Outlook express to windows live mail

[bblack]

I have many folders and messages in my outlook express account that I would like to import into my windows live mail account. the outlook express is on an xp machine and the windows live mail is on a 64 bit windows 7 OS. I have been attempting to solve this all day and was able to zip the outlook express folder and email it to myself but the windows 7 will not allow me to access the file ( potential harmful file) any ideas?

thanks

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Are you sure Windows mail can deal with a zip file when importing?

Can you export from Outlook Express to your hard drive?

General advice: the export/import capabilities of mail programs are clunky and very shaky. If possible, export as few folders as you can stand to do.

If you open Windows Mail and go to its import function, is there a direct choice for OE?

I went through what you are trying last spring and don't recall how I resolved it.


I can tell you I did not like Windows Mail. I chose to go with Thunderbird and have no regrets. It can be configured to be very very similar to OE.

 

[nevbob]

I have a similar problem. Did clean install of 7 Pro. Ended up with Windows Mail. Can't find where by messages from Outlook Express are. Looked in "windowsold". Tried using "import" in windows Mail. there were three choices; Microsoft Outlook Express 6, Windows Live Mail, or Windows Mail. I picked Microsoft Outlook Express 6 and it asked where the msg I wanted was. I browsed to "windowsold" but it wanted a more specific location which I couldn't find. Is there a specific file format for e-mail msgs in Outlook Express?

 

[DeaconFrost]

If it was me, I'd probably load Windows Live Mail on the old box and see if it asks to import OE's information. Once it does, export it however WLM does it, and move those files by flash drive to the new computer, and import them.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Nevbob:

I think Outlook Express email messages have a DBX file extension, but I am not too sure that knowledge is going to help you.

It's something of a knack to back up and restore OE messages and the import/export capabilities of OE and Windows Mail are not particularly sane.

Go to your backup folder, whatever it is, and see if a thorough search for DBX files turns up anything.

Then do a google search for recovering and/or restoring Outlook Express messages. I used to have all of that info in a Word file on my PC, but I deleted that file when I abandoned OE.

 

[Homey]

Hi - new here and to Win 7 and Windows Live mail, this is becoming very frustrating for me, used OE for years, worked well and had all mail going their.
On WLM I just do not see the things listed I want to change, I read things and then do not see them in the mail, like the Photos option, another like delete mail on exit, just simple thing on OE that I have to dig for in WLM, will keep looking over fourm maybe find some answers.

 

[TheSchaft]

If it was me, I'd probably load Windows Live Mail on the old box and see if it asks to import OE's information. Once it does, export it however WLM does it, and move those files by flash drive to the new computer, and import them.

This will work. It is the way I moved all the mail, settings, contacts, rules, account info from OE on XP to WLM on Windows 7.

When I loaded WLM on the XP machine, it automatically did the transfer/import. I then got a copy of KLS - KLS Mail Backup - Freeware Outlook Express, Windows Live Mail, Thunderbird, Firefox backup and backed up the WLM to an external drive.

On the Windows 7 machine, I ran WLM, let it set its default folders, then did a "recovery" using KLS. Loaded in everything but the passwords.

 

[TheSchaft]

Hi - new here and to Win 7 and Windows Live mail, this is becoming very frustrating for me, used OE for years, worked well and had all mail going their.
On WLM I just do not see the things listed I want to change, I read things and then do not see them in the mail, like the Photos option, another like delete mail on exit, just simple thing on OE that I have to dig for in WLM, will keep looking over fourm maybe find some answers.

Welcome to Seven Forums, Homey.

I had the same sort of frustration with WLM. The biggest discovery, not mentioned at the time in the instructions, was the "Menu" toolbar (upper right side pulldown for menues). Without that, things are really hard.

If you have some specifics of things that you want to see/do, I'll fire up the system that uses WLM and we'll see if we can't make it a bit more like XP.

 

[Homey]

Welcome to Seven Forums, Homey.

I had the same sort of frustration with WLM. The biggest discovery, not mentioned at the time in the instructions, was the "Menu" toolbar (upper right side pulldown for menues). Without that, things are really hard.

If you have some specifics of things that you want to see/do, I'll fire up the system that uses WLM and we'll see if we can't make it a bit more like XP. [/QUOTE]

OE was fun, easy and a breeze to use, did everything I ever wanted, WLM just plain sucks, I can not find the things I/(we) used to have.

The options I had found (thought I did) made some changes as to DELETE mail on exit, check spelling before sending, all the things you could do in OE, well after checking them and saving, none worked.

OE folders I could set say a "Friends" folder then direct mail from others to a Sub Folders under Friends, not so in WLM.

I had a OE backup program, but wont work here so going to try your suggestion about the back up program on the XP box then save to flash drive, install the back up here and see if it will recover the info.

Personally I find WLM to be a PIA, but like with anything new one must try and do what one can and learn and lean from others, some of the things I read about in the HELP files like sending Photo, it did not look like what I had?

Thanks for the input and your help!

One other thing I notices was in OE I could Insert a picture or graphic into the email I do not see that feature available in WLM, I used that a lot,

 

[nevbob]

Progress report. I searched my" windowsold" file for .dbx files. It took a while but it finally found all of them. They were indentified as to which mail folder they were in. I copied one msg to a flash drive and it actually copied all the msgs in that folder to the drive. I hooked the flash drive to my XP machine and copied the folder there. I couldn't get OE to open any of them. Went to the internet and looked for software to open .dbx files and found several. I'm trying DBXTriever on a trial basis - will probably buy it. Tried opening one of the e-mails and it worked. The photo that was attached to the e-mail also was opened. Will let you all know what happens next if anything changes

 

[NickNC100]

Outlook Express to Windows Live Mail

I've just spent the last five days researching how to import orphan Outlook Express .dbx folders (and the unseen email messages in them) from a backup drive from an XP machine to to WLM (and Thunderbird) on a 64-bit Win 7 machine, so I think I can be of some assistance on the first steps. The Outlook Express .dbx files by themselves are unusable until they have been reconstituted within the Outlook Express program. The trick is to create empty folder names in Outlook Express on any XP machine that exactly match the names of the .dbx files containing the messages you want to import into Thunderbird or WLM. For example, if you have .dbx file named Jill's Music.dbx, you'd create a folder named Jill's Music within Outlook Express. You'll need to click on each folder after it has been created; otherwise, the .dbx file will not be created in the message store. Shut down Outlook Express, then copy the .dbx files containing your messages to the folder that contains the new empty .dbx files, i.e., overwrite the empty files with your .dbx files containing your email messages. (You can search the internet on how to find the message store location. The trick there is to change the default Windows option to show hidden files; otherwise, often you won't be able to see the folder in Explorer.) When you fire up Outlook Express, all your folders and messages will be present. When you download and install WLM on the XP machine, it'll automatically import all the Outlook Express folders and messages. (Note: my first intention was to import into Thunderbird from Outlook Express using the above approach, but apparently Thunderbird can't handle importing large numbers of messages -- it just grinds away for hours w/out discernable progress. It will work with small numbers of messages, however.) My next step, which I haven't yet done, is transfer the WLM files to the Win 7 machine. I'll let you know how that goes.

 

[Homey]

Finally after much frustration, I have finally got my G-Mail accounts in WLM to not only receive but to finally send. Now WLM will let you add subfolders for which I have, WLM also will allow you to set message rules so as to direct the incoming mail to the proper folder/sub folder within WLM just like in OE, only problem is they are not working and have no idea as to why. Seems like every thing is going to the WLM Inbox, one other thing comes to mind is that I have rules set up for mail to be redirected to sub folders in WLM Inbox and they work, but the Rules set up for any other account and folders don't work at all, mail just goes to the respected Inbox.

Some day this will all get sorted out and working properly.

 

[NickNC100]

Outlook Express to Windows Live Mail

Ok, reporting on the last step of converting Outlook Express on a Windows XP machine to Windows Live Mail (WLM) on a Win 7 64-bit machine: copying the Outlook Express files (.dbx) to a thumb drive, launching WLM on the Win 7 64-bit machine, importing files of Outlook Express type and pointing to the .dbx files on the thumb drive was successful -- all the messages and their attachments were imported successfully. There was some doubt at first that it had worked, as each folder appeared to be empty. However, clicking on each folder started the indexing process in WLM for that folder and all the messages appeared, in turn.

The same process also worked for importing the .dbx files from Outlook Express into Thunderbird 2 on the Windows 7 (64-bit) machine. The important first step, again, is to ensure that all folders and their messages are viewable from within Outlook Express before using the .dbx files for importing into WLM or Thunderbird, as the process didn't work for me, otherwise. Please see my first post regarding creating empty folders in Outlook Express to match the .dbx names and moving the .dbx files into the folder containing the Outlook Express message store.

Thanks to TheSchaft for the tip re: displaying the menu in WLM, as all this wouldn't have been possible w/out that piece of information.

 

[kasbr]

Imported xp oe messages to windows 7 wlm

Hi im new to the foreum and win7 as well. i imported oe messages to wlm and found them in the storage folder. next day i login to wlm and storage folder is empty.

not sure what happened. any suggestions?

If it was me, I'd probably load Windows Live Mail on the old box and see if it asks to import OE's information. Once it does, export it however WLM does it, and move those files by flash drive to the new computer, and import them.

This will work. It is the way I moved all the mail, settings, contacts, rules, account info from OE on XP to WLM on Windows 7.

When I loaded WLM on the XP machine, it automatically did the transfer/import. I then got a copy of KLS - KLS Mail Backup - Freeware Outlook Express, Windows Live Mail, Thunderbird, Firefox backup and backed up the WLM to an external drive.

On the Windows 7 machine, I ran WLM, let it set its default folders, then did a "recovery" using KLS. Loaded in everything but the passwords.

 

[rmbrad]

I am from the old "don't fix stuff that isn't broken" school of thought. That being said, I am trying to convert my old computer over to the new one. I looked at Windows Live Mail. I tried to upload my old OE address book into it, and had problems. I have over 1,000 contacts sorted into 20 folders in the old address book. WLM does not convert folders in the address book. I tried Thunderbird, and had the same problem. I really hate to think I have to type all of these contacts into a new mail program.

Help

 

[roncerr]

...I really hate to think I have to type all of these contacts into a new mail program.

If you use the WLM import wizard, the only thing you have to do is create new folders and sort them. Are you saying they won't import using any of the input formats (like .wab or .csv)?

 

[rmbrad]

...I really hate to think I have to type all of these contacts into a new mail program.

If you use the WLM import wizard, the only thing you have to do is create new folders and sort them. Are you saying they won't import using any of the input formats (like .wab or .csv)?

WLM doesn't use folders in the address book. The folders are stripped out of the book, and all of the names dumped into one file that is over 2,000 contacts. I played with it some yesterday. Discovered that WLM now seems to call the folders "catagories". Now all I have to do is recreate 20 of these, and then sort and move over 1,000 names into them. What a PIA. I did put WLM on the old XP machine, and did the import thing. This is the way it worked for me.