML backup image of a computer I don't even have anymore. The OE address book on the PC I'm posting about is based on this old computer's contact list, and as far as I can tell, everything that I started with on the current PC is also in this old file. I was successfully able to open this file and export it as a CSV file. I also extracted a copy of the original .wab file to my desktop. However, the problem I'm having persists. The Address Book on my current PC is still not working, as I've described, and I'd like to get this fixed. While I'm glad to have found a usable copy of my contact list, I'm already going to have to re-do any changes I had made during my work tonight, and what's worse, I still don't have a working OE address book into which I can import this CSV file. Because I haven't been using OE I am fairly certain this old address book is probably close to, or the same as, the address book I was working on tonight. The changes I had been making tonight are probably the only changes that have been made to this contact list. That's pretty good news, but I can't move forward from here and start using OE. The whole point had been to produce an up-to-date address book (as a CSV or other standard-format file) to import into other e-mail and PIM programs on my PC and/or the Web, but my starting point has to be OE6 on my PC. This is why I still need help. Also, if it's at all possible to recover the version of my contact list I'd been working on tonight, that'd be wonderful and save me a lot of time and trouble. Needless to say, none of the above can be imported into OE. I get an error message.

For the purpose of record, I found the usable copy of the contacts in documents and settings\windows user\app data\microsoft\address book alongside an identical file with a ~ after the extension: "Windows User.wab~" (that file would not open).

Any idea what happened, and how to fix this? Have I left out any information here?

[emailadept]

Hi,

Try to use the System File Checker. Click "Start"->"Run" and type:

sfc /scannow

[Rivera42]

I could try that, but every time I use that it finds something that's "missing." After I put in the (OEM) Windows CD the computer does what it needs to, but then I run SFC again and it finds something again.

[throoper]

Hi Rivera42,

It sounds like your User Account address book is corrupted.
Go to C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Microsoft\Address Book. You should have a username.wab (Address Book File) and username.wab~(WAB file). The file with the ~ is a backup. Delete the username Address Book File and rename the wab~ file to username.wab.
If you get the warning about changing the extension making it unusable, just OK it.
The file should convert to an Address Book File. Double click it and see if it will now open without error.

T.

[Rivera42]

There is no second file with a .wab~ extension, only "administrator.wab" and that's it.

What if I use one of my own backup copies that I made when I recovered the really old Address Book .wab file from the image of the old PC?

I should mention that I tried to remove "administrator.wab" from the folder you specified, and then launch Outlook Express with the folder empty. That didn't work - my contacts were empty, and Address Book failed to launch, again popping up the error dialogs.

"Show hidden" is checked and "Hide extensions" is unchecked, in case you were wondering.

[throoper]

If the WAB in the APPDATA folder is indeed corrupted, you don't have anything to lose as your contact info is stored in that file and likely gone.
I would give it a try. Drag the "admistrator.wab" out of the folder and place the backup in.
Make sure it has the exact same name.

[throoper]

I reread you r first post and realized I'd missed that you can open the admistrator.wab.
I think that has become a standalone WAB file and the problem may lie with the exe in the C:\Program Files\Outlook Express folder.
Try replacing it with a fresh copy from the WINDOWS\Service Pack\i386 folder.
Wab.exe is a protected system file and in a perfect world just deleting it will cause WFP to immediately replace it with a fresh copy.
Or copy it from the i386 folder and let it overwrite the existing exe in Program Files.

Edit: Another thing to look at is Contacts sharing. http://www.insideoe.com/files/wab.htm#share.
That can sometimes cause OE to look for a contacts folder instead of the WAB.

[Rivera42]

I did the copy and replace before I'd seen your last post, and of course it didn't work. I get a message that OE is incorrectly configured, please reinstall.

I read your linked article, and I think I should mention that at least some of my OE contacts are listed as "shared contacts." Same goes for the address book files I'm able to open and use - the files I restored from the backup, which was also OE6 on XP Pro. On this machine, OE had been my default vcard handler but not my default mail program. Are there "optimal" settings to minimize the risk of this happening again? I've never had this problem before.

What EXE am I replacing? WAB.EXE in Outlook Express folder?

UPDATE: This is the folder path on my machine: C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\ServicePackCache\i386
Assuming I understood you correctly. And all that's in there is msrdp.cab . I have C:\i386 which apparently contains over 6300 files and folders. Was this the place?

[throoper]

Yes. You would replace the WAB.EXE in the C:\Program Files\Outlook Express folder.
You can also do the same with the wab support files, such as wab32.dll if you need to.

It appears you have a Recovery partition with your installation files on it and SP2 left it's files in a CAB file rather than extracting them. The files you need should be in the CAB (which is just a compressed folder). That's where Windows File Protection extracts new copies from for anything that is a new version that was included in the SP2 update.

The C:\i386 should have the original installation files before SP2. If the version numbers are newer in the CAB, Windows won't let you use those originals.

[Rivera42]

the CAB file is only 365kb and contains only msrdp.ocx and msrdp.inf . I'm pretty sure I'll be able to find wab.exe in the 6000+ files in /i386, but how do I know what other files I'll need?

UPDATE: after backing up the copy of the exe that was in Program Files/Outlook Express, I copied the exe from c:\i386 over it, and it still isn't working. I can't launch wab.exe directly by double clicking it, and it isn't working through OE either. I also can't open wab.exe from within the i386 folder. All of these things produce the same error messages as I've already described. What do I do now?

[throoper]

If the wab.exe and wab32.dll don't do it (be sure they are the same version numbers as the ones being replaced), the best bet would be to try reinstalling by running the wab50.inf.

[Rivera42]

I have wabfind.dll and wabimp.dll in the Outlook Express folder, and Setup50.exe. I have wab32.dll in the i386 folder, along with wab50.inf. What do I need out of these, and where do I put them?

EDIT: I've been trying to edit the contacts in one of my back-up address books, and it crashes again. More specifically, after I deleted a contact, the window began flashing and the program has become unresponsive.

Originally Posted by throoper

the best bet would be to try reinstalling by running the wab50.inf.

How do I accomplish this?

[throoper]

Let's back up a step.
I'm only guessing that when you crashed, it damaged the wab files in C:\Program Files\Outlook Express.
If you have copies of the wab.exe and wab32.dll files in the i\386 folder, right click them and check the version.
Now check the version of the wab.exe and wab32.dll in C:\Program Files\Outlook Express.
If they are the same version numbers, the i\386 files can replace the others.

In C:\Program Files\Outlook Express, delete the wab.exe (and only the wab.exe).
Windows File Protection should replace the missing file with a fresh copy.
If the file is not replaced by WFP, copy the wab.exe from the i\386 into the C:\Program Files\Outlook Express folder. Try OE and see if the address book will open.

The wab32.dll is only needed if there are problems with the physical appearance of the address book, buttons missing, scroll bars, dialogs, etc.

[Rivera42]

Both wab.exe file versions are 6.0.2900.2180. As I mentioned, there was no wab32.dll visible in the Outlook Express folder, but the file is present in i386. I have already tried to copy wab.exe from i386 into Outlook Express (Program Files).
I'm going to delete wab.exe from C:\Program Files\Outlook Express and run sfc /scannow
and see if that does the trick. I'm already expecting the worst, however, since that's what always happens.

EDIT: Almost immediately after I dragged wab.exe into the Recycle Bin, there appeared another instance of it in my C:\Program Files\Outlook Express folder before I'd even initiated the system file checker.

LATER EDIT (In response to Post #15): I'm trying to post a response, but TSG keeps asking me to "reload the window" because my "token has expired." Yet reloading doesn't correct the problem.
Since I can't reply, I'm trying to edit this post instead. What I was going to say in the reply was that none of the above has yet resolved the issue. The error messages persist.

[throoper]

Originally Posted by Rivera42

EDIT: Almost immediately after I dragged wab.exe into the Recycle Bin, there appeared another instance of it in my C:\Program Files\Outlook Express folder before I'd even initiated the system file checker.

That's exactly what should happen. Windows File Protection detected that a critical file was missing and replaced it.
I didn't realize that you were missing the wab32.dll in the C:\Program Files.
Copy it over from your C:\i386 folder.