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Q: I have enjoyed your column, but can’t seem to find it on the new day. My real question is how can I transfer old emails from Outlook Express (XP OS) to a Windows 7 OS computer? I only want to save copies of the messages, not answer or edit them. I can copy the folders (that contain them as saved in Outlook Express) to My Documents, but when I try to open the folders Windows says it can’t open them and refers me to an Internet search to find a program that will. There I find that they are database files (*.dbx) and Microsoft says Visual FoxPro 9 can do it, but there is no way I can find to get that program. Is there another way, or is it not possible? Also what day and where is your column now?

– Ron J.
Shalimar, Florida

A:  I believe you’re causing your own problem, Ron, by trying to do Windows’ job for it.  I’ll cover that below, but first let me tell my other readers that, as far as I’m aware, the only paper that changed the publication date of my column is the Northwest Florida Daily News (the column’s “home” newspaper).  It moved from the Sunday Lifestyle section to Saturday’s Business page.  If you still can’t find it, remember what I always say:  The latest edition, as well as a complete archive of every column ever written is always available on my website at ItsGeekToMe.co (not .com).

As a general rule, Windows uses a file’s extension to tell what application to use to open a file. That works well with data files like Word documents (.doc, or .docx), .mp3 files (music), pictures (.jpg, .pcx, .png, etc) and a host of others.  But notice that these are all programs that create, display, or playback individually stored files that are not necessarily related to each other.  The programs have built-in features like File->Open and File->Save As… to load and save files.  E-mail is very different.  While any given e-mail message can certainly stand on its own, generally, e-mail messages are all related under one account, and appear together in folders like Inbox.  They are associated with a specific client application that you use to create and read e-mails, and are all stored together in the form of a database that is managed by the client software.  You don’t need to (and generally cannot) do File->Open or File->Save As… operations on it – at least not the way you do with the above-mentioned applications.

The database format that any given e-mail client uses is a decision made by the software’s author. Many are compatible.  Others, even from the same vendor, are not.  Some clients have the ability to read or write some or all of the database data in another program’s format, in an operation called importing (reading in) or exporting (writing out).  You want to use these features as little as possible, because messing with the program’s database is a big deal.

A problem I’m going to have in answering your question is that you said you’re trying to “transfer old emails from Outlook Express (XP OS) to a Windows 7 OS computer”. Those two items aren’t the same type of thing – one is an e-mail client (Outlook Express) and the other is an operating system (Windows 7).  You don’t simply move the e-mail to a new computer – you have to move it to a new e-mail client.  So the ultimate solution will be up to you, but I’ll try and launch you in the right direction.

It turns out that OE .dbx files can be directly imported into Windows Live Mail (WLM). So if you’re using that, great!  If you’re using Outlook, it’s a little more complicated.  Regardless, you’ll need to install WLM because you need it to act as an intermediary.  It’s available free from Microsoft, but you might have to log-in to the Microsoft website to get it.  Once you have WLM running, choose File->Import->Messages.  Then choose “Microsoft Outlook Express” and click “Next”.  Select “Import mail from an OE6 store directory” and click “Browse”.  Locate your .dbx file (I assume, based on your e-mail that you already went through the process of finding and copying it over – so I’ll not cover that here).  Click on “Select Folder” then “Next”.  Click either “All Folders” or, click on “Selected Folders” and make a selection.  Click “Next” then “Finish”.

If you’re using WLM, you’re all set. Your e-mail should be imported and ready to use.  If you’re using Outlook, you now need to open Outlook and WLM at the same time.  In WLM, click on File->Export->Email messages.  For the format, select “Microsoft Exchange” and click “Next”.  You should get a message that says “all email will be exported to Microsoft Outlook”.  Click on “OK” and let the process run.

There is another way of doing the transfer, but it will also want to transfer all your accounts, files, settings, and other stuff, and I thought that might be a little more than you were asking for. If this interests you, it’s called Windows Easy Transfer, and you can visit tinyurl.com/n2zoz6 to get started with it.