> Hey Tony,

> To completely transfer your OE mail to Windows Mail you should not only
> transfer your messages but your account information and rules along with
> your address book.  This isn't a comprehensive "Move OE to your new Vista
> computer" article but, I have included instructions on how to move your
> accounts and rules over from OE to WM in addition to the link to the
> website that is included that walks you through migrating your actual
> mail.

> See the website:

> http://www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx

> This site gives great information on moving your data stores from OE on
> one machine to WM on another and is what I used to begin my e-mail
> migration from my old computer to my new one.

> A word of warning though, ** if you have your account set to leave mail on
> your mail server for a period of time ** after you get your accounts setup
> and all of your mail has been imported you will end up downloading
> duplicate messages for all the items you have out on your mail server.
> So, if you leave copies of your messages on the mail server for 10 days
> you will receive duplicate messages for everything you have gotten in the
> last 10 days.  To prevent this you can turn this off in OE6 under
> Tools>Accounts>Mail>"Account Name">Properties>Advanced>Delivery and then
> perform a send and receive.  If you have web-mail with your ISP use that
> to verify that there are no messages left on your mail server.  I wasn't
> thinking when I did my move and had to delete about 120 messages.  You'll
> want to verify that the duplicates are gone as I cannot easily test
> performing the send and receive will get rid of the messages on your
> server.

> Also, make your life a bit easier and export your account settings to .iaf
> files from OE and import those into WM.  You can find the button to export
> under Tools>Accounts>Mail.  You can import these account settings files
> into WM in the same location in WM.  Go to Tools>Accounts>Mail and import
> the files from the location you saved them to.  This will save you some
> time in futzing around with configuring your e-mail settings.  It's also
> not a bad idea to export these and store them someplace safe so that in
> the event your computer crashes you can bring your account settings back
> quickly.

> As for inbox rules, luckily the registry format for rules is identical so
> you can, with a little text editing, import your rules as well.  Granted
> to make this worthwhile you need to have enough rules that would warrant
> going through the following process.  I had about twenty so recreating all
> my rules from scratch wasn't, in my opinion, a good use of my time.  I
> would recommend you perform the following after you have imported your
> mail and you address book.

> To import your rules:

> 1.  Find out what identity you're using:

> a.  In OE go to Tools>Options>Maintenance and click on the "Store Folder"
> button.

> b.  In the store folder button you will see a number enclosed in curly
> braces.  ex.

>            {F67B35AC-B631-46C8-88AA-6EFC5B2933A9}

>         This is your identity number.  I'll reference it further as
> <identity>

> 2.  Export your rules:

> a.  Open regedit.exe

> b.  In regedit, navigate to
> HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities\<identity>\Software\Microsoft\Outlook
> Express\5.0\Rules

> (you may see "6.0\Rules", it's 5.0 on my computer and I'll reference 5.0
> from here on)

> c.  Right-click on "Mail" and select "Export"

> d.  Give it a name you can remember in a place on your computer you can
> find and click "Save".

> 3.  Edit your rules to import on your new computer:

> a.  Make a copy of the file you just saved and name it <whatever your file
> was called>_Import.

> ex.  If your computer is setup to show extensions you will see
> "MyMailRules.reg" rename this file to "MyMailRules_Import.reg"

> if you don't see extensions you will only see "MyMailRules" and once
> renamed "MyMailRules_Import"

> b.  Right-click on your new file (the one named ..._Import) and select
> "Edit"

> c.  In Notepad select "Edit>Replace"

> d.  In the 'Replace' dialogue copy and paste the line up to 5.0 from the
> first line of your ..._Import file:

> ex.   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities\<identity>\Software\Microsoft\Outlook
> Express\5.0

> into the "Find What" field.

> e.  Then paste the following line exactly as it's shown:

> HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows Mail into the "Replace With"
> field.

> f.  In the replace dialogue, click on "Replace All"

> g.  Save your file.

> 4.  Import the rules on your new computer:

> a.  Copy the ..._Import.reg file to your new computer

> b.  Double-click the file and when asked, "Are you sure..." answer yes.

> 5.  Fix the Imported rules:

> Because rules can reference specific locations in the mail folder
> structure within OE some of your rules may be pointing to locations that
> don't technically exist anymore.  The same can hold true for rules that
> referenced contacts, since you have moved to a new computer the contacts
> may be seen as completely new.  However, the structure of the rules is
> intact so, you just need to repoint to rules the folders or contacts you
> want them to work with. Modify each rule to match your requirements and
> you should be golden.