Tech Help: Migrating Office Outlook E-Mail To New Computer

[Kaodi]

So here is the situation: My Mom just got a new laptop, because the old desktop she was using was so slow as to seriously dent her productivity. The problem is that for e-mail she used Office Outlook (probably 2003) on the desktop, but she opted for the cheaper Microsoft suite that for the new laptop, which unfortunately does not include Office Outlook (difference to get the better suite would have been another $140, apparently).

Since she is going to have to use Windows Live Mail on the new computer, what we need to figure out is how to transfer her e-mails from the old desktop to the new laptop, a task which seems like it is more complicated than it ought to be.

If anyone could offer some advice, or direct me to a specific website that answers this particular question (so far I have found some answers to migrating from Outlook Express to Windows Live Mail, but not Office Outlook), I would greatly appreciate it.

 

[Janx]

Outlook express is pretty much the same as Office Outlook, except they turn off some features like binding to an Exchange server.

So the directions for one should be mostly the same for the other. Furthermore, anything you can do in Express, you can probably do in the Office edition, so you should be fine in following the directions give that you HAVE the more powerful version.

failing that, assuming the old PC is still working, forward the emails in Outlook to her new address in MSN.

You can also export your contacts in Outlook and import them into MSN.

In any event, welcome her to the 21st century. Friends do not let friends use email addresses from AOL, Yahoo, or their ISP. Nor do they let them use fat-clients like Outlook. By learning to browse her email at a major web-mail provider she avoids issues with changing ISPs and avoids issues with changing machines.

I jest a bit with my extremeness, but there are countless advantages to using HotMail or gMail. I always see complications arise when I meet users who pop their mail with Outlook and get a new PC, or are using their ISP's free email address and then want to fire their ISP. I've had my hotmail and gmail address for about as long as those services have been open to the public. They don't carry the stigma of dial-up user as AOL or the hacker-spammer victimness of Yahoo (which is also a dying company).

 

[drothgery]

Probably the easiest thing to do is get a Hotmail/Windows Live or Gmail account, point Outlook on the old computer at it, copy over your messages and contacts, and then point Windows Live Mail at your new account.

Outlook Express has nothing to do with Outlook except the name. Outlook really shouldn't be used as anything other than an Exchange client (what you probably use for work email, calendaring, and contacts).