Abandoning Outlook Express
This document discusses strategies for replacing Outlook Express with some other email client.
The instructions may well apply to Outlook, but I did not try them with Outlook.
PocoMail
I have recently switched to PocoMail, and am 100% satisfied with it.
See http://www.pocomail.com for a list of its many features.
I list here only a tiny number of those features:
- Has built-in backup and restore for all mail and user options
- Has built-in, extensible, junk mail filter
- Does not use a proprietary file format
- Does not execute attachments
- Does not use IE in the preview pane as does OE
Alternatives to Outlook Express
If you install another email client, you can of course stop OE reading your mail, and then use OE to forward your already-received mail to yourself, and read it with the new email client.
Alternately, you can run a program to export your old mail directly into text files. A list of such programs follows.
DBXtract.exe
This is the program I used to backup my OE-based mail.
Warning: You must create the output directories before running this program.
Do something like:
shell>md \oe.bak shell>md \oe.bak\inbox shell>md \oe.bak\sent
etc, and the run DBXtract.exe on each OE mailbox.
Mbx2Mbox.pl
If you prefer using Perl programs, try this one.
Your run it from OE's directory like so (watch the wrap):
shell>cd "\WinNT\Profiles\Administrator\Application Data\Identities\
{F6694DE0-76D0-11D3-9D39-90B48097C1C3}\Microsoft\Outlook Express"
shell>perl Mbx2Mbox.pl -d Apache.dbx
but read the instructions!
LibDBX (*.c)
If you prefer compiling your own version of this C code, try LibDBX. I did not try it.
oe2mbx.exe
When I run this, it simple opens and instantly closes a DOS window, so I can't say what it does. Hopefully it does nothing!
Author
Ron Savage.
Home page: http://savage.net.au/index.html
This POD was converted to HTML by /Perl.html#fancy-pom2.pl
- Version: 1.01 01-Jun-2006
This version disguises my email address.
- Version: 1.00 10-Mar-2002
Original version.
Licence
Australian Copyright © 2002 Ron Savage. All rights reserved. 
All Programs of mine are 'OSI Certified Open Source Software'; you can redistribute them and/or modify them under the terms of The Artistic License, a copy of which is available at: http://www.opensource.org/licenses/index.html