Outlook - transfer to a new computer

I have been using OE6 for years on a PC, Win 98 (dial-up connection).  I have
just replaced that computer with one with an XP OS.  It, too, has OE6.

How do I get back address book, saved emails, sent emails, etc?  I did copy
the 2 OE folders to put on the new computer:
C\Program Files\Outlook Express   This contains the program, address book
etc.   But the new computer has most of the same files (except for a few
.dll)
and
c:\windows\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook Express  This has .dbx and
.mbx files with newsgroups and saved files, respectively.

But how do I access them?  There is no Application Data folder on the new
computer.  I hoped I could just copy everything into it.  I do not even see
where it saves my new emails & addresses, etc.

The files are hidden in XP. In WinXP, the OE user files (DBX and WAB) are
by default marked as hidden. To view these files in Windows Explorer, you
must enable Show Hidden Files and Folders under Start | Control Panel |
Folder Options Icon | View, or in Windows Explorer | Tools | Folder
Options | View.

The path to the message store will be very similar to this:

C:\Documents and Settings\Your User Name\Local Settings\Application
Data\Identities\{Long string of letters & numbers}\Microsoft\Outlook
Express


Put the Address Book and Outlook Express folders on the Desktop of the XP
machine. Make sure the AB is not set to Read Only.


Open OE: In the new identity: File | Import | Messages. Select Microsoft
Outlook Express 6 and Import from an OE Store Folder and point to the OE
folder on the Desktop.  (You did copy the entire folder, correct? An
import will fail if Folders.dbx was not included).

For your Address Book:

Open the Address Book in the new identity and File | Import | Address Book
(wab) and point to where you saved it.

For Newsgroups:

On the 98 machine, Tools | Accounts | News | Export. Send it to anyplace
on your HDD and then copy it to the XP machine. In the new OE: Tools |
Accounts and import the settings.

These will only set up your news accounts. The specific newsgroups will
have to be subscribed to again.

Reference:
http://www.insideoe.com/faqs/how.htm#importOE5
--
Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Oct. 1, 2004 ~ Sept. 30, 2010
Imperial Beach, CA

If the older computer still functions, then export the appropriate registry
keys as well as the files.  Then you can just delete the current registry
keys on the newer machine and merge the ones from the older machine.  You
can then put the message store in any location, but make sure the files are
not read only and then set the Store Root value for that Identity to the
location of the message store.  That way you retain all your accounts (you
will have to reinput the passwords) and all the message rules that you might
have had.

See www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx for details and also the Tomsterdam site
Bruce referenced.  You might also be able to use OEQB on the Win98 machine
to backup everything and then restore to the newer machine.

The mbx files are from OE4.  You can extract any messages from them using my
free MBXtract program (www.oehelp.com/MBXtract/)

On the newer machine, get some antivirus that is non-invasive such as MS
security essentials so you do not have message loss problems that are often
associated with such software (cf.  www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#3).

steve