Converting to Windows 7
This may seem like a strange requirement, but the technical support forums seem to give lots of valid reasons, mainly to do with re-sizing of organisations. We came across this requirement with a customer who had Office 2007 Professional but only really needed the basics looking forward.
There is no Microsoft supported method to transfer Outlook files to Windows Live Mail. Odd, but true.
When trying to fix this issue I found this forum and saw the advice from a contributor dguy777.
The advice worked perfectly, but did take a bit of working through – so here it is step by step.
ON YOUR OLD MACHINE
MailStore have a range of very powerful looking mail archive and retrieval systems. If you are involved with large scale corporate mail systems their solutions may well be worth considering.
Go to their home page and select the Download Now option on MailStore Home (rhs of screen). You must run MailStore on the same PC as your Outlook is running. If you have been provided with only a .pst file you may need to purchase MailStore server version.
When MailStore first runs you have the option to ‘Create a new e-mail Archive’ – this specifies where on your computer the MailStore archive will be made.
The MailStore interface is a little different to anything I’ve seen before. Looking on the top right hand corner of the screen, the button next to Start is actually the import button. Remember, you will bring your file INTO the MailStore archive.
Select Microsoft Outlook then select ‘Archive Email stored in your Local Outlook’ and select your Outlook profile.
You then have various options regarding which emails to retrieve. MailStore then copies your emails in to the MailStore archive – showing progress as it goes.
The next task is to get this mail archive into something useful for Windows Live Mail.
Back on the MailStore screen the small icon to the right of the magnifying glass allows us to export mails. This time select Directory (File System).
Select the directory where the files will be exported to.
Select ‘All Folders’ then ‘Finish’.
Copy the folder to your new machine. (These files may be quite large, so if you’re using a USB drive for the transfer, then see these usage notes).
ON YOUR NEW MACHINE
Copy the folder of emails (created above) to your new Windows 7 PC
Start up Windows Live Mail – if you need to set up your accounts do it in the next few screens. Important note – do NOT follow any prompts which offer you the option of importing mail.
In the top left hand corner of the screen there is a small drop down menu – click on this then select
Then select the option ‘Import Messages’
On the next screen select ‘Windows Mail’
Then browse to the folder which you created (important, browse to the folder, not the individual files)
Then click next
To find the mail messages you imported, you need to expand the Storage Folders then Imported folders tabs.
Were these instructions helpful? If there are any ways we could improve this, please let us know.
Updated 19th August
Another user on the forum was having problems. She now has a Windows 7 machine and has the disk from her old machine connected. Where can she find the Outlook Express folders?
I’m adding this entry on a Windows XP machine which did have Outlook Express working, and it was installed on the C: drive. For these notes to be helpful, replace c:\ with the drive letter of the attached disk.
Warning – Microsoft doesn’t make it easy!
Before you start make a folder on your new machine called c:\oldmail or something similar and simple – you are going to copy your old mail to this folder.
Outlook Express folders on my PC are located in the folder with this catchy little name
C:\Documents and Settings\mike\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\{0658CBD2-2996-40AA-BFDE-1E8509BE9604}\Microsoft\Outlook Express
The items in italics are the items specific to my system, you’ll need to change them for yourself.
In Windows Explorer navigate to x:\Documents and Settings (where x is your attached drive) then open the folder with your name. (The name you used when you logged on to that PC). If you never used a name then have a look in the folder called User.
If the folder called Local Settings is not shown, then you will need to “show hidden files” – there are great entries on the sevenforums.com site to show you how to do this.
Local Settings (and possibly the folders below it) will show as semi-transparent. Navigate through Local Settings/Application Data to identities.
There may be more than one folder with the lovely catchy title – you may now need to browse through a few sets of folders. When you reach the Outlook Express folder you’ll find a set of files with .dbx file extensions
These are your email files.
Select all the files in that folder and copy them to the c:\oldmail folder you created earlier.
When you now look for your old mail to re-import use the new folder.