Importing XP Outlook Express 6 Mail rules in Vista Windows mail

Earlier i was using Windows XP with Outlook Express 6 as my default email client which was configured with several accounts along with several mail rules. I bought a new laptop now running with Windows Vista and want to import my all settings, rules email accounts from Outlook Express to new Vista Mail.

Can anyone please tell me how can i do all these stuffs? Please help. Thank you.

Hello Doran, You can do that but the process is bit tricky hence follow the same carefully. The rules shift to Unicode so you have to fix that. Here's the basics that I posted back in December 2006. The mail folders you will have to respecify as they don't carry over.

Okay there are actually 4 issues, but I figured out two of them. This is for a single rule at the moment. I'll try and program it so it doesn't have to be done rule by rule. First export the rule from the machine with OE:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities\{GUID}\Software\Microsoft\Outlook Express\5.0\Rules\Mail\002

where GUID is the Identity and this is rule 3. Then edit the reg file with Notepad. Do replace for.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities\{GUID}\Software\Microsoft\Outlook Express\5.0

with

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows Mail

Then save the file. Then the search strings have been changed to Unicode so set the cursor where the Rule Criteria start. Then do a second replace until the end of the file and search for a comma (,) and replace it with

,00,

Then in the last line of each criteria add

,00

Then save. Then create a mock rule in the registry with WinMail and close WinMail. Then delete that mock key in the registry. Make sure the rule number in the saved reg file matches that that you just deleted. Then merge the file into the registry.

Open WinMail and go to Tools | Message rules and you see the new message rule spelled out okay when you click on it, except for the folder name. You will still have to specify the folder names again because those are coded numerically, I think. Anyway, that will work, but its a bit involved to do manually.