So i started by burning all relevant files to a DVD. The relevant files were all the Outlook .dbx files that I was able to find in Documents & Settings. To be precise the correct path is \Local Settings\Application Data\Identities… It’s a hidden folder so make sure that one is revealed to you. My thoughts were that it would surely be only a matter of seconds to import those dbx files into Windows Mail and be on my way home.

Unfortunately though Windows Mail behaves a little bit erratic when it comes to importing mails from Outlook Express. I suppose it behaves the same way when importing mails from Outlook. Whenever i tried to import the email by pointing Windows Mail to the folder the mail was saved in it automatically added a second Outlook Express folder in the path.

Selecting e:\outlook express as the path would lead to e:\outlook express\outlook express as the import path. Now I tried to select e:\ only in the hope that this would solve the problem but surprisingly though it did not add the folder outlook express whenever I tried that.

Here is the trick that worked. I created a new folder in outlook express, named it outlook express and did move all the dbx files into that folder. I then pointed the import folder to e:\outlook express, the second outlook express folder was added and the mails were imported just fine.

You start the import by clicking on File > Import > Messages by the way. This way I was able to import dbx files from Outlook Express into Windows Mail without difficulties. I’m not sure why a second folder is added in the path automatically but it surely has to have a reason.

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A quick research revealed that Microsoft actually created a Knowledge Base article describing that exact problem. The article suggests patching Windows Mail to resolve the issue. Mails can be deleted after applying the patch to the system.

The problem seems to occur when the stream entries for the messages are inaccessible before Windows Mail deletes the messages from the Outbox. One possibility would be a notebook running out of battery in this exact moment. If you got stuck messages in the outbox of Windows Mail download the patch and delete the messages afterwards. The patch is available for both the 32-bit and 64-bit version of Windows Vista.

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