Microsoft Outlook Express Email Extraction

Martin — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 20:24:55 +0000

Microsoft Outlook Express emails are stored in so called dbx files named after the folder in the email program with the exception of folders.dbx which contains information about all Outlook folders. The dbx files are not really accessible by normal means, the only possible way is to either use Microsoft Outlook or extract the messages from the dbx file to be able to access them directly.

UnDBX is a command line utility that can extract the email messages found in Microsoft Outlook dbx files. It extracts them into the more versatile eml format which can then be accessed and viewed in text editors or email clients. The eml format is more widely supported which means it can also be opened (or imported) in various email clients.

The command to extract dbx files is undbx DBX-DIRECTORY OUTPUT-DIRECTORY. The program will automatically extract email messages of all dbx files in the selected directory. The developer added a vbs script (Visual Basic) that offers a graphical user interface for the same process. It will display a file browser that can be used to selected the source directory that has to contain the dbx files and a destination directory for the eml files.

UnDBX is a small command line tool that can be useful in certain situations. The developer has created it to facilitate fast incremental backups of .dbx files. Other tools that might be of interested are the Outlook Express Message Extractor and the Windows Live Mail And Microsoft Outlook Mail Viewer.

Tags: dbx, dbx files, Email, email client, eml, microsoft outlook, outlook, outlook express

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Microsoft Outlook Express Email Extraction

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