Outlook Express transfer to Vista

  • Thread starter Thread starter Tony L
  • Start date Start date
T

Tony L

Hi
Can anyone tell me how to transfer my messages from Outlook Express on my
old machine to Windows mail on the new machine. I have successfully exported
my address book and imported to Vista and that is working fine but the two
programs appear to use different file extensions for messages.

Many thanks
 
You can drag all the message headers from your Inbox (or any other folder) to
a regular document folder in a flash drive. Each message in that folder will
be .eml file.

On the Vista machine, open Windows Mail and your Inbox (or a corresponding
folder from OE). Select all the .eml files from the flash drive and drag them
into the Message List in Windows Mail.

It actually works for Outlook message, Eudora, and so forth if you first
import the messages into Outlook Express. Then do the thing above with the
messages that are in Outlook Express.
 
Tony L said:
Hi
Can anyone tell me how to transfer my messages from Outlook Express on my
old machine to Windows mail on the new machine. I have successfully
exported my address book and imported to Vista and that is working fine
but the two programs appear to use different file extensions for messages.

Many thanks
Click to expand...

See http://www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx
Scroll down to the proper section.
 
Tony L said:
Hi
Can anyone tell me how to transfer my messages from Outlook Express on my
old machine to Windows mail on the new machine. I have successfully
exported my address book and imported to Vista and that is working fine
but the two programs appear to use different file extensions for messages.

Many thanks
Click to expand...
Try to use the import wizard - as well as for adressbook import. It works
well - but there is a small bug, that prevent you from time to time
importing the outlook express messages successful (the import wizard tells
you that there are no messages found - can't tell the precicse error text,
because I'm using the German edition of Vista). In case that this message
occur, proceed the following steps:

- go one step back in import wizard and check the import path (in most cases
the last folder name within the import path is shown double).
- try to select the import path again using the "browse button" (don't know
the excact name, we have here a Durchsuchen-button). Select the import path
in the right pane of the dialog windows and close the window

- now the import path should be shown in the right way#

- process the import steps as known and Windows Mail will import all
messages in a separate "import" folder.

If that won't suite, maybe an access right issue is the problem. In this
case I suggest to copy all your Outlook Express .dbx-files in a separate
folder of your Public folder and try to import the messages.

Hope that helps

G. Born
www.borncity.de
 
Hey Tony,

To completely transfer your OE mail to Windows Mail you should not only
transfer your messages but your account information and rules along with
your address book. This isn't a comprehensive "Move OE to your new Vista
computer" article but, I have included instructions on how to move your
accounts and rules over from OE to WM in addition to the link to the website
that is included that walks you through migrating your actual mail.

See the website that Frank Saunders mentioned:

http://www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx

This site gives great information on moving your data stores from OE on one
machine to WM on another and is what I used to begin my e-mail migration
from my old computer to my new one.

A word of warning though, ** if you have your account set to leave mail on
your mail server for a period of time ** after you get your accounts setup
and all of your mail has been imported you will end up downloading duplicate
messages for all the items you have out on your mail server. So, if you
leave copies of your messages on the mail server for 10 days you will
receive duplicate messages for everything you have gotten in the last 10
days. To prevent this you can turn this off in OE6 under
Tools>Accounts>Mail>"Account Name">Properties>Advanced>Delivery and then
perform a send and receive. If you have web-mail with your ISP use that to
verify that there are no messages left on your mail server. I wasn't
thinking when I did my move and had to delete about 120 messages. You'll
want to verify that the duplicates are gone as I cannot easily test
performing the send and receive will get rid of the messages on your server.

Also, make your life a bit easier and export your account settings to .iaf
files from OE and import those into WM. You can find the button to export
under Tools>Accounts>Mail. You can import these account settings files into
WM in the same location in WM. Go to Tools>Accounts>Mail and import the
files from the location you saved them to. This will save you some time in
futzing around with configuring your e-mail settings. It's also not a bad
idea to export these and store them someplace safe so that in the event your
computer crashes you can bring your account settings back quickly.

As for inbox rules, luckily the registry format for rules is identical so
you can, with a little text editing, import your rules as well. Granted to
make this worthwhile you need to have enough rules that would warrant going
through the following process. I had about twenty so recreating all my
rules from scratch wasn't, in my opinion, a good use of my time. I would
recommend you perform the following after you have imported your mail and
you address book.

To import your rules:

1. Find out what identity you're using:
a. In OE go to Tools>Options>Maintenance and click on the "Store
Folder" button.
b. In the store folder button you will see a number enclosed in curly
braces. ex.
{F67B35AC-B631-46C8-88AA-6EFC5B2933A9}
This is your identity number. I'll reference it further as
<identity>

2. Export your rules:
a. Open regedit.exe
b. In regedit, navigate to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities\<identity>\Software\Microsoft\Outlook
Express\5.0\Rules
(you may see "6.0\Rules", it's 5.0 on my computer and I'll reference
5.0 from here on)
c. Right-click on "Mail" and select "Export"
d. Give it a name you can remember in a place on your computer you can
find and click "Save".

3. Edit your rules to import on your new computer:
a. Make a copy of the file you just saved and name it <whatever your
file was called>_Import.
ex. If your computer is setup to show extensions you will see
"MyMailRules.reg" rename this file to "MyMailRules_Import.reg"
if you don't see extensions you will only see "MyMailRules" and once
renamed "MyMailRules_Import"
b. Right-click on your new file (the one named ..._Import) and select
"Edit"
c. In Notepad select "Edit>Replace"
d. In the 'Replace' dialogue copy and paste the line up to 5.0 from the
first line of your ..._Import file:
ex.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities\<identity>\Software\Microsoft\Outlook
Express\5.0
into the "Find What" field.
e. Then paste the following line exactly as it's shown:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows Mail
into the "Replace With" field.
f. In the replace dialogue, click on "Replace All"
g. Save your file.

4. Import the rules on your new computer:
a. Copy the ..._Import.reg file to your new computer
b. Double-click the file and when asked, "Are you sure..." answer yes.

5. Fix the Imported rules:

Because rules can reference specific locations in the mail folder
structure within OE some of your rules may be pointing to locations that
don't technically exist anymore. The same can hold true for rules that
referenced contacts, since you have moved to a new computer the
contacts may be seen as completely new. However, the structure of the rules
is intact so, you just need to repoint to rules the folders or contacts
you want them to work with. Modify each rule to match your requirements and
you should be golden.


Thanks,

Jerry S
 
Ok, the steps may be easier to read in this post. The formatting didn't
come out quite right in my last post.





Hey Tony,



To completely transfer your OE mail to Windows Mail you should not only
transfer your messages but your account information and rules along with
your address book. This isn't a comprehensive "Move OE to your new Vista
computer" article but, I have included instructions on how to move your
accounts and rules over from OE to WM in addition to the link to the website
that is included that walks you through migrating your actual mail.



See the website:



http://www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx



This site gives great information on moving your data stores from OE on one
machine to WM on another and is what I used to begin my e-mail migration
from my old computer to my new one.



A word of warning though, ** if you have your account set to leave mail on
your mail server for a period of time ** after you get your accounts setup
and all of your mail has been imported you will end up downloading duplicate
messages for all the items you have out on your mail server. So, if you
leave copies of your messages on the mail server for 10 days you will
receive duplicate messages for everything you have gotten in the last 10
days. To prevent this you can turn this off in OE6 under
Tools>Accounts>Mail>"Account Name">Properties>Advanced>Delivery and then
perform a send and receive. If you have web-mail with your ISP use that to
verify that there are no messages left on your mail server. I wasn't
thinking when I did my move and had to delete about 120 messages. You'll
want to verify that the duplicates are gone as I cannot easily test
performing the send and receive will get rid of the messages on your server.



Also, make your life a bit easier and export your account settings to .iaf
files from OE and import those into WM. You can find the button to export
under Tools>Accounts>Mail. You can import these account settings files into
WM in the same location in WM. Go to Tools>Accounts>Mail and import the
files from the location you saved them to. This will save you some time in
futzing around with configuring your e-mail settings. It's also not a bad
idea to export these and store them someplace safe so that in the event your
computer crashes you can bring your account settings back quickly.



As for inbox rules, luckily the registry format for rules is identical so
you can, with a little text editing, import your rules as well. Granted to
make this worthwhile you need to have enough rules that would warrant going
through the following process. I had about twenty so recreating all my
rules from scratch wasn't, in my opinion, a good use of my time. I would
recommend you perform the following after you have imported your mail and
you address book.



To import your rules:





1. Find out what identity you're using:

a. In OE go to Tools>Options>Maintenance and click on the "Store Folder"
button.

b. In the store folder button you will see a number enclosed in curly
braces. ex.

{F67B35AC-B631-46C8-88AA-6EFC5B2933A9}

This is your identity number. I'll reference it further as
<identity>





2. Export your rules:

a. Open regedit.exe

b. In regedit, navigate to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities\<identity>\Software\Microsoft\Outlook
Express\5.0\Rules



(you may see "6.0\Rules", it's 5.0 on my computer and I'll reference 5.0
from here on)



c. Right-click on "Mail" and select "Export"

d. Give it a name you can remember in a place on your computer you can find
and click "Save".





3. Edit your rules to import on your new computer:



a. Make a copy of the file you just saved and name it <whatever your file
was called>_Import.



ex. If your computer is setup to show extensions you will see
"MyMailRules.reg" rename this file to "MyMailRules_Import.reg"

if you don't see extensions you will only see "MyMailRules" and once renamed
"MyMailRules_Import"



b. Right-click on your new file (the one named ..._Import) and select
"Edit"

c. In Notepad select "Edit>Replace"

d. In the 'Replace' dialogue copy and paste the line up to 5.0 from the
first line of your ..._Import file:



ex. HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities\<identity>\Software\Microsoft\Outlook
Express\5.0

into the "Find What" field.



e. Then paste the following line exactly as it's shown:



HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows Mail into the "Replace With"
field.



f. In the replace dialogue, click on "Replace All"

g. Save your file.





4. Import the rules on your new computer:



a. Copy the ..._Import.reg file to your new computer

b. Double-click the file and when asked, "Are you sure..." answer yes.





5. Fix the Imported rules:



Because rules can reference specific locations in the mail folder structure
within OE some of your rules may be pointing to locations that don't
technically exist anymore. The same can hold true for rules that referenced
contacts, since you have moved to a new computer the contacts may be seen as
completely new. However, the structure of the rules is intact so, you just
need to repoint to rules the folders or contacts you want them to work with.
Modify each rule to match your requirements and you should be golden.
 
Your method for importing rules won't work because of the issues related to
the storing of the strings in the registry between OE and WinMail. One also
has to change those strings.

steve
 
That's odd, because in practice it works exactly as described. If you're
referring to the location that the rules are stored, that's covered in steps
3d - 3f. If you're referring to the pointers within the rules that
reference the objects within the OE data stores, that is covered in step 5.


Thanks,

Jerry S
 
As I indicated a ffew months ago, the actual rule is now a Unicode string
and it wasn't before. So one has to modify that.

Here's what I posted on December 12th:

<quote>
Okay there are actually 4 issues, but I figured out two of them.

This is for a single rule at the moment. I'll try and program it so it
doesn't have to be done rule by rule.

First export the rule from the machine with OE:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities\{GUID}\Software\Microsoft\Outlook
Express\5.0\Rules\Mail\002

where GUID is the Identity and this is rule 3

Then edit the reg file with Notepad.

Do replace for

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities\{GUID}\Software\Microsoft\Outlook Express\5.0

with

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows Mail

Then save the file.

Then the search strings have been changed to Unicode so set the cursor where
the Rule Criteria start. Then do a second replace until the end of the file
and search for

,

replace with

,00,

Then in the last line of each criteria add

,00

Then save.

Then create a mock rule in the registry with WinMail and close WinMail.
Then delete that mock key in the registry. Make sure the rule number in the
saved reg file matches that that you just deleted.

Then merge the file into the registry.

Open WinMail and go to Tools | Message rules and you see the new message
rule spelled out okay when you click on it, except for the folder name. You
will still have to specify the folder names again because those are coded
numerically, I think.

Anyway, that will work, but its a bit involved to do manually.


</quote>



steve
 
It may depend on whether it's exported as a Regedit 4 or Regedit 5 (Windows
Registry Editor Version 5) file.
 
Oh. I hadn't thought of that. I'll have to look and see how I did it.

But if you look at the Value Value (<G>) under Criteria for the rules(eg.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows
Mail\Rules\Mail\000\Criteria\000), you'll see in XP (server 2003) that the
string is not Unicode, but if you look at the same in Vista, you will see
that it is in Unicode. So I don't know how the export method would be
involved.

steve
 
The 'Value' data of rule actions is stored as ASCII while the 'Value' of
criteria, while exported as ASCII, is apparently converted into Unicode as
the single byte values from the Regedit file created during the export are
double byte values in the Vista registry.

Since, as you have so eloquently pointed out, the rules were stored as ASCII
in OE and I would be surprised if importing the ASCII values in a Regedit
version 4 file would import differently than the ASCII values in a Regedit 5
file. However, I would change my statement that "the registry format for
rules is identical" to "the structure of the rules are the same" as obviously
a string stored as ASCII is not identical to one stored as Unicode.

In any case, as stated, it works. I wouldn't have posted it otherwise.
 
I originally tried it back then and it didn't work for me, but I immediately
saw the problem which is why I make the suggestions I did in my message.
I've been addresses other concerns lately. <G>

steve
 
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