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  1. First, I've got to make a “coming-out” : I am still using Outlook Express in 2020 — managed to make it work on Windows 7, have searched far and wide and couldn't find a satisfying replacement.
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    And as if this wasn't complicated enough...
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    Anyway, it used to work mostly fine, beside a few quirks (compared with how it behaved on its native Windows XP environment), but in May, the search feature stopped working, no idea why (the search window does open but then no matter what search term or date interval I specify that should yield hits, the search stops right away and the list stays empty). I looked at the relevant registry key from a backup (extracted with Nirsoft's Offline Registry View), couldn't see any significant difference. Tried disabling User Account Control, to no avail. I've had many, many BSODs in the last two years, it could have been a consequence of one of those, but running sfc / scannow doesn't fix the issue.

    What else could possibly cause this ?
    If noone has any clue, what other forum would be recommended for such a question ?
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  2. Member
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    Upgrade to Win10 and use Mail.
    So much better
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  3. Not Good Enough. Am I still free to decide what is better for me ? Not much experience with Windows 10, but since I didn't like Windows Live Mail and hated Windows 8 with a passion, just as I hate everything that's designed like “smart” phones applications, it's highly unlikely that this fancy combo could delight me.
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    It is better.
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  5. It is better.
    Absolute minimal requirement : could it flawlessly import ~20 years of e-mail / newsgroups messages into that thing ? I didn't think so.
    Last edited by abolibibelot; 17th Dec 2020 at 18:15.
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  6. I have Windows Live Mail on my Windows 7 computer. I got this computer in 2012 if my memory serves me correctly. I had to remain with Internet Explorer 10 all these years because I read that if I upgraded to Internet Explorer 11 I would loose the functionality of Windows Live Mail. I think I imported my mail from Outlook Express but it was so long ago my memory is a bit fuzzy. I have liked Windows Live Mail and it wasn't all that different then Outlook Express. I never joined any Newsgroups so I don't know if those kind of messages can be brought over. It is a good thing I didn't uninstall Internet Explorer 10 because sometimes I ended up accidently clicking on that Offline Icon in Windows Live Mail and the only way to get the online function back is to go into the settings in Internet Explorer 10.

    It would be nice if you had a spare Windows 7 computer to experiment with as I understand you don't want to risk all those messages that you have saved. Have you exported those messages and saved them somewhere in case you were to have a hard drive failure and thus your computer would be useless to you? Do you have a laptop or something you could put Windows Live or the Windows 10 version?

    Oh I should have read more closely you hate Windows Live Mail. For me it seemed nearly the same as Outlook Express.
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  7. There are email clients outside of what comes stock with Windows.
    At some point in your journey you have to decide on saying "no" to vendor lock-in....

    ...or not.

    The choice is yours, until it isn't.
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  8. (sorry, double post)
    Last edited by abolibibelot; 18th Dec 2020 at 23:43. Reason: double post
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  9. It would be nice if you had a spare Windows 7 computer to experiment with as I understand you don't want to risk all those messages that you have saved. Have you exported those messages and saved them somewhere in case you were to have a hard drive failure and thus your computer would be useless to you? Do you have a laptop or something you could put Windows Live or the Windows 10 version?
    Yes of course (or not) I do regular backups (especially important since the DBX format has an intrinsic propensity for corruption, many people lost entire folders which got corrupted either because the size of a single DBX file had grown beyond 2GB, or because of a failed automatic compacting).


    There are email clients outside of what comes stock with Windows.
    At some point in your journey you have to decide on saying "no" to vendor lock-in....
    I tried :
    – Windows Live Mail (repeatedly) : didn't like the ergonomy, the storage system may be more robust but generates utter clutter with thousands of .eml files in weirdly named subfolders ;
    – Thunderbird (repeatedly) : couldn't import from DBX satisfyingly (in particular : lost the read / unread markings and other flags), thorough but impractical search feature, last time I checked it was no longer developped, and before that, some updates could seriously wreak havoc (read several comments from users who randomly lost messages or even their entire profile — see below)
    – OE Classic, supposed to be the ideal OE replacement, importing from DBX seems flawless, but the ergonomy is not as streamlined and intuitive as its model, the interface is not as customizable and it's quite garish looking with those huge “stylized” buttons, and a paid license is required to get all the features
    – eM Client : [+] flawless import from DBX, integrated duplicate message remover and database backup [-] only 2 accounts with a free license (I use 3), bug when copying text with URL (don't remember the specifics), no source code editing
    – Opera Mail : [+] automatic backup of currently composed message [-] can't import from a folder with DBX files (only allows importing from OE if installed on the same system), very stripped-down interface, no source code editing

    I copied below some comments I found particularly interesting when I searched a potential replacement about 4 years ago.

    What exactly do you call “vendor lock-in” ? The fact is that any software can disappear at any time, or rather, stop being developped and then becoming risky to use or incompatible with newer operating systems. For most softwares I accept to go with the flow, however grudgingly sometimes, and manage to adapt, but e-mail is something much more personal, for which I don't want to be forced to change my habits, unless it's an unquestionable improvement in every way. So far, I failed to find anything that comes close to the streamlined yet not dumbed-down experience I've had with OE, and preferred to keep on using it despite its flaws (again : weakness of the database format, security considerations, and now some added snafus when using it on Windows 7). Apparently I'm not alone. But I'd be glad to reconsider if there's finally something really well designed that won't disappoint.

    (The strange thing is that I'm getting utterly tired of e-mail in general, I mean, while it was something exciting about 20 years ago, it's been more and more tedious over the years to find a tiny amount of friendly signal among an ever increasing amount of noise, an ever accumulating mountain of stupid B.S., and now even presumably friendly messages generally get me bored or dismayed or anxious rather than exhilarated, so it has become a real chore, to the point where I find myself completely ignoring the whole thing for weeks or even months ; this year, as the overall B.S. level worldwide reached a new threshold, I stopped checking e-mail in June, and my main account which I had been using since 1999 has been disabled in early October ; I could reactivate it when I tried to connect earlier this month, but if anyone friendly actually tried to communicate with me during this two months blackout they got an error notification along the lines of “the recipient has been disabled”, as if I were dead, which is actually not far from the truth, at this point I feel so disconnected with the world at large, I might as well be dead for all intents and purposes. And yet I'm still struggling to get this fu**ed up sh*t to work as it used to, go figure.)



    -----------------------------------------

    [copied from a file where I took notes while searching for an e-mail client replacement, circa 2016 — either comments echoing my own complaints, or suggestions of alternative clients, or accounts of personal horror stories, mostly related with Thunderbird]

    http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/1763-63-best-replacement-outlook-express-64bit
    "Foxmail. simple, free and portable."
    http://support.real-time.com/tbird/oe_import.html
    http://kb.mozillazine.org/Import_from_Outlook_Express
    http://mozbackup.jasnapaka.com/
    – "Wow, I've been trying all types of e-mail programs. Most had way more than I needed and or didn't have the specific features I wanted without having to search for any add-ons. Finally, I tried Incredmail as a last resort. Voila! I turned all the cutesy stuff off and the program does exactly what I want. It imported my connection settings like a charm with a wizard, it backed up all my Outlook express mail from my old computer and imported it to the new computer without a hitch, all four of my e-mail identies. I can have seperate identies, password protect each before access without having to set a new desktop for each. I was satisfied so I bought the paid version as #1 - it wasn't expensive #2 - with the paid version you don't have the Incredimail banner at the bottom of your e-mails. Without all the cutesy stuff and with the paid version, it works for me."
    – "There is one thing I absolutely hate about Incredimail... its proprietary file format. You can't export to anything other than Incredimail without using 3rd party software. I don't know about the paid version, but I know this is true with the free version. It's nice that it does what you need it to do; but it's definately not without it's price."

    http://windowssecrets.com/forums/showthread.php/137792-Replacing-Outlook-Express-what-s-best
    http://ask-leo.com/thunderbird_a_free_open_source_and_powerful_email_client.html
    – "I used Windows Live Mail for a while but then tried out eM Client and have been hooked ever since. I have a home business and this does so many things that I don't know how I did without it."

    http://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/alternative-to-outlook-express-for-windows-7.331570/
    – "I've been using a 64 bit variant of Thunderbird, called Earlybird. I'm using the Thunderbird 10 build, which I find extremely stable. Been using it about 5 months, and I'm very happy so far. I know the download says Thunderbird, but once installed it's Earlybird."
    – "Just to add to the suggestions above, I really like EMclient. It's especially good if you use GMail as it will sync up your Inbox, Calendar, Contacts and Tasks right out of the box - no addons or anything required. It's free for non-commercial use and if you use two e-mail accounts or less, otherwise, there is a paid version. Hope this helps."
    – "[in reply to : "I feel better about keeping it updated, considering that it has a web browser within."]
    I understand your feeling and concern about indeed. Thanks for point it out. Since I'm using Thunderbird over SandboxIE supervision always, such isn't an issue that could carry some thoughts here. BTW, just installed 'Dropbox for Filelink' extension. Excellent and works very well: It basically allows you to replace email attachments with links that point to file hosts where the attachments have been uploaded to."

    http://windowssecrets.com/forums/showthread.php/156521-Eudora-7-1-Close-replacement-fo...-Express/page2
    – "I am just now trying out outlook 2007 since I just got MSOffice 2007. But have been using Outlook Express with Win XP. I have tried out a few since I know I will have to find something when I change from Win XP. Been a fan of OE for years. I can tell you the closest thing to it. It’s actually just like it and a little better. OECLASSIC. Tried it at a friend’s house and just as easy, simple and fast as the original OE. Looks just like it. Try the free version but I think you have to pay for a version with more than 2 accounts. Since I paid for Office with Outlook I am going to see if I can get used to that first before I use the OEClassic myself. Main thing I see with Outlook is it does not work as fast as my old Outlook Express. And I really just need something simple."

    http://www.geeksquad.co.uk/articles/microsoft-outlook-what-are-the-best-free-alternatives
    – "I still use Outlook for personal mail but have moved our business mail to SeaMonkey which handles multiple email accounts wonderfully. We moved to SeaMonkey after Thunderbird became unstable and unreliable and kept hanging for no obvious reason - possible because it seems it is not being updated anymore by Mozilla. Certainly that was my evidence."

    http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/five-apps/five-top-alternatives-to-microsoft-outlook/
    – "I agree. Jack seems a likable enough fellow, but like so many in the open source community, his view is obviously biased. Rather than gather facts and produce a conclusion from assessing them, he starts from a conclusion and tries to gather up facts to support it. It's not intellectually sound. OTOH, maybe Jack can have a future as a politician, if he embraces that methodology."
    – "I think I tired of Thunderbird about 2 years ago. It seemed to be taking far too long to start. I read a good article on Postbox which I have been using it now for 2 years without any glitches and it fires up fast every time. I never rely on leaving my stuff on someone else's server and download all my stuff from my 6 gmail accounts just using google as my backup. I've read many stories of people being locked out of their accounts without proper explanation to trust any corporation "not to be evil". Check out this guy's experience."
    "(1) Pegasus would install and run on Windows XP, but I could never get it to connect to the Internet, let alone download e-mail. No one in their "rich user community" of 4 or 5 who tried to resolve the problem could figure out why it didn't work. (2) Thunderbird fell victim to the ego of the unsupervised "we can code" crowd that seems to have infiltrated the Mozilla development team while the veterans were away or asleep. Version 3 caused one e-mail directory to completely vanish because that one happened to be named "Archives" (as it had been for years) -- which the re-developer(s) decided would become a "reserved" directory for storing all of the unsorted e-mail messages on their computer just to get them out of the inbox. *That* "Archives" could, of course, be searchable by the shiny new and highly complex "e-mail message search" feature with the learning curve from hell. Then Trolly permanently banned me from using the Mozilla forums because he or she didn't appreciate my report as to the fact that critical, important e-mail messages which I dearly needed to keep were wantonly obliterated. I could not find anything with the "data recovery" utilities which were available, but paying for someone else to recover them would have been accompanied by a declaration of bankruptcy. Eventually I found most of them on a backup of the Version 2 installation which I had burned into a CD, but only the directory and not any of the files could be read from it. It was unclear as to whether the media was flawed or the burner wasn't working correctly. Succinctly, I just cannot afford the lost time and effort engendered by the Thunderbird installation "packager's" sheer stupidity and malicious "practical jokes", such as limiting the amount of e-mail storage to a default of 40 MB effective immediately upon installation of Version 2, thereby causing all e-mail stored in files that required more than 40 MB to vanish. That was not immediately obvious, since only the messages that caused the file to be larger were eliminated. Oh well."
    – "Thanks to Microsoft's many years of monopolistic shenanigans (which that 2001, Bush-era "settlement" did squat to reign in) especially at the U.S. corporate level (where low tech IT personnel cluelessly and complacently allowed themselves be manipulated and played for as fools on a grand scale), the commercial market for products competing with the deadly Office/Exchange combo basically all but completely died, with the main competing players being open source stuff like Thunderbird (which like Firefox, is a remnant of Netscape's crushed attempt at competing) and OpenOffice and its derivatives. The open source stuff has tended to be glacial in development and random in quality -- the early versions of Firefox took forever to reach the 1.0 level, Thunderbird became sucky with the 3.x series, and OpenOffice is still too slow. As far as MS Office goes, when it still had competition, it was a relatively OK enough product during its 95/97/2k/2k2 years (although I never had reason to use it since my main office-related activity is typing up stuff, and Word was never in contention with the best word processing products available at a given time.) The 2003 version wasn't horrible, but it was noticeably more bloated, slower and quirkier than its earlier versions, and that bloated quirkiness got dramatically worse with the 2007 & 2010 versions (You can almost imagine a discussion at Microsoft with some higher up going "What are they going to do -- switch to a competing, compatible office suite?!" and the rest of the room bursting into laughter.) As far as Outlook goes, it was always a hodgepodge of components, as befitting its start as a contact manager and scheduler, with email added in later. Outlook Express was always better at email handling than Outlook, and other programs like Daytimer and Lotus organizer, were better at contact management and scheduling. And it was always terrible at printing anything other than emails. But Outlook was not horrible enough for people to move out of the "all-Microsoft" desktop environment that corporate America complicitously adopted. Which put competitors in the bad position of not only have to be a *lot* better than Outlook to have any chance of headway, but there was always that not so little issue of what to do with the Exchange Server factor on top of that. Every year or so I would dutifully look far and wide for Office and Exchange alternatives, and while solid Exchange alternatives have been out for a while now, the Office alternatives were always more problematic. For what it's worth, my current suite recommendation is Softmaker Office -- its current 2010 version is laughable quicker than MS Office 2010 and especially any version of OpenOffice. It's a commercial product, but the 2008 version is free, although lacking compatibility with the DOCX/XLSX rubbish. (They do have nice free standalone DOCX and XLSX viewers you can get, and the DOCX one is better at printing than MS Word 2010.) None of SoftMaker's Office versions had an email client, but that's changing -- the 2012 beta has the eM Client bundled in. As a test I pointed it towards my old Yahoo Mail account and I'll be darned that it was able to sync up with it a *lot* better than Gmail did. Promising but.... the way of Gmail and Google Apps and similar is the real direction of email access. A number of universities in recent years implemented costly Outlook/Exchange systems (although I suspect they got some not so bad deals) only to find out it was too late -- the bulk of students and even the faculty simply had their school mail forwarded to their Gmail accounts. Outlook is basically old, obsolete software to current students and recent graduates armed with Android/iPhone/iPad tech and a whole different way of doing things. And it's not just that -- look at all the cool new word processing apps for the Apple platforms that make Word look as dated as WordStar, and online services like Prezi and Pixlr that make old school programs like Powerpoint and Photoshop redundant. So while these periodic articles about alternatives for Microsoft products serve as a nice reminders to low tech folk who would struggle to name 2 competing word processing products, as far as the future of Outlook and desktop apps in general for those same folk, it's going to be a cloud-based world."
    {here I noted : “comment far more interesting and thorough than the article itself !”}
    – "I have used it for years - One ridiculous flaw. If you switch folders while it is downloading it will frequently crash. You then cannot restart pegasus. I discovered the cure after numerous crashes.. In the mail directory there would be a file with suffix cnm and zero length - delete this file and Pegasus functions perfectly again. Previously I had find dlete all files in the directory and find last backup and restore."

    http://www.macworld.com/article/2068531/foxmail-review-email-client-from-china-with-mo...affection.html
    – "I would have liked its search (which quickly lets you specify whether a query’s in the subject, recipient, sender, or content of a message) a lot better if Foxmail gave me more messages to search. But unlike other clients I’ve tested, Foxmail only grudgingly pulls in your older mail, inconsistently and piecemeal, and makes you manually load earlier messages one chunk at a time. If I connect to my Gmail account, I’d like to be able to search it all by default. "
    – "For a program not built for this neck of the woods, Foxmail actually looks and works pretty darn well. But given the lack of English help, I can’t imagine why anyone not living in China would choose it over the plethora of high-quality, fuller-featured, cheap or free email apps popping up here in the States. "

    http://www.makeuseof.com/answers/recommend-email-client-replace-outlook-express/
    – "I personally haven’t tried Element Mail Desktop but it looks like it might be worth it to give it a shot."
    – "eM client is a really overlooked alternative."
    – "I went through this a couple of years back when my Outlook bit the big one and personally I found Eudora much better for me than Thunderbird. Looks like they also have a new open source beta out..."
    – "WinLiveMail is what happens when MS took OutlookExpress and did their absolute best to trash it and make it painfully slow and try to force you into WinMessenger. Use Thunderbird! It’s FOSS (FREE Open Source Software), it’s much more stable than any MS counterpart, it links up with Sunbird (calendar software) it can easily be used from a USB drive (www.portableapps.com), it has hundreds of plugins for special features and best of all it’s cross-platform. Use it on any flavor of Windoze, Linux, Mac, etc."
    – "Or you could always use Evolution. It too is cross platform i.e. Linux & Window$. Performs in a similar manner to Micro$oft Outlook, but FOSS (FREE open source software)"

    http://community.sitepoint.com/t/best-alternative-to-outlook-express/5561/25
    – "Thunderbird is mutton dressed as lamb. Try importing your Outlook emails into Thunderbird. That should be easy, shouldn't it? Literally MILLIONS of potential Thunderbird users would expect to do this. Well it might sound easy, but when Thunderbird has finished 'importing' you'll find that only the emails that were in the 'personal folders' you created in Outlook (eg for customers, friends, etc) have been imported. Nothing in your Outlook Inbox or Sent folders will have made it across to Thunderbird. Of course they don't bother to mention this in the (non-existent) Help files. You'll only find this out after wasting a lot of time actually doing it. Then you'll search for a solution on Google and find that countless other people have the same problem - year, after year, after year... But still the problem persists and is not addressed, whereas trivial gimmicks, like multi-coloured quote highlighter lines, are cheerfully promoted at great length in what pitifully little official 'Help' actually exists. Search a bit more and you find horror stories about Thunderbird being unable to import its own 'exported' records. It doesn't actually have an Export function, in fact, so even 'exporting' data has to be achieved by obscure, undocumented workarounds. For example a common requirement might be to transfer your Thunderbird email files to Thunderbird on another computer. Simple, you would think. Just export my files to a DVD, then import them again on the other machine. Prepare to be disappointed... I'm sure Thunderbird is all terribly clever if you have endless hours to waste coaxing it into a working condition, and if you enjoy disappointments and setbacks. Back in the real world I, for one, just don't have the patience any more to put up with this type of aggravation. Firefox is a polished and successful application. Thunderbird basks in the reflected glory of its high profile sibling, but it is the runt of the litter. I don't care if it's free and created by dedicated volunteers - it's hyped up to a level it can't justify. It wastes a lot of people's time. Approach with care."

    http://www.maketecheasier.com/5-great-alternatives-to-microsoft-outlook/
    "Are you clinically insane? What kind of an idiot would use IncrediMail?"
    – "I agree. As an IT professional I have had to deal with the frustrations caused by IncrediMail many times. It has brought well performing PCs to a crawl. It is incredibly (pun intended) difficult to uninstall and getting your data exported from it is a PITA. This article lost all credibility to me when I saw his app as a recommendation."
    – "Dude, Thunderbird is best when “it comes to speed”? You must’ve been seriously smokin’… "

    http://wind8apps.com/windows-8-outlook-express/
    – "2 years ago I went from Vista to this miserable Windows 8. Had I wanted a huge 'Smart' phone rather than a computer program I would have gone that route! I hope the fleas of 1,000 camels infest Bill Gates' armpits and crotch. I have NEVER been so frustrated with a computer program until now and I resent it. Windows 8 can kiss my apps!!!!!"
    – "What the hell; why curse Bill? He retired years ago and doesn’t make descisions any more; he turned over those responsibilities to Steve Ballmer in 2000 to work full-time on his charity. Do you curse Henry Ford for bad decisions that the company makes today?"
    – "Outlook express finally works on windows 7 and 8 Look Here: http://rafailb.tk/index.php?itemid=27"
    – "I recently bought a new PC. I'm looking for a replacement for my old Outlook Express, but OE Classic is NOT what I'm looking for. It doesn't support IMAP (Outlook Express did support IMAP) and I'm not switching back to POP3. Also you have to use regedit to change the folder the program is going to store your mails in."
    – "I was searching for OE alternatives, but with no luck.
    Thunderbird - will not take my addresses and uses a different structure to store the mails.
    The Bat - nice, takes all the addresses but no address folders. Now I have around 1600 clients in one folder. Forward mails and you lose the format at all.
    Claws - will not format mails at all and will not work with drag and drop of pictures.
    Outlook - will cut attachments that are suspicious. Too big to be easy and handy.
    Pegasus - not easy to work with. Will not accept my OE mails folders.
    Well - no luck so far "

    http://www.reddit.com/r/Ubuntu/comments/2dudh4/thunderbird_and_evolution_both_suck_is_there_a/
    – "Linux is like the McRib, It keeps coming back and intising me, yet when I get it, it is not as great as I hoped"

    http://www.databasesandlife.com/mozilla-thunderbird-sucks/
    – "Thunderbird corrupts files because uses an antiquated storage type for mails. That is MBOX . MBOX uses one file per directory. If you have many emails in one directory than everything is stored in ONE huge file. Finding something, deleting inserting is going to be very slow and a nightmare to maintain. In addition, concurrent operations are not allowed and the file is easily corrupted. I tried TB because it is well designed, but the MBOX issue is a NO go for me. I switched to claws mail and never looked back. CM uses the MH storage format and mail delivery and can can accommodate the most pretentious user. It has filters, pre/post rules, etc. Try it. It is available for Linux and Windows. I am not user about Mac."

    [and a nice quote that was copied right afterward in the same document]
    “If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; but if you really make them think, they'll hate you.” -- Harlan Ellison
    Last edited by abolibibelot; 19th Dec 2020 at 00:45.
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  10. Member netmask56's Avatar
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    I transferred from Outlook Express eons ago to Hotmail when it started and then Gmail. Does everything I need and I can get to it anywhere. But then I have a friend who is physically younger than me but older in his habits, so he is stuck on XP and Outlook Express and is always having problems.
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  11. Well, my mother, who is as computer illiterate as you can imagine, uses Gmail, and I hate it, if only because, every time she asks me how to do something, and I manage to figure it out (through a TeamViewer session as we're ~450km apart) and explain it to her, the damn thing gets completely overhauled a few weeks later with no warning, no notice, no choice from the user, and we're back to square one... é_č (Why, why, WHY did they have to hide the “Brouillons” = “drafts” folder under a “+” sign ? WHY is it now necessary to hover over the watchamacallit with the mouse pointer to display the stuff that used to be almost readily accessible ? WHY did they have to replace text icons by stupid fancy hyeroglyphs that now have to be added to an already overcluttered long-term memory ?... All this style-over-substance bullshit that's at work everywhere these days is driving me mad...) Still, it's preferable to a local storage e-mail managing solution for someone who barely understands the most basic concepts of how computers operate (for instance she has a hard time registering the difference between the Windows session password and the e-mail account password), and (provided that there's no major SNAFU at Google's datacenters, or some fascist decision at Google's headquarters that e-mail from before 2016 ought to be deleted overnight to reduce greenhouse gases emissions by 0.2% while they're developping cutting edge 8K 5G streaming services that will increase them by 12%) is probably safer for long-term storage than a local database with no proper backup.

    But this is all veering me way off the initial request. Regardless of the fact that the issue concerns Outlook Express, which I'm aware is now considered as an utterly antiquated software, what could be possible explanations to such a problem ?
    One thing I noticed is that whenever a search is made, a “Search Folder (NNN).dbx” file is created (“NNN” being an incremental number), and it usually stays there ; then the last such file that was created is “Search Folder (499).dbx”, which is a peculiar number. It could mean that for some reason the numbering scheme can only go up to 499 and then a new file numbered 500 can't be created so it stops working. Yet I've tried moving those “Search Folder” files to another folder, didn't solve the issue. It could be related with the “Folders.dbx” file which keeps track of all the other DBX files, so perhaps performing a full compacting of all folders (which is the only way to compact / restructure the “Folders.dbx” file itself), or deleting it altogether (but that would lose all the nested folders / subfolders organization), or restoring it from a backup made before the search stopped working (since I do have backups from earlier this year), would solve the damn issue, that's something I haven't tried.
    Last edited by abolibibelot; 20th Dec 2020 at 21:42.
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  12. I tend to use Thunderbird on my machines, and a number of clients have also switched. It is configurable, it works with the latest Gmail etc., and there are add-ons if you want to use them. Choose a version and turn off the updates. Oh, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if it couldn't import 20+ years of emails etc. It's not perfect but it's the best, most configurable free client that I've found. (You're worrying over whether you've read a 10 year old e-mail or not . . . ?)

    Anyway, good luck in your quest. Let us know how you get on.
    "Well, my days of not taking you seriously are certainly coming to a middle." - Captain Malcolm Reynolds
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  13. You're worrying over whether you've read a 10 year old e-mail or not . . . ?
    Yes, as a matter of fact I do. I'm really really weird I know. I'm too far gone yet I'm going nowhere.
    And it's not going to get better any time soon, I'm afraid.
    (There is a scene in the otherwise lousy german movie adaptation of Michel Houellebecq's novel Les particules élémentaires — a scene which doesn't play out quite like in the novel but feels surprisingly genuine and relevant, character-wise, considering how the movie fails to address most of the core concepts that make the novel so brilliantly thought-provoking — where the main protagonist, Michel Djerzinski (Michael in the movie), meets his childhood best friend, then a rapturously beautiful girl who was in love with him, but from whom he distanced himself later in adolescence, as he was simply unable to respond to that love, being utterly withdrawn emotionally and barely able to connect with another human being at the most basic level ; and so they've been apart for about two decades, he became a renowned biologist, she suffered a lot with men as her beauty proved to be a curse rather than a blessing... and when they meet again, now both 40, both single, she asks him why he never replied to her letters, and he simply replies that he read them all the day before. It may seem ridiculous to most, implausible even, but I know exactly how it feels, and what state of mind it implies.)
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  14. Member
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    You sound like a hoarder.
    When is the last time you even referenced an email from 2008 ?

    The issue is that old emails are in a PST ?
    Great, then keep those in Outlook local

    I have stuff going back to at least 2008 in my Hotmail web acct.
    Hook your Hotmail acct to Gmail, and have the archive there.

    Then move to the new century and Win10 and Windows Mail.
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  15. For what it's worth (not much I'm afraid) the cause of the issue was indeed the number of "Search Folder (XXX).dbx" files reaching an arbitrary threshold of 499, and I managed to solve it earlier this year by wiping all fields referencing those files in the "Folders.dbx" file with WinHex (moving / deleting the files and running the "compact all" procedure wasn't enough -- that "Folders.dbx" file keeps referencing DBX folders long after they have been removed -- whereas specifically wiping those fields did the trick and had no adverse effect). I could find only one forum thread (in french, from 2008) mentioning that specific issue, with no solution except deleting the "Folders.dbx" file altogether (which means having to recreate the whole folders / subfolders hierarchy from scratch -- in that case, the O.P. was trying to solve this issue for a client, a woman who had been managing "human resources" for a large company for 7 years and who had more than 440 e-mail folders -- I have almost 400 myself), which is quite dumbfounding considering how many people used to use that program for quite a few years, many of them in a professional environment.

    And I still haven't moved on to the new century (or rather its second decade, let alone the third), nor do I intend to do so in the foreseeable future. (Regarding the last reply above : does Windows Mail even work on Windows 10 ? I thought that it had been discontinued too.)
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  16. Video Restorer lordsmurf's Avatar
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    Step 1. Buy DeLorean.
    Step 2. Go back in time to when people actually used Outlook Express.

    Done.
    Want my help? Ask here! (not via PM!)
    FAQs: Best Blank DiscsBest TBCsBest VCRs for captureRestore VHS
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  17. Member
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    Originally Posted by abolibibelot View Post
    And I still haven't moved on to the new century (or rather its second decade, let alone the third), nor do I intend to do so in the foreseeable future. (Regarding the last reply above : does Windows Mail even work on Windows 10 ? I thought that it had been discontinued too.)
    The best thing that can happen to you is your PC lights on fire.

    Yes, Win10 comes with a Mail reader program that is just like Outlook
    It's called "Windows Mail"

    Building a new PC with fresh WIn10 will be liberating for you.
    Do it.
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