Need work around: Importing settings and messages

Hello All

A friend's xp computer died and she has bought a Windows 7 machine and
downloaded Windows Live Mail.

With her xp machine, she had reconfigured Outlook Express to use her
documents folder/mail as the message and account storage location. and she
backed that up regularly to an external drive. Now she wants to import
everything into Windows Live Mail - settings, passwords, contacts, email,
etc.

With Window Mail this was easy: File/Import and selecting your option,
including importing setting (not available in Live Mail). The other option,
at least with Outlook Express, was to tell the software to use the
Documents/Mail location as the message store, and it would simply use all
the existing stuff without overwriting.

Windows Live Mil apparently won't allow nay of this. We tried the "Import
Messages" command in Live Mail. It imported only some of her messages from
the mail storage location on external drive. There is no option to import
account settings, nor was she able to select sub folders (unless she didn't
do it right)

Microsoft's Web site says use Window Easy Transfer. But when we ran that and
selected transfer from USB device, it said we first have to install Easy
Transfer on her old machine (and I presume back up everything through that
software). But her old machine is dead.

Any workaround for this? perhaps, can she simply copy come of the saved
Outlook Express folders into the Live Mail program folder or something like
that? Any other ideas? Is there a way to download Windows Mail into Windows
7 and use that as an intermediary?

Obviously, she wants to recover all her old message and would like to
install all the account settings, contact, etc (she has numerous pop3
accounts) without having to do it all manually.

Thanks for any thoughts, praise, encouragement, sympathy, empathy,
criticisms, expletives, etc :O)


Regards,,
Anthony Giorgianni

For everyone's benefit, please post back to the group

Transferring data from Outlook Express to Windows Live Mail:

For messages:

Copy the *ENTIRE* OE message store folder to a flash drive. (Folders.dbx
must be included). Place this on the Desktop or other location on the
machine using WLMail. Open WLMail and: File | Import | Messages |
Microsoft Outlook Express 6 and point to where you saved it.

OE Message Store Location:

In OE: Tools | Options | Maintenance | Store Folder will reveal the
location of your Outlook Express files. Write the location down and
navigate to it in Windows Explorer or, copy and paste it into Start | Run.

In WinXP, Win2K & Win2K3, the OE user files (DBX and WAB) are by default
marked as hidden. To view these files in Windows Explorer, you must enable
Show Hidden Files and Folders under Start | Control Panel | Folder Options
Icon | View, or in Windows Explorer | Tools | Folder Options | View.

For Addresses:

Open the Address Book in OE and File | Export | Address Book (wab) and
save it to the Desktop. Copy to a flash drive. Place this on the Desktop
or other location on the machine using WLMail.

Open the Contacts list in WLMail, (Go | Contacts on the Menu Bar), and
File | Import | Windows Address Book (wab) and point to where you saved
it.

Note: If you use a CD or DVD instead of a flash drive, after placing on
the new machine you must remove the Read Only attribute in Properties
before you import.
--
Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP [Mail]
Imperial Beach, CA


"Anthony Giorgianni" <> wrote in message
news:68F04389-4C84-4FAA-824B-...
> Hello All
>
> A friend's xp computer died and she has bought a Windows 7 machine and
> downloaded Windows Live Mail.
>
> With her xp machine, she had reconfigured Outlook Express to use her
> documents folder/mail as the message and account storage location. and
> she backed that up regularly to an external drive. Now she wants to
> import everything into Windows Live Mail - settings, passwords,
> contacts, email, etc.
>
> With Window Mail this was easy: File/Import and selecting your option,
> including importing setting (not available in Live Mail). The other
> option, at least with Outlook Express, was to tell the software to use
> the Documents/Mail location as the message store, and it would simply
> use all the existing stuff without overwriting.
>
> Windows Live Mil apparently won't allow nay of this. We tried the
> "Import Messages" command in Live Mail. It imported only some of her
> messages from the mail storage location on external drive. There is no
> option to import account settings, nor was she able to select sub
> folders (unless she didn't do it right)
>
> Microsoft's Web site says use Window Easy Transfer. But when we ran that
> and selected transfer from USB device, it said we first have to install
> Easy Transfer on her old machine (and I presume back up everything
> through that software). But her old machine is dead.
>
> Any workaround for this? perhaps, can she simply copy come of the saved
> Outlook Express folders into the Live Mail program folder or something
> like that? Any other ideas? Is there a way to download Windows Mail into
> Windows 7 and use that as an intermediary?
>
> Obviously, she wants to recover all her old message and would like to
> install all the account settings, contact, etc (she has numerous pop3
> accounts) without having to do it all manually.
>
> Thanks for any thoughts, praise, encouragement, sympathy, empathy,
> criticisms, expletives, etc :O)
>
>
> Regards,,
> Anthony Giorgianni
>
> For everyone's benefit, please post back to the group

Wow. Great Bruce. We'll reply after we did this ... just to let everyone
know it worked. Thanks so much!

Regards,,
Anthony Giorgianni

For everyone's benefit, please post back to the group
"Bruce Hagen" <> wrote in message
news:%...
> Transferring data from Outlook Express to Windows Live Mail:
>
> For messages:
>
> Copy the *ENTIRE* OE message store folder to a flash drive. (Folders.dbx
> must be included). Place this on the Desktop or other location on the
> machine using WLMail. Open WLMail and: File | Import | Messages |
> Microsoft Outlook Express 6 and point to where you saved it.
>
> OE Message Store Location:
>
> In OE: Tools | Options | Maintenance | Store Folder will reveal the
> location of your Outlook Express files. Write the location down and
> navigate to it in Windows Explorer or, copy and paste it into Start | Run.
>
> In WinXP, Win2K & Win2K3, the OE user files (DBX and WAB) are by default
> marked as hidden. To view these files in Windows Explorer, you must enable
> Show Hidden Files and Folders under Start | Control Panel | Folder Options
> Icon | View, or in Windows Explorer | Tools | Folder Options | View.
>
> For Addresses:
>
> Open the Address Book in OE and File | Export | Address Book (wab) and
> save it to the Desktop. Copy to a flash drive. Place this on the Desktop
> or other location on the machine using WLMail.
>
> Open the Contacts list in WLMail, (Go | Contacts on the Menu Bar), and
> File | Import | Windows Address Book (wab) and point to where you saved
> it.
>
> Note: If you use a CD or DVD instead of a flash drive, after placing on
> the new machine you must remove the Read Only attribute in Properties
> before you import.
> --
> Bruce Hagen
> MS-MVP [Mail]
> Imperial Beach, CA
>
>
> "Anthony Giorgianni" <> wrote in message
> news:68F04389-4C84-4FAA-824B-...
>> Hello All
>>
>> A friend's xp computer died and she has bought a Windows 7 machine and
>> downloaded Windows Live Mail.
>>
>> With her xp machine, she had reconfigured Outlook Express to use her
>> documents folder/mail as the message and account storage location. and
>> she backed that up regularly to an external drive. Now she wants to
>> import everything into Windows Live Mail - settings, passwords, contacts,
>> email, etc.
>>
>> With Window Mail this was easy: File/Import and selecting your option,
>> including importing setting (not available in Live Mail). The other
>> option, at least with Outlook Express, was to tell the software to use
>> the Documents/Mail location as the message store, and it would simply use
>> all the existing stuff without overwriting.
>>
>> Windows Live Mil apparently won't allow nay of this. We tried the "Import
>> Messages" command in Live Mail. It imported only some of her messages
>> from the mail storage location on external drive. There is no option to
>> import account settings, nor was she able to select sub folders (unless
>> she didn't do it right)
>>
>> Microsoft's Web site says use Window Easy Transfer. But when we ran that
>> and selected transfer from USB device, it said we first have to install
>> Easy Transfer on her old machine (and I presume back up everything
>> through that software). But her old machine is dead.
>>
>> Any workaround for this? perhaps, can she simply copy come of the saved
>> Outlook Express folders into the Live Mail program folder or something
>> like that? Any other ideas? Is there a way to download Windows Mail into
>> Windows 7 and use that as an intermediary?
>>
>> Obviously, she wants to recover all her old message and would like to
>> install all the account settings, contact, etc (she has numerous pop3
>> accounts) without having to do it all manually.
>>
>> Thanks for any thoughts, praise, encouragement, sympathy, empathy,
>> criticisms, expletives, etc :O)
>>
>>
>> Regards,,
>> Anthony Giorgianni
>>
>> For everyone's benefit, please post back to the group
>

WLM imports email and news 'account settings' similar to OE and WM via a previously saved iaf file(exported in OE or WM)

WLM = Windows Live Mail
OE = Outlook Express
WM = Windows Mail.

OE and WM do not by design/default automatically create the *.iaf file for each email or news account(the user must export each
manually).
- if the OE(XP) system is dead, then the accounts would have to be setup manually.

My preferred method of converting from OE or WM when changing machines from XP/Vista to Windows 7
1. Install WLM (ignore any prompts to setup a Live ID or Hotmail account)
2. Create all email and news accounts(manually or import via an *.iaf file)
3. Import messages from a copy of OE/WM message store located on the Win7 machine(e.g. copied to the Win7 drive Public Documents or
Public Download or My Documents/My Received Files folder or Desktop)
4. Import contacts from the XP *.wab file or import contacts from the OE or WM created *.csv file*
- note if using a CSV file, I prefer to use a Live ID and import in the web interface(it is more robust and less error prone
than the WLM contact import)


Additional comments..
Each client(OE, WM or WLM) create their own message store...none use the other. Each can relocate the message store or browse to
another previous store or copied store for use.

When importing messages WLM has to update the index in its message store(each imported message is saved and stored as a single file
on your hard drive). If a large volume of messages exists, it may take some time to import and update the index. Interrupting the
import process(closing WLM, doing something else in WLM, etc) can prevent a successful import.

--
....winston
MS-MVP[Mail]

"Anthony Giorgianni" <> wrote in message news:68F04389-4C84-4FAA-824B-...
> Hello All
>
> A friend's xp computer died and she has bought a Windows 7 machine and downloaded Windows Live Mail.
>
> With her xp machine, she had reconfigured Outlook Express to use her documents folder/mail as the message and account storage
> location. and she backed that up regularly to an external drive. Now she wants to import everything into Windows Live Mail -
> settings, passwords, contacts, email, etc.
>
> With Window Mail this was easy: File/Import and selecting your option, including importing setting (not available in Live Mail).
> The other option, at least with Outlook Express, was to tell the software to use the Documents/Mail location as the message
> store, and it would simply use all the existing stuff without overwriting.
>
> Windows Live Mil apparently won't allow nay of this. We tried the "Import Messages" command in Live Mail. It imported only some
> of her messages from the mail storage location on external drive. There is no option to import account settings, nor was she able
> to select sub folders (unless she didn't do it right)
>
> Microsoft's Web site says use Window Easy Transfer. But when we ran that and selected transfer from USB device, it said we first
> have to install Easy Transfer on her old machine (and I presume back up everything through that software). But her old machine is
> dead.
>
> Any workaround for this? perhaps, can she simply copy come of the saved Outlook Express folders into the Live Mail program folder
> or something like that? Any other ideas? Is there a way to download Windows Mail into Windows 7 and use that as an intermediary?
>
> Obviously, she wants to recover all her old message and would like to install all the account settings, contact, etc (she has
> numerous pop3 accounts) without having to do it all manually.
>
> Thanks for any thoughts, praise, encouragement, sympathy, empathy, criticisms, expletives, etc :O)
>
>
> Regards,,
> Anthony Giorgianni
>
> For everyone's benefit, please post back to the group