Resolving 'This program has performed an illegal operation...' Outlook Express Error

Outlook Express is one of the most widely accepted e-mail client, used by professional and home users. Outlook Express 5.0 and later versions use *.dbx file format for storing individual folders that you see in local folder list. Sometimes, when these *.dbx files are marked as read-only or are corrupted, Outlook Express finds it unfeasible to locate and/or read them. Some related error messages might appear whenever an attempt is made for starting Outlook Express. However, to resolve corruption issues, you need to either restore the e-mails from backup or use an Outlook Express Repair Tool to repair the corrupted DBX files.

Consider, as an Outlook Express user, when you try to start Outlook Express, the application may not start as expected. It might fail to start with the following error message on screen:

“This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down. If the problem persists, contact the program vendor.”

Further, when you click the 'Details' button in the error dialog box, it shows an MSIMN error.

Cause

Some possible reasons for the above error to occur are mentioned underneath:

1)One or more of the Outlook Express *.dbx files are marked as read-only
2)One or more of the Outlook Express *.dbx files are corrupted

Solution

According to the issue in place, you should remove the read-only feature or fix file corruption of *.dbx file(s), depending on the reason causing the problem. To locate these files, you need to perform the below mentioned steps in order:

1)Click 'Start' and then 'Search' or 'Find'
2)Click 'Files or Folders' and type *.dbx in named box
3)Click 'Find Now', which will list all the *.dbx files on your computer

You can right-click these files, one at a time, click 'Properties' and clear off the 'Read-only' attribute. However, if this is not the issue, you should determine the corrupted *.dbx file by renaming the files, one at a time. Outlook Express will start working as normal as soon as you will rename the corrupted *.dbx file.

However, to Repair Outlook Express *.dbx file(s), you need to take aid of a third-party utility. A Outlook Express Repair Tool can repair and restore corrupted *.dbx file using safe repair procedures.

Stellar Phoenix Outlook Express Recovery is an efficient utility designed to repair corrupted *.dbx files of Outlook Express 5.x and Outlook Express 6.x. With a simple user interface, this Outlook Express Repair Tool enables risk-free recovery of e-mails in *.dbx and *.eml file(s).