On my desktop, WINXP, I have three accounts.

I use Outlook Express 6.0 for my e-mails in all accounts.
In my personal WINXP account, I have customized Outlook Express’ window with the layout I need and I use it to access all five e-mail accounts, my four and my wife’s

In my wife’s account, as she is not quite adept at PC usage, I have created a scenario such that AIM + Skype + Outlook Express start automatically when she logs onto the PC in her account. The Outlook Express window that opens, shows the list of folders upper left, contacts lower left, incoming e-mails on the right and a preview pane lower right.

This has worked exceedingly well for months. But in the last week, the “contacts pane” never appears on start up. And I must follow the process shown below.

I go to Outlook Express >> View >> Layout and I click on [ ] Contacts to activate it. Next I click on Apply >> OK. Voila! The contacts pane opens and all is well.

If I log out from my wife’s account or I log off the PC, and then reenter my wife’s account, the “contacts” pane is missing again. I can repeat the above sequence, but upon exit and reentry the “contacts pane” is missing.

But wait, this anomaly does not occur in my WINXP account with my account’s invocation of Outlook Express regardless of the e-mail account that I employ.

And, I have not made any major changes in the PC with the exception of a FireFox update for extensions a week ago, but not that affect e-mail. And, I loaded the newest version of Skype.

And, if I go to View >> Current View and move “Contacts” to the toolbar. The Icon appears with a rectangle around it. Yes, the Contacts pane appears as well. But, if I click on the “Contacts” icon the rectangle disappears and the contacts pane disappears. The Contacts pane and the rectangle reappear when I click on the “Contacts” icon. However, the Contacts icon is lost if I leave my wife’s account and reenter the account, thereby reinvoking Outlook Express.

Somehow in my wife’s account this preference is not preserved from one invocation to the other.

A search of the Microsoft knowledge base does not yield any relevant articles or any clues.

Likewise a search of the Internet does not produce any meaningful solution paths.

Any thoughts?