[Why does the 5.1.2195 access wabmig.exe in the outlook express folder]

Did you checked the "description" field in the properties of wabmig.exe ? Mine shows "Microsoft ® Address Book Import Tool"

Yes I did, as you can see from one of my earlier posts.

It seems OK to see this one running after a SP/hotfix install...

This one is run _before_ anything has been installed, it runs during the Welcome dialog is up. Normally wabmig.exe is run when the OE is taken into use the first time and the user responds yes to the question if he wants to import addresses.

Just imagine this SP/Hotfix updates the WAB (Windows Adress Book) binaries... WabMig.exe is then ran to MIGrate the old address books (files with .wab extension) to a somewhat updated form... or to check if there's no error/flaw in them...

A far reach, but perhaps. I'd very much like to hear the official unoffcial comment on this.

PS: w2ksp51 is not made by MS ; it's an *unofficial* service pack made by Gurgulmeyer

Of course. What I tried to say was that those updates and hot fixes that I have downloaded from Microsoft and then installed have never tried to run the wabmig.exe. I have installed all or nearly all Microsoft fixes and patches that there are available on Microsoft site for the win2000sp4.

[Why does the 5.1.2195 access wabmig.exe in the outlook express folder]

During the time the Welcome dialog is displayed the SP installer does not do any updating, it is basically sitting quiet just waiting for the user to press the OK button, except in this case it does try to launch the wabmig.exe.

The Microsoft updates and fixes that I have installed have never accessed the wabmig.exe

[Why does the 5.1.2195 access wabmig.exe in the outlook express folder]

Another way to inspect this is to simply rename the wabmig.exe in the \outlook express -folder, then run w2ksp51.exe, wait until the Welcome screen appears, then wait about 5 seconds more. A dialog is shown that says that the installer can not access the wabmig.exe. The installation is not allowed to continue.

wabmig.exe is the address book import tool of Outlook Express, it looks for other email clients and when found imports the mail address list from them to be used by Outlook Express.

[Why does the 5.1.2195 access wabmig.exe in the outlook express folder]

Why does the w2ksp51.exe access the \outlook express\wabmig.exe ??? This happens already at the time when the Welcome screen is displayed: Use any security tool that allow you to supervise installations, start w2ksp51.exe, it will do the file extracting, then the Welcome screen is shown, now wait about 5 seconds.