Fixing problems with outlook message stores

I was recently asked to look at a problem with someone's outlook.
Whenever they started it up it was trying to send 2 messages that did not show up in the outbox. It failed due to the security settings between the machine concerned and the email server. All other email seemed to work fine.
Using my usual research tool I found a few possible causes but the favourite seemed to be some read receipts that had got stuck.
I found some very helpful instructions at http://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/deletereadreceipt.htm which required a download from microsoft MDBVU32.exe.
This program looks as dangerous as regedit. I was very glad of the instructions on the referring web page which included screen shots. I think the program has been updated since the screenshots were taken though as I had to hunt for the option to open the data store. I was able to work out where I needed to be quite nicely though.
A useful tool to know about.

XAMPP for windows

This entry may be a bit premature. I have only found the web site and not actually used it yet.

Like many people I have web space.
My hosting provider blackfoot.co.uk provide me with mysql databases, php et cetera.
This is good. However my skill and knowledge with PHP and mysql is not so good.
At worst I use other people's code blindly. I know enough to be able to read the documentation and change the variables (most of the time).
One of my thoughts has been to experiment a bit with php et cetera in an environment where it does not matter, i.e. a server that is not actually on the net. My "problem" has been getting round to jumping through the assorted hoops of installing things, especially when most of the machines I can play with are either windows or solaris and not linux. I have briefly looked at SAMP and not got round to doing much with it. I do have apache and perl running fine on assorted solaris boxes from 2.6 upwards (with solaris 10 it is a case of install the OS and they just need configuring but with 2.6 you need to build and/or install the packages).

I have heard about LAMP and WAMP distros and nearly got round to doing the LAMP install of Ubuntu but never quite made it.

Now I have found a website that has been around for years.
I may have mentioned in another post about how quick i am at finding things :).

XAMPP appears to be (not yet installed it myself yet) exactly what I am looking for. A really lazy way of setting things up on a windows (or linux or solaris) machine to play with.