I would like to move all my email messages from Outlook Express to Outlook. What is the best way to export all my email messages to Microsoft Outlook? The computer is running Windows XP.

Fortunately this process is relatively easy as there is a feature in Outlook which allows you to easily import mail from Outlook Express. Open Outlook, then go to the ‘File’ menu > ‘Import and Export’. In the window that appears, select ‘Import Internet Mail and Addresses’. This option will allow you to import into Outlook all the email and the address book from another email client. Click ‘Next’. In the list of programs, select ‘Outlook Express 4.x, 5.x, 6.x’ and tick ‘Import Mail’, ‘Import Address book’ and ‘Import Rules’ (should you wish to import any mail rules you have configured in Outlook Express). Click ‘Next’. In the following window, enable ‘Allow duplicates to be created’. This is the safest option, because if there is entry for a particular person in the Outlook address book and the imported address book also contains an entry for that person, the imported entry will not overwrite the existing entry. Instead, a duplicate entry will be created. To start the importing process, click ‘Finish’. The mail, address book, and rules (if selected) will be imported, and a summary will appear. Click ‘Save in Inbox’ if you would like to save the summary report as a message in the Outlook Inbox.

Be aware, this procedure will not remove the mail from Outlook Express, but rather only import (copy) the mail into Outlook. However, once you complete this procedure and begin using Outlook you should not go back and start using Outlook Express, since you will create a situation where some email is in Outlook, while new email is downloaded to Outlook Express, with no way of synchronising the email between the two applications.