Surf Express and Outlook Express: the problem may be with Outlook, not Surf

Richard Ellenson confirms the problems reported here previously, but adds that the cause seems to be due to how Outlook Express and/or Internet Explorer modify Internet Config settings. Whatever they do, it can cause problems for Netscape's use of Internet Config. "The problem is definitely with IE/OE, as we found that only removing IE and OE or having Netscape use its own preferences rather than IC will prevent the problem."

A reliable source supports this view: "Outlook (and Internet Mail & News) use sets of Internet Config prefs to store the multiple user profiles for mail and news. However, they do it in a somewhat arbitrary and haphazard fashion which means that when you create a configuration in one of these apps, it uses the current IC prefs but after that, the apps manage them in their own fashion by combining them in the Internet Configurations folder and mixing those settings stored within the IMN Users folder. The fault here appears to be due to Outlook and IMN not using the IC prefs in a standard way."

Update: A reply from Microsoft: Surf Express is the problem Jud Spencer (of Microsoft) replies: "We have contacted Connectix about the problem, they confirm that it is a Surf Express problem and are working on a fix. It is correct that we make changes to the Internet Config file. This is not 'non-standard.' It would be more fair to characterize this as 'uncommon.' OE supports multiple users (and multiple accounts per user). OE changes Internet Config's settings to reflect the default account of the current user."