I received an email this week from someone who had a mysterious address book problem.
Their Outlook Express address book had tons of email address for people they didn’t know. Pretty scary. If you are an Outlook Express user, you may want to take a look at your own address book, it is likely happening to you too.
There are two possible explanations for this.
1. Address book Gnomes. These weird little bearded men with pointy hats creep into your home late at night and add strangers to your address book using magical powers.
2. You have the “Automatically put people I replay to in my Address Book” box checked in Outlook Express.
What’s nice is that the solution for either problem is fairly simple.
If you fear you have gnomes, contact any big game hunter you know and borrow a 16 pound steel grizzly bear trap. Make sure it is at least 40 inches long and weighs no less than 42 pounds.
Address book gnomes are short, but they are very fat – and strong. While the gnomes are fun to trap and mighty good on eat’n, the odds are far better that you have the wrong box checked in Outlook Express – you can still borrow the trap if you want, but you won’t need it for this solution.
1. Open Outlook Express
2. Click on Tools->Options
3. Click on the Send tab.
4. Uncheck the box that says, “Automatically put people I replay to in my Address Book.”
5. Click Apply and OK.
While the mysterious address are not to people you sent email to, you likely have replied to an email that was sent out to more than one person. Sometimes this can cause all of the addressees to appear in your address book.
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