New PC with windows 7 want to import outlook data and not use MS Outlook, but when i try to install it says i need to install Outlook first? Is there a way around this?
thanks
Hello, because PST format is not public format and we are not able to read it directly (in fact noone except Microsoft is completely able), so we must rely on Outlook API, that requires Outlook installed. However there are some rumours, that Microsoft is going to open PST format and then we may reconsider this whole thing (http://bink.nu/news/microsoft-opens-up-pst-file-format.aspx).
Good answer. Now let’s say I install eM on the outlook computer and it gets everything in properly, keeping folder structure and everything, how do I move that to the new win7 computer?
Usually, I’m not easily impressed. But you guys have my attention. I installed eM on the XP computer with Outlook. It took about 30 minutes of fairly intensive CPU utilization to import about 5700 mails, many with large attachments with only 1 error during the import. At first glance, everything seems to be there. So I copied the eM data directory over to the win7 box and to my surprise, everything seems to be there as well. I’ll make a more thorough check when I have more time, but Kudos for the Outlook import. If it works as well on Outlook Express, you have a new customer.
Hi, this scenario is reasonable, we store all data in our data directory, so when you copy the whole directory to new machine it will work smoothly with all your messages. Outlook express import should work even better, because it does not need OE present on the machine.
hummm… If it does not require OE, I’m guessing you just point to a directory that contains the OE .dbx files. How then can it import the contacts/address book?
Unrelated question, but while I’m at it… Is there a way to point the eM data directory to a network location to have a single email repository for multiple machines? That would be GREAT even if I can only run one eM instance on a single machine at a time! I’m comfortable with a registry hack at worst but I kinda remember reading somewhere that eM does not use the registry.
I have exactly this scenario but cannot install em client on my XP computer. Any suggestions?
Hi,
what error message or problem does appear when you install eM Client?
In order to install em client on my XP computer I had to first install M$'s Net framework. Once I did this I was able to install em client. It automatically imported all the Outlook stuff and I was then able to copy that data(overwriting the existing data folder) onto my new Windows 7 computer.
It is currently available now (Jan 2011)
May 2010, "Microsoft today announced the availability of two new open source projects that complement technical documentation recently released for Microsoft Outlook Personal Folders (.pst). "
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/interoperabil…
and
Yes, you are correct, PST specification is now public. The problem is that it is REALLY complex and it would take a huge time to implement a native format importer. However we will take it into a consideration. We’ll be really happy to have this functionality, but it is not an easy one.
Even though all of these comments are a year old, it appears as if the problem remains. Outlook is required on the target system. I exported the outlook as a PST (wrong way maybe?) and I cannot import it. Maybe if I install eM Client on the XP box (but I saw problems there as well), then move everything to eM to export it so I can move to the new machine.
Can you please define “whole directory”, Michael?