From Outlook Express to Outlook?

[BlebNevus]

I've happily used OE on an XP desktop and am now reluctantly "upgrading" to Windows 8.1. I have enormous archived message folders that I need to integrate into whatever email client I use instead. Ideally I'd like to be able to sync those with my laptop, which is running Windows 7. I looked into LiveMail but it's poorly reviewed and I found it difficult to download and install. So I'm thinking of buying Outlook 2010. A web search produced warnings that I won't be able to import OE files into the 64-bit version. Will I be happy with the 32-bit version? It would be nice to import directly without having to go through the extra step of LiveMail. Any thoughts would be welcome.

 

[Diane Poremsky]

The 32bit version is just fine for most users - the 64bit version handles super sized Access and Excel files so you'd need it if that describes you, but otherwise, you won't notice a difference between 32 and 64.

I recommend using a utility to transfer the files to outlook. Address Magic or Aid4Mail both work well. It's faster, less hassle and worth the cost IMHO, especially if you have a lot of stuff to import.

 

[BlebNevus]

Thanks so much for your reply. Will using a third-party utility spare me from having to install LiveMail and transfer message files to it as an intermediate step? Will it allow me to avoid having Outlook and Outlook Express on the same computer?

 

[Diane Poremsky]

Yes, you'll only need one - you may need to run it on the old machine but I'm not 100% sure on that. Aid4Mail has a trial you can check out before buying.