Unable to delete emails from Outlook Express

If you cannot delete email in Outlook Express and the program crashes frequently the problem might be because of corrupt storage folders - typically, the Inbox and the Deleted Items. As you may know, the email program uses the Inbox to store all incoming email, Sent Items for the messages you have sent and Delete Items for the messages that have been discarded. Now if you cannot delete an email in Outlook Express the cause of your troubles might be faultly or corrupt Inbox or Delete Items folders.
Fixing these two folders is not difficult and for that we need to find out where these folders reside on the hard disk. In the Outlook Express program, go to "Tools" -> "Options" and move to the "Maintenance" tab. You'll find a "Store Folder..." button; click on it. This brings up a small window with the path to the storage folders directory. Use the left mouse button and click to select the entire path. Now right-click and choose the "Copy" option. Close the Outlook Express program.
Open the "Run" program from the "Start" menu and paste the full path (CONTROL-V or right-click -> Paste). The Outlook Express storage folders are hidden files. You may need to force Windows to show them. From the top menu, select "Tools" -> "Folder Options" and then from the "View" tab, check "Show Hidden Files and Folders". Now simply select the Deleted Items.dbx file and send it to the recycle bin. Don't worry; Outlook Express will create a new one when you start it again.
If you still cannot delete the email after manually removing the Deleted Items.dbx file, I suggest you do the same for the inbox storage folder. However, deleting that will also remove all of your store email messages. So first select and drag all the messages in a temporary folder (create on the Desktop); you can then drag them back to the inbox when you open Outlook Express again and it creates the inbox afresh.