By Randy Esdon

s most people know, Microsoft has removed the use of their spell checker in the latest versions of Outlook Express unless you are the user of one of their office products such as MS Works, Word, or Office. Once one of these is installed, you are able to use the spell checking feature built into Outlook Express.

This was not the case in previous versions of Outlook Express, the spell checker used to work. Some people have swallowed the pill and bought one of the qualifying Microsoft products and they are happy. Some have converted from Outlook Express to another email program that has a free spell checker built into it such as Netscape. Well my latest find in the free software world has found an answer to the spell checker problem in Outlook Express. It’s called "Spell Checker for OE". You can download the program from http://www.geocities.com/vampirefo/

A simple install has found that my spell check feature in Outlook Express now functions correctly. While the dictionary built into this program is incomplete, it does pick up all of my basic spelling mistakes. As time goes by and I use the spell checker, I will be able to add to its dictionary the words that it’s not familiar with.

You know I’m talking about you doctor types out there that invent new complicated words to describe the common cold or such ;) Anyways, the program claims to support all versions of Windows that use Outlook Express 6 up to and including Windows XP. One flaw that is mentioned is that an old update to AVG anti-virus detected the uninstaller for this program as a Trojan horse BackDoor. The author claims that if you run the program through any other anti-virus checker, you will find that this is not the case. I know that on my machine Norton Anti-virus 2003 has not detected it as a Trojan, so I’m satisfied. Also, the latest update to AVG fixes this fault, so update your AVG anti-virus program before you install this program.

The author provides email support for this application, so if you like the program, dislike it, or need help send an email to vampirefo@myrealbox.com and he claims to usually get back to you in 24 hours.