There are a few tweaks you can try --short of a reinstall of OE
see here:

An Outlook Express basic repair kit
I would try the reregister OE & Reregister Libraries commands about half way down
If they don't work I would try creating a new identity in OE.

Without that disc-- a reinstall is not possible.
You might be able to borrow a friend's copy-- use his setup & YOUR registration key.
If not there are a few good free email clients...Thunderbird or Eudora

Comparison of e-mail clients - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You guys are just too good! The Outlook Express Repair worked like a champ. :-) You can put me in "resolved"!

Thank you again for your help.

Glad it worked out--which part of the repair did the job ? For my own curiosity ?

I went in and restored the OE dll files (from the Outlook Repair Kit), created a new identity, and was good to go.

I'm guessing that the virus (perhaps the Trojan.Codec one??) corrupted the OE dll files. Once I restored them, and ditched the main identity, I was "golden." :-)

I'm pretty happy to have learned about it - and am looking forward to sharing that info with some of my other "geeky computer friends." LOL

You guys ROCK. Thank you very much for everything.

That's what we're here for... marked as fixed