Transferring mail from puter2 to puter1

Thought it best to start another thread so that I can explain my problem
from scratch.
Puter 1 - windows xp pro - outlook express
3 identities and 3 address books
Puter 2 - windows 7 pro - windows live mail (new never used)
Will need the equivalent of 3 identities and 3 address books.
Or whatever windows live mail calls them.

Create windows live mail on puter 1 and create 3 identities.
Export each identity from outlook express into the corrresponding
identity on windows live mail. Meaning I would have to sign on to the
proper identity in windows live mail before importing. How the address
books and settings get copied is a mystery. In my recent fumblings
I got only 1 identity copied and the others would just not copy. Will
start windows live mail over from scratch on puter 1.
Then hope I can find a way to copy the windows live mail from
puter 1 to puter 2.
Playing with the files from outlook express is a nightmare that I
don't want to get into.
Other than this it is a manual affair involving about 100 folders
and thousands of messages.

"I got only 1 identity copied and the others would just not copy." That is not enough information for me to see why the others failed. Perhaps you're trying to do too much at once. I'd look at each "identity" as consisting of an address book and a bunch of messages that you wish to associate with a single "Live ID" on Microsoft's "Live ID" servers. The ID you would use at one time would depend on which Live ID you used to sign in to WLM. Each Live ID takes the form of an email address but you don't have to use that Live ID for email if you don't want to. For each of the 3 Live IDs you created, you should import one of your 3 address books from OE. Forgetting about messages, settings, and email accounts were you able to get a different address book showing up at each of the Live IDs? You should see the address book in WLM "contacts" when signed into WLM with the proper Live ID. Also, if you go to the contacts.live.com website and sign in there with the same Live ID you should once again see the same address book only now it's via your browser. So if you have 3 address books, you have 6 different "places" to look for them to verify all is well with the address books and the identities. Next step would be to set up email accounts for the email service providers (whether pop3, imap, or http) you wish to use with each Live ID separately, and if you are not planning to use the Live ID as an email account, just delete it from the list of email accounts. Personally, I would not try to import email account settings since they should be set up from scratch just to make sure you know how to recreate them. You can copy the information manually from OE, assuming you're planning to keep the same email service providers.

Once you have your 3 Live IDs set up each with it's own address book and email accounts, you should just test them by sending and receiving email from each separately. You can always delete the test emails later. Finally, when you are very comfortable with using WLM and it's Live IDs and associated address book and email accounts, you can try to export some messsages from OE and import them to WLM when signed in to the appropriate Live ID. All imported messages will show up in the "Storage Folder" area, so if you want to organize them you'll have to expand the Storage area or move the messages under the various email accounts, optionally creating new folders for them under the accounts.

You may notice that switching Live IDs only switches your contacts list, not the email accounts you set up or messages you imported since they reside on and are associated with the WLM program as set up on the computer. (There is also a local contacts list that will only be visible when you "stop signing in", which is an optional method of use that does not back up your contacts at contacts.live.com.)

Thank you very much Roncerr for the detailed and informative reply.
I think I am going to take another approach.
Since the puter with Outlook Express will still be used for the amount of
time necessary for this conversion, I have created 3 email accounts on
the Windows 7 puter. These can be built over a period of time not disturbing
the OE puter. As the OE mail ages and is deleted the problem will solve
its self. With a list from the OE puter of the addresses they can be typed as
needed on the Windows 7 puter. Same with notifying the users of a new
email address. This I think will work and save a lot of headaches.

I sent 3 messages from the OE puter to the Windows 7 puter.
On the Windows 7 puter these are the problems I am having.
Using the proposed outline immediately above I get the 1st
identity(whatever) fine. The 2nd and 3rd keep on asking for
a PW when I have the PW box checked and even worse they
claim my ID, PW or both are invalid?????? They are not invalid.
No amount of deleting them and creating them again solves
the problem.
So the way I see it Windows Live Mail only handles 1 ID.

WLM has Live ID's for signing in in order to see and use the contact list at contacts.live.com. Everytime you sign in with a different LiveID you will see a different contact list. In order to send and receive email you need to set up email accounts within WLM (pop3, imap, or http). You don't want to sign in automatically if you want to be able to choose (from a drop down list) which ID you want to use. Can you sign in to 3 LiveIDs and see 3 different address books?

Thank you Roncerr.
I will give it my best try.