For the past several years I have used Incredimail and amassed over 5 gigabytes of email. I recently purchased a new Windows Vista computer and am having trouble moving the email to the new computer. How can I move the email to the new computer?

You will be glad to know that transferring the Incredimail data to a new computer is an easy process, and there are also instructions on the Incredimail website for completing this operation. Visit www.incredimail.com/english/help/im/transfer_incredimail.html and you will find step-by-step instructions for exporting the Incredimail data on your current computer, and then importing the data onto your new computer. Because this is an export/import, your data is left intact on the original computer in case something goes wrong and you need access to the data on the old computer again. Before beginning this procedure, I suggest that you install Incredimail on the new computer as this will obviously be required so that you can re-import the data onto your new computer.

However, installing Incredimail on your new computer presents a major problem, as according to the Incredimail Help Center, Incredimail is currently not compatible with Windows Vista (www.incredimail.com/incredimail/help_center/help_article.aspx?article_id=263). So, you may need to hold-off using Incredimail on your new computer until such time as it is supported on Windows Vista.

As a sidenote, when you export the data from Incredimail it will be placed into a single .CAB file, making transfer between computers easy (since you only need to transfer the one file). While CAB files are compressed, if you have a lot of email then the file size could create problems in transferring the CAB file between computers. For example, if the old computer does not have a DVD burner then copying a file that large could create problems, or if the file size exceeds 4.7 GB then you cannot copy it to a single-layer DVD (a 4.7 GB is the maximum size of a single-layer DVD). If you have a network between the two computers (such as a cross-over cable), and you can access and copy the file successfully, that is one way around the issue. An alternative method may also be to use an external hard drive to copy the file. However, I expect that you will be able to determine the most suitable way to transfer the file between the computers, to enable you to get Incredimail up and running on your new computer.