Outlook Express and Windows 7: Import e-mail/email

Some times people have a old desktop, likely to be using XP or some other old Microsoft Windows OS. If you’re a legacy user, using XP then there are chances you might be saving your email or e-mail in your Outlook Express. Welcome 2010! The Outlook Express and Windows Mail feature got removed from the New Windows 7 and Vista OS. So you’ll be facing problems on importing these old saved, backed up email to transfer to the new Windows 7 or Vista OS. This will happen if you buy a new laptop, which comes pre-installed with Windows 7 and you don’t find Outlook Express installed in it. So what you do? Microsoft comes with a solution for these type of problems!

The Change: Since Outlook Express and Windows Mail do not come pre-installed with Windows 7, you have another software called Windows Live Mail which comes as a free program that is part of Windows Live Essentials. Windows Live Mail works with most of the email accounts. You can import your e-mail, contacts, and calendar from Outlook Express and Windows Mail to Windows Live Mail.
Using Windows Live Mail one can access all the information from any computer with Internet.

Scenario: There are two scenarios in which you have your email backed up.
1. If you upgraded your computer and you still have your e-mail/email/e mail and contacts on it.
2. You moved your e-mail/e mail/email and contacts from external hard disk or USB flash drive back to your PC. ( This happens when you exported all your email and contacts in the form of a file from Outlook Express or Windows Mail).

To import e-mail/email/e mail

1. Open Windows Live Mail by clicking the Start button
   
   

   Picture of the Start button
   . In the search box, type Windows Live Mail, and then, in the list of results, click Windows Live Mail.
2. Press the Alt key.
   
3. Click the File menu, point to Import, and then click Messages.
   
4. Choose the e‑mail program from which you want to import e‑mail messages, and then click Next.
   
5. Click Browse.
   
6. Navigate to the folder that contains your e‑mail files.
   

Hurray! You’re done!.

If you did a custom installation of Windows 7 i.e you upgraded from Windows XP or Windows Vista, your files can be found in the following locations:

Outlook Express	Windows Mail
C:\Windows.OLD\Documents and Settings\your user name\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\{your Windows user identity number}\Microsoft\Outlook Express\	C:\Windows.OLD\Users\your user name\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsMail\

1. The Windows user identity number is different for every user. It will be inside brackets and look similar to this sample number: {8389CA60-ED34-11DB-95EE-10AE55D89593}.
   

1. Click OK, and then click Next.
   
2. Leave All Folders selected, and then click Next.
   
3. After the import finishes, click Finish.
   All imported messages will appear under Storage Folders in Windows Live Mail.
   

Oops! That’s it! Pretty Simple.