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When you install Office 2007 (and up), spell checking in Outlook Express may not work as expected, unless you want spell check in French. :) This is because Office 2007 uses new proofing tools and OE can't use them because it's designed to use the older tools.

You have three choices:

1. Install the Microsoft Live Mail client. It is very similar to Outlook Express and includes its own spell checker.
2. Install just the proofing tools from your previous version of Office (using the custom install option). You can get them from any older Office suite or application - including FrontPage, Publisher or standalone versions of Word, Excel, or Outlook.
3. Install a 3rd party spell checker, such as OE2.1 Spell checker.

To install just the proofing tools from Office 2003, run Office setup and choose the custom option. Uncheck all programs in the list and add a check to choose the options at the bottom of the programs list. On the next screen, set each top level item to be Not Available (red X icon). Expand the Office Shared Features branch and locate Proofing tools in the list. Expand proofing tools and choose English, setting it to Run from my computer. Finish the installation.

Once installed, restart OE - go to Tools, Options and verify Spelling is configured to use the correct English dictionary.

Note that if you install the proofing tools after installing Office 2007, you should run Office diagnostics, just to be safe. I ran into 2 minor issues if the Office 2007 install is not repaired: the Start menu icon does not work as expected and templates may not open if you double click on them in Windows Explorer.

Also note that after you install the proofing tools from an earlier version of Office then try to install an add-in under the Genuine Advantage program, the proofing tools may cause the add-in installation to fail because it's not activated. If it's a must-have add-in, either install the proofing tools from Office 2000 (no activation required), a 3rd party spell check program or uninstall the proofing tools, install the add-in then reinstall the proofing tools.

Windows update will probably want to install updates for the older version of Office. These can safely be refused since you only have the proofing tools installed, but the update service doesn't know this; like Genuine Advantage, it only knows you have something from that version installed.

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