My Crazy Email Obsession

Ever since the days when Outlook Express was the most used email program, I have been trying other email programs and experimenting with the various settings offered by email clients.

Outlook Express had so many different options I devoted whole sections to OE on my old no longer available web site, Martha’s web.  OE was a favorite of mine and literally thousands of other users. It came with Windows until Microsoft introduced Windows Vista. OE also had a lot of issues and was easily corrupted unless regular maintenance was performed.  Microsoft replaced Outlook Express with Windows Mail, which was a bit of a disaster.

I tested a lot of email programs.

Incredimail for those folks that like lots of colorful graphics, Evolution for Windows, Eudora (no longer available), Thunderbird, Pegasus mail, and many others I have forgotten about.

Microsoft Outlook was my favorite email program since Microsoft offered it free way back in 1997. But Outlook is now too big and has too many settings to work for me.

Of all the email programs I have tried, eM Client is the best for me. It is free for home users and you can have two email addresses in eM Client.  If you need more email accounts you can get the pro version.

I still use Outlook to a certain extent, but don’t have much email going into it. I just want to keep up with Outlook to see what changes MS is making.

I also use a program called Mailbird. This email client reminds me of the mail program Microsoft has included with Windows 10.  I am still in test mode for Mailbird. The jury is still out for me with this email program although I think it is a viable option.

Ever since my frustrating experience with Thunderbird, I no longer use the bird. There were a lot of things about Thunderbird that were good, but since G-mail decided Thunderbird wasn’t ‘safe’, I decided I didn’t need to use it.

I also decided I have too many email accounts and I am slowly cancelling most of them.

I use an email backup program that will back up all my email. This program is MailStore Home, free for home users. It is a fantastic program for folks like me, email junkies.

What’s Up, Google?

While trying to find a fix for ‘no iexplore.exe’ in my Windows 10, I encountered something odd. My search term was 'Internet Explorer is missing in Windows 10'.

I normally use my default browser, Firefox, and use Google to search. I had searched and searched before, using various search terms like 'no iexplore.exe in Windows' and found lots of sites with 'fixes', but none of them actually worked for me.

Then I decided to search again. Since I had a lot of tabs open in Firefox I decided to search with Google on Chrome. On the first page of my Google search using Chrome I found this site on Technet Forums.

After I applied the fix I found on this page I begin to wonder, 'why didn't I find this site with all of my other searches?'

So, I tried the same search term on Firefox and the technet site did not show up. Was the site just not going to come up on Firefox? So, I tried the search again on Chrome and it did not come up. I cleared the cache on Chrome and tried again, it did not come up. I tried the search using Opera browser and it did not come up.

Just to make sure the site was still there, I copied the URL from OneNote (I save all fixes in OneNote), pasted the URL in Chrome and the site came up. It came up in Firefox.

I had the same results with Bing on Chrome, Firefox, Edge and Opera.

I decided to try another tactic and clicked on ‘Searches related to Internet Explorer is missing in Windows 10’. I clicked the first link here, ‘iexplore is missing from Windows 10’. And voila, the site came up.



Apparently, the algorithm in the search engines are looking for something different than the exact title or wording of my search term.

I tried search again using the following terms:

‘iexplore missing windows 10 ‘.

‘iexplore.exe missing windows 10’

Neither of the above search terms finds the site with the fix I needed.

Clicking the link ‘iexplore.exe missing windows 7’ does find the site. Note the windows 7!

I guess the lesson in this episode of searching, is keep trying.

The truth/fix is out there somewhere!

It’s Back! Internet Explorer Has Been Restored!

I finally got iexplore.exe back. I had searched and searched before but this time I found the answer. While searching I did find a lot of other folks had the same issue, but none of the other fixes worked for me until I found this one.

After endless searching using Google and Bing I finally found the answer to my missing iexplore.exe. I found it using Google on Chrome.

The Fix:

I opened an Administrator command prompt and typed (actually I copied and pasted)

‘OptionalFeatures.exe’ without the quote and pressed enter.





Windows did its thing, searching and applying and then had me reboot.

Now I have Internet Explorer on my computer, not that I will likely use it. But some things may require Internet Explorer to work.



I found the answer here: Technet Forums.

The truth is out there, just keep looking!

Internet Explorer is Missing

After finding out there is no Internet Explorer on my Windows 10 I decided to investigate further.

I have no idea when Internet Explorer went missing. I think it worked once, but I am not certain. Was it there when I got my computer? I don’t know. Since I downloaded Firefox and Chrome I may have used Internet Explorer to download one of them, but I could have used Edge. Was it the Creator upgrade that caused Internet Explorer to go missing? Maybe but I will never know for sure.

I have searched for fixes. So far, I have found:

1. Make sure that you have Internet Explorer 11 turned on in Windows Features. It is not turned on, and checking it to turn on, does not work.


2. Open All apps in your Start menu. Scroll down to and expand open Windows Accessories. Right click or press and hold on Internet Explorer, and click/tap on Pin to taskbar. Internet Explorer is not listed in Windows Accessories on my Windows 10.


3. Open File Explorer. Browse to and open the C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer folder. Right click or press and hold on the iexplorer.exe file, and click/tap on Pin to taskbar. There is no iexplorer.exe in C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer folder on my Windows 10. There is no iexplorer.exe in C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer C:\Program Files (x86) folder either.

 

More fixes:

1. Look for them in the recycle bin. Not there.


2. Run sfc /scannow from command prompt in administrator mode. Did not help.


3. Manually copy them from the WinSxS folder. Windows says this will not work on my computer.

4. Copy them from any other Windows 10 PC. Don’t think I will do this. Maybe if I find out I really need Internet Explorer.


5. System restore back to when they still were present. Not an option as I have no idea when Internet Explorer went missing.

 

Since I haven’t used Internet Explorer for years, I will just forget it and go on my way. But I still wonder why there is no Internet Explorer on my Windows 10.