Daily Answers: Fixing Outlook Express Printing Problems

When I print email messages from Microsoft Outlook Express, the hard copies include a printed border around the margins of the page. As a result, my printer takes a long time to print each email message. How can I prevent Outlook Express from including this border?

The situation you describe is a known problem with Outlook Express and Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) 5.5 that affects certain inkjet and dot-matrix printers (i.e., Epson's EPSON Stylus Color 440, Epson's LQ-2550, Fujitsu's DL3800 Pro, IBM Proprinter XL, and NEC P9XL). Microsoft resolved the problem with IE 5.5 Service Pack 2 (SP2)*because IE and Outlook Express are closely interrelated, the service pack applies to both products. Install the service pack on your system.

You might also see a background color on pages that you print from Outlook Express. This problem occurs when you've selected the Print background colors and images check box under IE's Tools, Options, Advanced, Printing setting, which Figure 1 shows. To resolve this problem, simply clear the check box.