Outlook Express transfer to Windows Live Mail

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I just bought a new PC that has Windows-7 and Windows Live Mail. I have not been able to synchronize my mailbox from my old computer that has Windows-XP and Outlook Express to my new computer. Has anyone done this?
Thanks,
Mac

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See Outlook Express & Windows Live Mail.

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I’ve used OE & Live Mail extensively for years and I can tell you it’s not very intuitive, …to say the least.
The “help” section that Live Mail has is extremely “Not that well done”.
But I have become familiar to the extent were changing over to another client would be a major pain in the back side.
I have Hundreds of MB’s worth of email dating back to the late 90’s and I don’t want to loose any of them.

I dont see a whole lot of difference “under the hood” from OE to WLM.

Here are a few of my recommendations:

1. Change Store Folder Location
My first recommendation would be to get the “store folder” out of your primary drive and onto a separate partition.
This is easy enough to do within the program itself at the time your setting it up. Do this before you create an account,
but not before you have created the folders themselves on the partition of your choice.

In LIVE MAIL GO TO:
[TOOLS>>OPTIONS>>ADVANCED>>MAINTENANCE>>STORE FOLDER]
(this path will show you where your storage folder is and will allow you to change it’s location)

*If you are like me and use web based email accounts like Hotmail or whatever, exclusively, your latest contact list will follow
you at the time you setup your account in the Windows Live Mail client.
You may also import/export contact lists, although you may have to re-add them into Live mail b/c OE has a different format
for contacts.
*I started out many years ago with a fixed ISP email account but now I have not used them in many years. Web based exclusively
with heavy backup use.

2. Folder Creation
Create your Backup and store folders on a separate partition first; I recommend two folders placed inside of one.
You can name the main folder your “Email Storage” folder (as an example). The two subfolders you can name whatever you like,
but keep one of them empty. Populate the second folder with your previous backup that you have on hand.

3. Move Store Folder
In LIVE MAIL GO TO:
[TOOLS>>OPTIONS>>ADVANCED>>MAINTENANCE>>STORE FOLDER]
(this path will show you where your storage folder is and will allow you to change it’s location)

Move your default store folder to the empty subfolder and setup your account as you normally would.
*If you use a web based account then they will automatically populate with whatever is on your web based account, including
all your contacts.

4. Import your Messages
[FILE>>IMPORT MESSAGES]
Now you can import all you messages, including folders and subfolders, from the backed up subfolder you just populated on the
partition you stored your “Email Storage” folder on…or directly from a CD/DVD disc that you should have made earlier.
*Be warned that if your email folders have long filenames they will not appear in full within your client, you’ll get something like;
[Digital Pho~bla bla]……..So try to keep the folder length as short as possible.
*Be warned that moving your “email store folder” directly to a folder that already has email inside it will create a mess.
(you can take my word on this one)

5. EXPORT your Messages/ACCOUNTS
[FILE>>EXPORT MESSAGES/ACCOUNT(S)]
the export function is for backup purposes. You can export content to a specific location and then burn it to disc or copy to thumb drive. Export only to an empty folder.
For CONTACTS you must open the contacts folder within Live MAIL,
it’s in the bottom left corner under “add email account”
Use the export/import function as needed.

Here is an example of something that I have setup; (folder paths)
G:EMAIL STORAGE FOLDERLIVE MAIL (USE FOLDER)Storage FoldersImported Folder5) CORRESP

“G” is the partition of the storage folder, “LIVE MAIL (USE FOLDER)” is what I’ve chosen to name one of the main email subfolder.
“Imported Folder” is what we are looking for when you go to import your messages to from the backup folder.
“05) CORRESP” is a representation of one of the main email folders numbered “5”.

I recommend that you visit your email folders in explorer and see the layout yourself and become familiar with where things are.
As no doubt they will heve variations from person to person/machine to machine.

As long as you have a full hard copy of your latest email messages complete with folders and subfolders you cannot go wrong.
Any mistakes you make in your clients “store folder” can be deleted and started all over again from scratch.
Make frequent backups by hard copying from explorer to a thumb drive or CD. Don’t rely on stupid file transfer tools.

It is possible to keep your folder structures the same for years, from old computer to new computer as time goes on.

The import and export function are extremely valuable and usefull. get familiar with thier uses.

Hope this helps someone
C

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