Windows Vista forum: How do I transfer my Outlook express email files to Vista?

Thanks, that is helpful.

I think though that what you are suggesting will save ALL of my past emails/contacts and I wanted to be kind of selective (like just save/transfer) in this. Is there a way to maybe group say from 1 year ago to now and just save/tranfer these?

Also, you wrote:>
"You may want to consider 'upgrading' to it".
I can't find how to (in Vista) do this particular "upgrade" just by inself. And also, is there a charge to "upgrade"?

thanks again

Thanks for your reply.

I did what you said and it led me to a number of files that looked like registry files such as, {9D16FC3B-D236-4907-A0B2-CF0E8F2Z0A8D}.

The email files seem to be in these but they have a .dbx extension.

Not being sure of that, I tried something else.

I created a folder on my desktop (email backups),then I opened one of my email folders in Outlook Express and selected a number of those emails.

From there, I simply dragged those selected emails into the folder on my desktop.

Sure enough, they copied right into that folder - attachments and all. (my emails contain a lot of pictures and graphics)

The extension on these copied email files is .eml which is what I expected.

From there, I copied one of the emails that had an attachment and then I went to my other (Windows) email, created a folder and pasted that email into that new folder.

When I double clicked on it, in the new folder, it opened and was complete, with the attachment.

Whew!

Since this worked so good for me, I thought that I'd pass this on to anyone that might benefit from this info.

Thanks again,
Charles

vishalg77, I had the same problem as well. What I ended up doing was what Charles recommended. Windows mail was suppose to be easier, but in the end was a pain in the ass. I usually transfer my Outlook using a ".pst" file, but I could figure how to do it in Windows Mail.

I have moved mail and addresses from Outlook Express on Windows XP to Windows Mail on several machines. The easiest way is to network the two machines and create a shared folder on your XP system. Or you can copy the files if they fit on a CD.

You can find out where your messages are stored by going to Tools, Options, Maintenance and clicking on Store Folder. Highlight and copy the file name, then click Run and paste the name & click OK. You will now open all of the files which contain your mail. Copy these to a folder (MAIL) in your shared folder that you created above.

Go to search and find your address book by looking for a .wab file. Again, copy this to the shared folder.

Now go to your Vista system and open Windows Mail. Go to File, Import, Messages, Oulook Express and point to the MAIL folder in your shared folder. Click OK and this should import your mail.

Go to File, Import, Contact, Windows Address Book and point to the .wab file. Click OK and this should import your address book.

I hope that the import directions are close enough to follow as I don't have a Vista system available to me right now.
Sherry

Several months after purchase of a Dell laptop with Vista, and after operating Windows Mail successfully, I finally tried to import several years of message history from OE6 on tne older laptop into Windows Mail on the new computer - where I had several months of new Email sitting. After a bit of difficulty, I finally got to the Import step and ended up in the swamp. The imported messages ended up in an Import folder. So far, so good. Then everything disappeared, both existing and imported messages. The messages still exist, according to the Properties tab on the folders, but the link to the content is not there. I was able to get the subject lines back by trying one of the fixes found on another forum that involved deleting the WindowsMail.MSMessageStore file and re-establishing it by restarting Windows Mail, but am still divorced from the content of the messages. The specific error message reads "Message cannot be found. The contents of this message cannot be found. Windows Mail."

I have copied the entire Windows Mail Folder to a backup location on the C: drive, and can open and read any of those backup copies from within the backup folder by choosing Windows Mail, but can't see any of the content within the normal use of Windows Mail. That will suffice in a pinch, but there is an ongoing project where I really need the thread of the discussion across a couple of years. Any suggestions?

I your reply you describe how to import the files in Windows Mail. But it appears to me that in Windows Mail, Import the programme Outlook Express does not appear. And from other replies it appears to me that the two programmes do not have the same file extension. So I still do not see how to transfer the messages.

Charles, you are a genius! thank you.

Whilst I appreciate everything and more that the ever advancing technology brings us, and those who know how to use it, It is nice to see that the old cut 'n' paste or drag 'n' drop still holds sway.

This worked a treat for me transferring my wife's emails from XP laptop to new Visat laptop here at just after 1:00am.

keep up the good work

your friendly neghbourhood

Spidey

Hi,

I tried your suggestions and it did work.

However once you have transfered the mails you cannot not arrange by date anymore as "last modified date" is all the same, being dat of copying.

The only way I see to solve this is to keep a copy of the folders at hand, where you can easily trace an old file....(sic)...

Any other suggestions ??

cheers
dgr

Hello everybody,
Do you have an idea of how I can find the exported e-mail files?
I export from outlook express but neither it doesn't ask me the destination folder nor I manage to find them afterwards, even though the export is completed succesfully.
Thank you in advance.

Christos

John,

i read your help to someone regarding transferring Outlook files. Do you, by chance, understand why it is impossible to transfer Windows Mail (ex Outlook Express) to Outlook? I tried to use the export (from W Mail) option, choosing Exchange option, and end up with a MAPI error. I save as WMail file and put on new computer that also has WMail, as well as the Outlook that I use, put cant import WMail into Outlook? Tom

While the transfer wizard may glitch from time to time, you can perform the transfer yourself fairly easily. On your old computer, launch Outlook Express and use the File->Import/Export option to export your messages, and then repeat for your contacts. When prompted for a location, save them to a folder on either a floppy or flash drive. Transfer that drive to your new computer, launch Windows Mail from the Start menu, and use the File->Import option to import the messages, followed by the contacts. Just select "Outlook Express 6" and the folder on the floppy/flash drive and it should do the rest.

Hope this helps,
John

With Outlook express you could read internet mail like AOL, hotmail and other internet email services along with SMTP mail servers such as road runner. With Windows Mail you can't read internet mail clients. But Windows Live Mail desktop will read the internet email clients. I set up Windows Live Mail to read my road runner email for the RR server and it worked fine for awhile but then one day. It stopped getting the mail and gave a message that the server was slow responding and asked if I wanted to wait 60 seconds. When Windows mail attempted to receive the email it came in fine. I just stopped using Window Live Mail although I did attempt uninstall and reinstall ones with the same result.

I got myself a Dell Latitude with Vista Ultimate.
I tried to import Outlook e-mails from my old XP-computer into Windows Mail. I can select the to-be-imported format "Outlook", but then the error message of Windows Mail is "cannot import messages from MAPI-client". What does this mean? I'm not even asked for the location of the files.
Thanks for help, Steffen alias Shatsu

I known best solutions for transfering message database from Outlook Express to Windows Mail. You should use Message Synchronizer for Outlook Express. First download synchronizer and install. Run synchronizer on computer with Outlook Express. After that run synchronizer on computer with Windows Mail. Thats all.