The Problem
I have had a rather large number of people come to me recently with a problem regarding the dictionary in Outlook Express. For some it has randomly dissappeared and we can’t get it back, for others they have installed Office 2007 and it has removed the English dictionary changed the dictionary to French!
For some there is an easy fix by replacing a missing file, for others running a system file check (sfc /scannow) has done the job. But those two don’t seem to work for everyone!
Windows Mail is the new version of Outlook Express which is included in Windows Vista, it doesn’t come with an English UK dictionary at all, so essentially people using Windows Mail are in the same boat!
The Solution
With many clients suffering from this I felt I had to come up with some sort of solution. Which I seem to have done, nothing particularly mind blowing, but it works! It does however involve you changing your Email Client.
If you download Mozilla’s Email Client named Thunderbird and install that you will notice that it doesn’t come with a dictionary at all, but there is a link to get more dictionaries online. FANTASTIC! Download the dictionary and then open Thunderbird, Tools>Add-Ons and add the download dictionary, the only thing left to do is restart Thunderbird and write your email. Sorted 
Conculsion
Ok, so it isn’t the most ideal solution, but it works and if having an English Dictionary is important then it is cheaper than going and buying the full blown Outlook 2007. The only other free alternative is to get an email account with hotmail, live or Gmail and they have dictionaries built in as well.
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