Hi Joe, Good to know that I'm not alone with the vagaries of internet audio and so on! Now I think that is great news that you receive emails to your inbox so promptly after they are sent! You appear to be on a high broadband speed. Good for you! Immediately you send that mail from your laptop close down or is it wise to suggest cut your internet connection! Using a memory stick or a USB card is a good idea but for one email for example (if that is all there would be) may not hardly be worth the effort and expense. I'll leave the compacting of emails to a greater knowledge than me! Tony----- Original Message ----- From: joe bollard To: vip students Sent: Friday, January 02, 2009 7:14 PM Subject: [vip_students] outlook express message hello friends, when using outlook express on my laptop, [you're going to get really fed up with these laptop problems of mine] i get a message that says "to free up disk space outlook express can compact messages, this may take a few minutes" now what is all that about?? right tony, adjusting the audio settings on the computer can be awkward, i use sound forge to record "focus" magazine, i have a mixer, and there seems to be a regular battle between sound forge and skype, so within the next few days i'm going to purchase a memory stick, or a USB soundcard, just a small one, that will rectify the problems that keep arising, anyway, hope someone might be able to enlighten me with regard to the outlook express message,and there's more, when i try to send an e mail to myself as soon as i send it it comes straight back to me, no delay, so i have contacted my friend and asked him to send the message again, later on tonight so that it will be on my pc in the morning, thanks for all the help, travel safely, joe.?