Windows Mail to Outlook

[BO Terry]

I am doing a new computer install today and moving a new client from Vista to Windows 10. Yes, Vista! They use a yahoo based email account for work and personal and check it in Windows Mail when at their desktop. How can I most efficiently and complete export everything from Windows Mail on the V machine to the Outlook desktop version on the W10 machine? Outlook is from a new install of O365. As an example, I know with Outlook moves, doing little things like importing the nk2 file are very nice for the user. Also, things like archiving etc.

 

[Mick]

If it's Vista it will be Live Mail rather than just 'Mail'? Don't have ready access, but I seem to think it had an 'export' function somewhere.
Oh - I also found this, which might be worth a read.

 

[britechguy]

I just had to do a Windows Live Mail 2012 to Thunderbird conversion the other day.

If the mail itself was being accessed via IMAP, then just setting up the account(s) will get all of your messages and IMAP folders back just as they were.

I did an export of the address book and imported in Thunderbird. The biggest PITA is doing the field matching at the outset, but other than that it's a breeze.

I can't speak to calendar, but I'd have to believe an export/import would exist.

 

[britechguy]

If I may ask, are the email accounts (or are any one of the e-mail accounts) Gmail?

If so you can set up synchronization of both address book/contacts and calendar for those accounts with the Gmail cloud. It makes it so much easier if another machine/device becomes involved down the road, or a decision to jettison a given email client in favor of another occurs.

 

[Markverhyden]

First thing I'd do is log into their webmail and compare that to what they see on their computer. It's been many years that almost all major ISP's moved their emails to IMAP. But the catch is many of them had pitiful online stores. My Earthlink is still at 100mb store size. As @britechguy said IMAP will just sync when setup on the new computer.

 

[mikeroq]

I would most likely assume that the email was setup with POP. First thing you should do is check the account settings on the Vista machine.

If by some miracle they are on IMAP I would simply export the contacts from Windows Mail, check for a signature and copy that. Then setup the email as IMAP in Outlook on the new PC. All the email will download, then just import the contacts and setup their signature. Boom done.

If they are on POP there are a few ways of going about it. I've done this a few ways in the past going between Outlook Express, Windows Mail, ect.

IMO they should be converted to IMAP if at all possible. If you can convert them to IMAP you have two choices. Option 1, you setup their account as IMAP in Windows Mail on Vista, then drag their emails over and let them upload. Option 2, you migrate the emails into Outlook first then upload.

I would almost prefer to just copy the message store to the new PC. Then from there I can do all the work on the new PC. Install Windows Live Mail, import the emails into there. Then export them from Windows Live Mail into Outlook.

Reference: https://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/migratefromoewlm.htm

I've done it many way. Some have even stayed on POP. These days I prefer to get everyone on IMAP and I try to get anything business related into Office 365 or Google Apps for email.

I've had to do some crazy migrations before going between various email clients. Sometimes had to use Thunderbird or eM Client in the process.

I think the worst one was getting Incredimail into Outlook. I was real happy I finally got that guy off of Incredimail. This was his business email sadly.

 

[britechguy]

These days I prefer to get everyone on IMAP . . .

I will not even try to set up POP unless someone happens to be with some dinosaur of an ESP that still supports only POP. I don't negotiate about it, or ask about it, either.

There is not a soul alive who is not, at some point going to:
1. Acquire a new computer and want all their e-mail to come along with.
2. Decide they hate their current email client and switch to another one.
3. Start wanting to access their e-mail from multiple devices.

Any one of those three is a cinch with IMAP (or any server side protocol, such as Exchange, but most of my client base won't have Exchange-based accounts) and a nightmare with POP.

I truly wish that there would be a complete discontinuance of support for POP. It has not been a good protocol for "how the world generally works" for a very, very long time now.

 

[Porthos]

Also, Windows Mail in Vista and Windows live mail are two different things.
If I remember correctly been a LONG time, you will need to install Outlook of some kind on the Vista machine and see if can import the mail. Then transfer the Outlook files to a new machine/install.

 

[timeshifter]

Also, Windows Mail in Vista and Windows live mail are two different things.
If I remember correctly been a LONG time, you will need to install Outlook of some kind on the Vista machine and see if can import the mail. Then transfer the Outlook files to a new machine/install.

I did a similar upgrade about a year ago, it was Windows 7 with Windows Live Mail. The best solution was to install Outlook on the old computer alongside Windows Live Mail, then export to Outlook from within Windows Live Mail.

It ended up being a nightmare, it worked but we could only do a handful of folders at a time. He had a TON of mail.

Can’t speak to how that may be different on Windows Vista’s Mail.

 

[Porthos]

Can’t speak to how that may be different on Windows Vista’s Mail.

Windows Mail was Microsoft's replacement for Outlook Express.

 

[BO Terry]

If I may ask, are the email accounts (or are any one of the e-mail accounts) Gmail?

If so you can set up synchronization of both address book/contacts and calendar for those accounts with the Gmail cloud. It makes it so much easier if another machine/device becomes involved down the road, or a decision to jettison a given email client in favor of another occurs.

The email account is yahoo based through their ISP. It was set up as a POP account.

 

[BO Terry]

First thing I'd do is log into their webmail and compare that to what they see on their computer. It's been many years that almost all major ISP's moved their emails to IMAP. But the catch is many of them had pitiful online stores. My Earthlink is still at 100mb store size. As @britechguy said IMAP will just sync when setup on the new computer.

Unfortunately, it is set up as POP

 

[britechguy]

But the question becomes, can you set it up as IMAP?

If it was set up as POP, you're going to have to do some process to manually transfer the existing email over anyway, as it will no longer exist on the server. But at least if you set up the account as IMAP now, that will not be the case going forward.

 

[BO Terry]

But the question becomes, can you set it up as IMAP?

If it was set up as POP, you're going to have to do some process to manually transfer the existing email over anyway, as it will no longer exist on the server. But at least if you set up the account as IMAP now, that will not be the case going forward.

Once it is in Outlook, it will be in IMAP. I have an old 2003 license I can use install on the Vista machine. I wondered about doing that and using import from Outlook. If that worked, then moving the pst over to the new machine.

I’ve also heard about a tool called MailStore Home (mailstore.com) that may help with this but I’m reluctant to try an unknown tool on a client machine.

 

[Philippe]

combining all the little VCF files into one big one

For reference:
copy /b *.vcf BigOne.vcf

 

[britechguy]

I am definitely not the one to advise on mail transfer using Outlook as the tool, but there are scads of others who absolutely can (and probably will).