How do I move email account: Outlook Express to Windows Mail?

Unfortunately, Outlook Express is no longer available on the Windows Vista operating system. It has been replaced by Windows Mail, which looks and works quite like its predecessor… so much so, you can think of it as Outlook Express version 7.

For people who’ve got a Windows Vista based computer and are wondering how to move the email account from Outlook Express to Windows Mail on the new machine, fear not; because here you’ll find detailed instructions to do just that and also copy all the old email from Outlook Express to Windows Mail on Vista.

To properly move an email account from Outlook Express to Windows Mail (Windows Vista) computer you actually need to transfer three things:

• Export and import the email account settings: Whether you have one or many email accounts, use the export function of Outlook Express and then corresponding import in Windows Mail to copy the email settings to the new computer quickly and without problems. This is what we shall be looking at on this page.
• Transfer all your old email from Outlook Express to Windows Mail Vista – please click that link for more information and step by step directions.
• Transfer address book from Outlook Express to Windows Mail: If you have been a prolific user of the Outlook Express address book, you wouldn’t like to be without all the contacts information. Well, I have news for you – there is no address book feature in Windows Vista. It’s been replaced by Windows Contacts… but no need to fret because I shall show you how to move this data to Windows Mail on Vista – refer link for details.

How to move an email account from Outlook Express (Windows XP) to Windows Mail (Windows Vista)

The detailed instructions to move the email account (or accounts) from Outlook Express on an XP machine to Windows Mail on Vista are below and the screenshots can be found in the slideshow – please refer the images when in doubt.

1. On the Windows XP computer, open the Outlook Express program and select “Accounts” from the “Tools” menu – [Slide 1].
2. The “Internet Accounts” pop-up displays all the accounts you have set up in the email client.
3. Ensure you are in the “Mail” tab. Now select the Outlook Express email account you want to move to Windows Mail Vista by clicking on it and then hitting the “Export” button – [Slide 2].
4. The Outlook Express email account settings will be saved in a .iaf file. Choose the folder to which you want to export this file – [Slide 3].
5. If you have many email accounts configured in Outlook Express, you need to export them one by one into .iaf files – [Slide 4].
6. Move all the email account .iaf files to the Windows Vista computer – copy them to a temporary directory. You can use a USB Flash drive or simply email these to yourself on a webmail account – [Slide 5].
7. Open Windows Mail on the Vista system and go to “Tools” -> “Accounts” – [Slide 6].
8. Chances are that the email client on the Windows Vista computer will not have any email accounts yet (that’s why you are going through this exercise, right?). Click the “Import” button in the “Internet Accounts” pop-up window – [Slide 7].
9. Browse and locate the temporary folder to which you had copied the Outlook Express exported .iaf files. Select one and click the “Open” button – [Slide 8].
10. The settings will be imported into Windows Mail program immediately. You can move other email accounts by following the above steps – [Slides 9 and 10].
11. Close the “Internet Accounts” pop-up once its work is done – [Slide 11].

OK! Now that you have successfully moved the email account from Outlook Express to Windows Mail, it’s time to get the old email messages on the new computer.

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