I have my email client set up so that any time I open Outlook Express (yes, I know... but my email needs are so simple and basic that Outlook Express does just what I want) anyway, I open Outlook Express and it automatically goes to the ISP's mail server and downloads whatever emails are there to the local hard drive of whatever computer I am using at the time, then deletes the mail from the server.

I get most of my email from my computer at work, which really isn't my computer, but my employer's. This computer is on a Wide Area Network along with about 15,000 other computers (that is *not* an exaggeration) and corporate headquarters has every right to go into that computer whenever they like, and they do so. I have no complaints about that.

However, I do have a lot of emails stored on that work computer that I would prefer not to be there. These are emails I wish to keep, just not on that computer.

How can I transfer those emails, intact, with headers, subjects, etc., to my home computer? I want the finished result to be just the same as if I had originally received them at home, rather than at work.

The work computer is running Windows 2000; the home computer is running Windows XP.

tanstaafl.

Find a folder on your work machine that looks like this (you will have to be able to see hidden folders):


I seem to remember the location of the folder is different on Win2k and XP, but I may be wrong. Just copy those files and paste them over the ones on your home computer. This will replace whatever is on your home computer's Outlook Express with your work computer's Outlook Express. Folder structure is retained, but your account settings or any rules you may have setup will have to be input manually on your home machine.

If you have never opened Outlook Express on your home machine, you should do that and restart Windows before attempting to paste your work files onto your home machine.

Robricc doing that would replace all his email that is on his home machine with what is on his work machine.

Here is what I found
You can use this
http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/backup/

or

Backup Outlook Express Email Messages
Step 1 :
Open Outlook Express.
Click on the TOOLS Menu and select OPTIONS
Click the MAINTENANCE Tab and then click on Store Folder
You now see the location of your Mail Folder.
Highlite the Folder Location and press CTRL+C to copy the location.
Click Cancel and then Cancel again to close all boxes.
Click the Windows Start button and the click Run. In the open box press CTRL+V to paste the mail location, then click OK.
You should now have a window containing you e-mail database files.
From the EDIT Menu, click Select All. Edit Menu click COPY. Now close the window.
Right click your desktop, click NEW and then FOLDER.
Type a name for the folder and hit ENTER.
Double click the Folder you just created to open it. From the EDIT Menu select PASTE. Close the window

Restore Backed up Email Messages
Open Outlook Express, File - Import - Messages . Select Microsoft Outlook Express Version 5 or 6. Click Next.
Then select "import from a OE5 or OE6 Store Directory". Click OK, then browse to the folder you created earlier, click next, the rest is up to you which folders you wish to import.

you can't import OE 6 messages into OE 5.


You may also what to change your settings at work to use Imap or to leave the email on the server and then check the mail again when you get home.

To add another suggestion, I'd find an IMAP mail server that can be accessed by both computers and just drag the emails you want to keep into that mail server. That way you could access them from both places anyway.

Of course, Doug's interested in not having those emails avaliable on his computer, so that may not work out. I don't know if he just doesn't want them only to be on that computer, or if he wants them to not be on that conputer. Still offline mode caching is almost always disableable.

Edit: "disableable"? "disablable"? That's a ... funny ... word.

Of course, Doug's interested in not having those emails avaliable on his computer

Bitt has hit the nail on the head.

The whole idea is to get these emails (some of which could prove quite troublng should they fall into malicious hands) off of my work computer's local hard drive, and onto my home computer's local hard drive.

I don't want to go IMAP or off-line storage, because I would like to keep these emails integrated into my normal email correspondence flow, as many of them are still "active", that is, I refer to them for copying quotations into new emails or responses to existing ones.

The most promising approach seems to be on the website that Attack linked to:

Tips and Ideas
Archive a Folder
This simple method works in all versions of Outlook Express. The archive consists of an OE message serving as an "envelope".

Create a New Mail Message. Enter the name you want for the archive in the Subject line.

Drag the messages you wish to archive from the OE message list and drop them into the New Mail Message. They will be added as attachments.

Click File| Save as... and save the message to any Windows folder as type *.eml, and close the New Mail Message window. (The resulting file can then be compressed in a zip file to greatly reduce its size.)

To restore the archived messages to an OE mail folder, double-click the saved *.eml file. Select all the attachments and drag them into an OE mail folder. You can also of course simply double-click on a single attachment to read it.

If I understand that correctly, I can archive the contents of just the one folder as a *.eml file, use my empeg as a file taxi to take it home, then restore that *.eml file into my home computer in a new OE folder called "From Work" or something.

I hope I understand that correctly -- I am going to try it now.

tanstaafl.

That worked perfectly. The only surprise was that the transferred emails ended up in my "inbox" rather than the newly created folder I thought I was dragging them to. I probably just didn't drag them right.


db