open C:\WINDOWS\inf\sysoc.inf in notepad.
You'll see a section [Components]
Under that you'll see a lot of lines like:
Code:
NtComponents=ntoc.dll,NtOcSetupProc,,4
WBEM=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,wbemoc.inf,hide,7
WBEMMSI=wbemupgd.dll,OcEntry,wbemmsi.inf,,7
Note that some lines have the word hide between the last 2 comma's.
These are the sections that windows hides from you in add/remove components.
To be able to remove OE, i think the line you're after is
Code:
OEAccess=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,oeaccess.inf,hide,7
remove the word hide (but leave the comma's) and save.
Now you can uninstall Outlook Express in add/remove components.
Be advised that MS probably had a reason to hide this from you. There may be
dependencies that will not work as expected after removing hidden components.