Importing Outlook Express email files to Windows 10 mail program

[Johnnydot]

My wife is getting a new computer with windows 10. Her old computer had windows xp with outlook express. How can we export the old outlook express files such as folders, email contacts etc. into the new windows 10 mail program. Thanks, John

 

[davidhk129]

Forget about the so-called Mail app in Windows 10.
Your outlook express is ten times more sophisticated than that one.

My suggestion:
Install Windows Live Mail and export your Outlook Express messages and contacts to WLM.

WLM download :
WLM is one of the programs included in Windows Essentials (formerly known as Windows Live Essentials.)
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-ca/windows-live/essentials

Export OE / Import WLM
I don't have enough experience to show you how to do the export/import procedures.
Some one with experience in Mail will come along to help you.
Meanwhile do some googling.

 

[Johnnydot]

Thanks for the reply. I was sort of leaning to windows live mail. I found transfer instructions on youtube.

 

[davidhk129]

I am extremely biased in this matter.
I would never use tutorials posted in You-tube.
But, that is just me.

 

[Gibbs]

I use Outlook Express on my my Windows 8.1 / dual boot XP here at home and Outlook Express on my computer at work. Works just like the old OE6 and does not need any conversions. In fact, I had created folders in a separate drive (store folders moved) to G:\Outlook Express on my one hard drive. In that folder I created separate folders for all the different email account I used and when I was in XP and set up a new account, I would switch to that account and then set the default store folder to that one drive / folder and sub folder. Now, in 8.1 all I had to do was point to that same drive / folder and sub folder and voila, all my email that was on the XP side is now magically all there in the OE 6 on my Windoes 8.1 side. Works on Windows 10 as well.

 

[USMC4USA]

I'm confused. Your running outlook express program in Windows 8.1 / 10? How did you install OE into windows 8.1 / 10. Or what is the new name of the program? Does the standard windows 10 not include this compatibility? We would need to purchase Windows PRO in order to use our outlook express db files? I understand the email db file part, but I don't understand what email program your using in Windows 8.1 / 10.

 

[USMC4USA]

Windows Live Mail is no longer available to install into windows XP so that an export / import routine can be done.

 

[USMC4USA]

Transferring multiple gig's of email from an outlook express XP computer seems challenging. Since hooking up a hard drive to an Windows 10 computer requires that drive be "initialized" before it will even read it. Initializing the hard drive with the outlook express emails on it get's wiped the instant it's initialized. What's the solution?

 

[Gibbs]

Go to www.runasxp.com and look at the newer Outlook Express download. I use it on my desktop at home that dual boots XP as well as Windows 8.1 Pro. It also worked very well on my HP laptop that has Windows 8.1 HOME on it and then I upgraded it recently to Windows 10 HOME and still works just as good.

The reason I use this program and not something else is because I dual boot I have long ago moved all the email accounts to another drive and folder, their OWN folder Outlook Express Databases, and then in that folder created sub folders for each of the email accounts. In XP when I "switched" accounts it would bring up the account that I had created and moved in it's entirety. Now, when I installed Windows 8.1 Pro on my computer I did it in a clean partition and created a dual boot scenario. My Documents also don't reside on the normal C: drive but a whole physical different hard drive in my desktop and when I had 8.1 PRO installed all I had to do was create shortcuts to Adobe, Word, Excel, My Picture, etc etc in the appropriate places and presto. Now I can read / write any info into the documents and folders I had before and never had to move anything in the process. I did have to install programs that allowed me to access those folder and files from within Windows 8.1 though, like Adobe Photoshop and of course the Outlook Express .

Beauty of this is when I check my email for any account, it pulls up the dbx files and folders from the one in that separte drive and no matter whether I am in Windows 8.1 or XP (as I am in now) no email is having to be lost or doubled up. If I change it in one OS it is also changed when I boot up in the other OS.

2 different OS, but the nice thing is all the personal documents, files, emails are "shared" between the two since they have common grounds between the two.

Really, nothing had to be changed or deleted or moved. I have 3 ea 1 TB hard drives in my computer. One is pretty much designated as a backup for important thing. One is handling My Documents (that I moved from XP) as well as the email folders that contain the dbx files. Since the pointer in the registry in either XP or Windows 8.1 "point" to the store folder of "sig2022" then any time that I run the Outlook Express email client, either from Xp or 8.1 is "looking" in that particular drive and folder and sub folder and as such nothing gets duplicated, nothing is redundant, and EVERYTHING is current. I am in XP at this moment and opened Outlook Express and downloaded all the email from 2 of my email accounts. When I go back into 8.1 and opent Outlook Express there, all that I just did here, even to the point of deleting emails, will be exactly the same. Same program, SAME location for store, DIFFERENT operating system is all.

 

[Gibbs]

Also, when I boot up in XP, it is the defacto drive "C:\ " and I renamed the 8.1 drive to "R" drive. When I boot into 8.1 it is the defacto "C:\ " and my Windows XP I renamed the drive letter to "R" I can access either drives in either operating systems and copy "most" of the files between them. Some things in 8.1 are actually locked, but any pictures, or anything else, like downloaded files are easily retrieved from there and vice-a-versa.

 

[Alun]

My wife is getting a new computer with windows 10. Her old computer had windows xp with outlook express. How can we export the old outlook express files such as folders, email contacts etc. into the new windows 10 mail program. Thanks, John

 

[Gibbs]

My wife is getting a new computer with windows 10. Her old computer had windows xp with outlook express. How can we export the old outlook express files such as folders, email contacts etc. into the new windows 10 mail program. Thanks, John

You can go to www.runasxp.com and check out their Outlook Express progam (actually says "Microsoft" and install it in Windows 10. Then, copy the OE folder from the place where the DBX files reside in the old computer into the new one where it is stored. (hint) easiest is to "move" the storage folder to a more common place where you can remember that it is. In the old computer the WAB can be copy and pasted to the new computer, in Documents or where ever, than then when you run the OE6 (from runasxp) you can go to the address book and import those names into it, so the program and registry know where those are. Or merely copy it to the x86 folder where Outlook Express is at.

2nd. If you are running Outlook, you can import all the email and address from OE into it.

 

[Gibbs]

Transferring multiple gig's of email from an outlook express XP computer seems challenging. Since hooking up a hard drive to an Windows 10 computer requires that drive be "initialized" before it will even read it. Initializing the hard drive with the outlook express emails on it get's wiped the instant it's initialized. What's the solution?

Copy onto a large enough USB drive. I suggest one that is 3.0 capable if your new computer has a 3.0 USB port.

 

[Smiffy]

>How can we export the old outlook express files such as folders, email contacts etc. into the new windows 10 mail

This question, and a lot of the answers point towards the importance of doing a regular HD Back-Up.
Another kick up MY backside to do it more often !!
If you've got your old e-mails and Contacts saved somewhere (Archived perhaps) their resurrection and installation is the run-of-the-Mill exercise that has been mentioned, so I cannot offer anything new, but I would issue a word of warning about your e-mail Server type. I was always on POP3, but having had to re-install my MS Office2010 Suite, (twice) on this device I'm now stuck with the full Outlook... and my e-mail "connection" has been set to an IMAP Server - with NO option to return to POP3.

 

[Gibbs]

Smiffy: I had Pop3 on our account at work, installed runasxp.com program, Outlook Express, (Windows 10) and was working with that and we switched over to gmail for the business. At first it was IMAP, and I really prefer POP3. So, I changed the settings in my gmail account to only run pop3 and download email and archive also on their server. I had to add a new account to my Outlook Express, and use POP3, as the option to modify it was not an option. Once I got the POP3 email account set up with the right username/password and ports to use I made it default. Now I download my email into Outlook Express just like before, in Windows 10. Outlook is very similar and more feature rich than OE and you should be able to do the same in Outlook.