Outlook Express to Outlook 2003

[Mark Kenepp]

Hello Technically savvy Pocket PC Thoughts Members :D

I am pretty sure this is a good place to ask this question:

I have a remote office in LA where one of the users just purchased a new desktop running XP with Office 2003 obviously including Outlook 2003. On his old Win98 computer (which is still running on the network there) he was using Outlook Express 6 as his email client.

I have been unable to find any good information on the best way to transfer his email from the old computer to the new. I do not have access to an XP computer or Outlook 2003 myself so I am unable to figure it out by trial and error. All the information I have found doing searches in the MS Knowledgebase involves transferring Account Information and Contacts. I was unable to find anything about transferring the email itself.

On my machine, I can export my Outlook Express 6 email to my Exchange Server (my default Outlook Profile) just by using the Export command. Doing this over the phone with the user in LA would require first setting up Outlook 97 on his old computer, exporting the email, transferring the PST file to the new computer and get that PST file into Outlook 2003. Considering the technical skill level of the user in LA, this would take a considerable amount of my time on the phone which, I would like to avoid if there is an easier way of doing it.

What do you think would be the best way to transfer email from Outlook Express 6 on a Win98 computer to a WinXP computer running Outlook 2003?

Thanks much, in advance.

[Janak Parekh]

IMHO, the easiest way would be to get the data into Outlook Express 6 on the new computer first, and then to let Outlook 2003 import it from there.

Outlook Express 6 uses *.dbx files. If you do a search on the hard drive, you'll find them... or if you go into the Advanced options, there's a "Store Location" field. You can copy them over to a new machine (although the destination location will likely differ) from there. :)

--janak

[Mark Kenepp]

Thanks Janak, that was fast :werenotworthy:

Makes sense,

I assume that I only need to place the old data files in the correct location, or set the location through the "Store Folder" option to get Outlook Express to read them?

It isn't like PST files where they need to be opened or set up through services?

Thanks again,

[Janak Parekh]

I assume that I only need to place the old data files in the correct location, or set the location through the "Store Folder" option to get Outlook Express to read them?
Correct, either way will work.

It isn't like PST files where they need to be opened or set up through services?
No. It lists all DBX files you put in the folder that's specified in OE -- there's no explicit profile you have to set up.

(In case you haven't realized, I've transferred OE data many, many times between computers. ;))

--janak

[Mark Kenepp]

Thanks Janak,

It worked, though oddly enough, when we pointed Outlook Express to the new folders that were copied to the old computer, it overwrote the data. We had to recopy the old data files over and everything went smooth from there. Just set up Outlook 2003 and then exported messages from OE.

Thanks again, :beer:

[Janak Parekh]

Yeah, I don't usually change the Store location, so I didn't remember that it would "reinitialize" the message databases.

Glad to hear it worked. :)

--janak

[davidspalding]

Outlook XP has an import feature for Outlook Express Mail, Account Settings, Addresses ... wouldn't 2003 have the same function? :?
____________

edit: oh, DUH. As per Mark's message on 10/21. :oops:

[Janak Parekh]

Outlook XP has an import feature for Outlook Express Mail, Account Settings, Addresses ... wouldn't 2003 have the same function? :?
Yes, but it wouldn't have imported Outlook Express mail from another machine. And the "other" machine didn't have Outlook installed. :)

--janak