How do I convert saved Outlook Express mail messages to be useable on Windows 7?

How do I convert the many saved Outlook Express mail messages that
I have so that I can access them when I move to Windows 7?

I have both my main set of all of my messages in various folders
within Outlook Express (on Windows XP) and many single messages that
I saved outside of Outlook Express.

Can I move to Windows 7 and then convert the messages, or do I
have the messages to a system running Vista, convert them, and then
move to Windows 7.

On 10/10/2011 17:05, Mark F wrote:
> How do I convert the many saved Outlook Express mail messages that
> I have so that I can access them when I move to Windows 7?
>
> I have both my main set of all of my messages in various folders
> within Outlook Express (on Windows XP) and many single messages that
> I saved outside of Outlook Express.
>
> Can I move to Windows 7 and then convert the messages, or do I
> have the messages to a system running Vista, convert them, and then
> move to Windows 7.
You can import all your OE messages direct to Windows Live Mail on
Windows 7.
Copy the ENTIRE message store folder to a folder in your Documents on
W7, install WLM then do File-Messages-Import, choose OE and navigate to
the folder where the entire message store was copied to.
Be aware that when you do that, the imported messages are imported into
Storage Folders which are not displayed by default. You need to click on
the View Tab and then in the Layout section click on Storage Folders

Mark F wrote:
> How do I convert the many saved Outlook Express mail messages that
> I have so that I can access them when I move to Windows 7?
>
> I have both my main set of all of my messages in various folders
> within Outlook Express (on Windows XP) and many single messages that
> I saved outside of Outlook Express.
>
> Can I move to Windows 7 and then convert the messages, or do I
> have the messages to a system running Vista, convert them, and then
> move to Windows 7.

Cannot guarantee this will work for you. But here is what I did for my
saved Outlook Express mail as well as newsgroup messages:

First I copied the profile directory (containing the OE folders and
messages) from my Windows XP machine to my Windows 7 one.

I installed Mozilla Thunderbird on Windows 7.

In Thunderbird I selected the Import option to import all mail from an
OE store directory and pointed it to the OE folder.

Done!

Had to arrange/create/copy/move some files and folders within
Thunderbird thereafter, but thats part of the process.

Thats all I can provide. Hope it helps!

:-)

On Mon, 10 Oct 2011 12:05:39 -0400, Mark F <>
wrote:

> How do I convert the many saved Outlook Express mail messages that
> I have so that I can access them when I move to Windows 7?
>
> I have both my main set of all of my messages in various folders
> within Outlook Express (on Windows XP) and many single messages that
> I saved outside of Outlook Express.
>
> Can I move to Windows 7 and then convert the messages, or do I
> have the messages to a system running Vista, convert them, and then
> move to Windows 7.



Please note that Windows 7 does *not* come with an e-mail program. So
moving to Windows 7 is not the issue. The issue is what e-mail program
you will be using under Windows 7. With most e-mail programs you can
get your Outlook Express messages, but not all.

On 10 Oct 2011, Mark F <> wrote in
alt.windows7.general:

> How do I convert the many saved Outlook Express mail messages that
> I have so that I can access them when I move to Windows 7?

One solution is to use an IMAP mail server. OE supports IMAP. If your
email program of choice on your new Windows 7 computer does, too, you
can copy all your old folders and messages to the IMAP server, and then
connect to it on the new machine.

Hi, Mark.

If you use Windows Live Mail as your mail/news client in Win7 - as I do -
then you just "Import" the messages from your OE .dbx files - which OE calls
"folders". The conversion is done automatically during the import.

As Gordon and Avatar said, just be sure that all the .dbx files are in a
folder that you can access from Win7. This can be on a thumb drive, and
external HDD, or even on your internal HDD, depending on your hardware
arrangement.

And be sure that OE's Folders.dbx file/folder is included! That holds the
index to all the other *.dbx files, so it is needed for the import to
succeed.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX

Microsoft Windows MVP (2002-2010)
Windows Live Mail 2011 (Build 15.4.3538.0513) in Win7 Ultimate x64 SP1


"Mark F" wrote in message
news:...

How do I convert the many saved Outlook Express mail messages that
I have so that I can access them when I move to Windows 7?

I have both my main set of all of my messages in various folders
within Outlook Express (on Windows XP) and many single messages that
I saved outside of Outlook Express.

Can I move to Windows 7 and then convert the messages, or do I
have the messages to a system running Vista, convert them, and then
move to Windows 7.

I am using windows 7 and my daughter is using XP

Sooner or later she will be upgrading to Windows 7

On her XP system I installed Thunderbird for the FIRST time. During that process
Thuderbird asks whether you want to import from another mail program. If you
say yes most of the settings and folders will be imported into Thunderbird.

After that I deleted Outlook Express and did some moving of messages from
the imported folders to the Thunderbird folders.

There were some setting entries that were imported incorrectly.

When she upgrades to Window 7 I will just copy the thunderbird folder from
Documents ... .from the XP system to the Win 7 user/xxx/appdata/roaming/
folder and then install a fresh copy of windows Thunderbird.

FD

+1

Also, if moving from XP(OE) to Windows 7 (WLM)
1. Export contacts to a CSV file
2. If not desiring use of a Live ID, ignore/cancel the message to setup up
a Live ID
3. Open WLM, access the Contact menu, then import the contacts for the csv
file

Note:
WLM contacts import via csv file will only import (and/or map) one email
address. Likewise exporting only exports one email field to a csv file.

There are a few work-arounds for moving/migrating/importing contacts with
multiple email addresses from an XP(OE) system
e.g.
a. Import the OE csv contacts into Win7' s Users/Contacts folder (note one
may have to create a contact in that folder to have the import option),
then use WLM to import the contacts from Users/Contacts by choosing the
'current windows user' option. (Also applicable to Vista)
b. Install WLM 2009 on XP, ensure a Live ID is in use, import OE's contacts
with the current windows user option. Contacts will be imported and
uploaded to the web UI (calendar.live.com). Install WLM on Win7, use a Live
ID and the contacts (with the multiple email addresses) will be sync down
and added to the WLM contacts database (for that Live ID).--thereafter one
needs to use the Live ID mode. - Fyi thereafter if one wishes to backup
contacts (with multiple email address fields) use the web UI Contact export
option (since it, unlike WLM will export/import other available email
fields).

--
....winston
msft mvp mail


"R. C. White" wrote in message
news:...

Hi, Mark.

If you use Windows Live Mail as your mail/news client in Win7 - as I do -
then you just "Import" the messages from your OE .dbx files - which OE
calls
"folders". The conversion is done automatically during the import.

As Gordon and Avatar said, just be sure that all the .dbx files are in a
folder that you can access from Win7. This can be on a thumb drive, and
external HDD, or even on your internal HDD, depending on your hardware
arrangement.

And be sure that OE's Folders.dbx file/folder is included! That holds the
index to all the other *.dbx files, so it is needed for the import to
succeed.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX

Microsoft Windows MVP (2002-2010)
Windows Live Mail 2011 (Build 15.4.3538.0513) in Win7 Ultimate x64 SP1


"Mark F" wrote in message
news:...

How do I convert the many saved Outlook Express mail messages that
I have so that I can access them when I move to Windows 7?

I have both my main set of all of my messages in various folders
within Outlook Express (on Windows XP) and many single messages that
I saved outside of Outlook Express.

Can I move to Windows 7 and then convert the messages, or do I
have the messages to a system running Vista, convert them, and then
move to Windows 7.

On 11/10/2011 06:35, Student wrote:
> When she upgrades to Window 7 I will just copy the thunderbird folder from
> Documents ... .from the XP system to the Win 7 user/xxx/appdata/roaming/
> folder and then install a fresh copy of windows Thunderbird.
>
>

See this Mozilla KB article on how to move a Thunderbird Profile:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Moving_your_profile_folder

On Mon, 10 Oct 2011 15:41:27 -0400, Nil
<> wrote:

> On 10 Oct 2011, Mark F <> wrote in
> alt.windows7.general:
>
> > How do I convert the many saved Outlook Express mail messages that
> > I have so that I can access them when I move to Windows 7?
>
> One solution is to use an IMAP mail server. OE supports IMAP. If your
> email program of choice on your new Windows 7 computer does, too, you
> can copy all your old folders and messages to the IMAP server, and then
> connect to it on the new machine.
Am I correct in understanding that I can:
. on Windows XP I set up a new username USERNEW
. I backup all of my OE email from my normal user name USERNORMAL
(using software I already have.)
. I logon to USERNEW and use the backup to "restore" all of my email
to USERNEW's Outlook Express stuff.
. I find an IMAP server SERVERTEMP and connect USERNEW's Outlook
Express it SERVERTEMP. (IMAP gets everything to the SERVERTEMP
. Then, using Windows 7 and my new email program MAILNEW
(which supports MAP and POP), I temporarily use IMAP and SERVERTEMP
get all of my email into my USERNORMAL
. I then switch the stuff in MAILNEW so that I use my normal POP
servers.

What happens to the header, read in reply information?
Will my messages that I read on ix.netcom.com in 1999 still say that,
or will they look like they were downloaded from Gmail in 2011?

What happens to the "message read", "message acknowledged" and
"message has been replied to" flags?


(I want to POP not IMAP in normal use because I do NOT want
things to synch up automatically. [Am I wrong about how IMAP works?
can I set my mail up so that a client doesn't affect the server
or other clients?]

I need all of my machines to
have local copies of all of the messages that I am saving. And, I
am unreliable enough so that I need to download and delete or file
each message 2 or 3 times. I also don't want loose all of my
messages on all machines when my "smartphone" decides that it
is going to delete all of my email messages for no known reason.

I also need to be able to delete messages from the server without
affecting any of the clients.)

Thanks to everyone for the information.

Further issues:
Does Windows Live Mail work without being connected to the web?
In particular, can all of my mail be stored locally?

Which mail programs running on Windows 7 support POP and IMAP and
allow me to save individual email messages with attachments outside
of the normal mail stuff? (So I can click on the saved message and
see the contents no matter what username I am using and without using
password.)