For those of us who have “upgraded” Microsoft Office to 2007, you may that Outlook Express’ spell check feature no longer works. Instead, it has turned into a French spell checker. This happens because Office 2007 uses new proofing tools, and these break OE when Office is installed.

The fix is easy, but first you need to dig out the old version of MS Office (standalone versions of Word, Excel or Outlook also work). Insert the disc into the CD drive. If the autoplay feature is running then the Office setup should run, if not go to your CD drive and double click on the “setup.exe” file. From there choose the custom install option, turn off everything and expand the “Office Shared Features” section and find the “Proofing tools“. Select English and change its setting to “Run from my computer” then continue on with the installation. Once that’s done restart Outlook Express, go to “Tools” -> “Options” and check to see that “English is chosen as the language of choice. Once that’s done your Outlook Express will spell check in English again.