PDL
01-06-02, 09:33 PM
This is in answer to my own query previouly titled "EMAIL PROBLEMS" in which I was trying to get the email messages from my old system data to a new system.
Well, OK. Here is the long and short of it. The problem is/was that there are older versions of the Outlook Express software that are not compatible with the new ones.
Prior to rebuilding the system, I saved the contents of the hard drive to a CD-R so that I would be able to reestablish the mail and browser favorites among other things. Ha!!
After I reformatted the hard drive to do a clean install of Win98, it loaded IE4 and of course OE version 4.
No it is NOT Win98SE or ME! Now most folks would not have this problem, as they are probably prone to go out and buy the newest OS and related software and backward compatibility is not much of an issue. Unfortunately it is even less of an issue with the people who write the new software and I suspect that even the term “backward compatibility” is becoming as extinct as the dinosaurs!!
Version 4 of OE does not use the same setup to use multiple identities. It simply logs you off and starts a different desktop with another user. I am not sure how it keeps track of the different email settings and messages. I didn’t leave it running long enough for that much investigative work, maybe later on my test system.
Anyway, I downloaded IE6 and installed it and it installed OE version 6 as expected. What I was using before was version 5. The version 5 came with the installation disk for my ISP setup.
Now, about importing messages. OE4 does not have that capability simply because of the difference in the PATH where the messages are kept. OE5 does have import capability but it CANNOT import files from another source, the cd-rom files. In other words, it cannot import OE5 messages. That is simply not an option in the selection when importing. My solution was to load MS Outlook via Office 97 and run an import function from Outlook. Outlook has the ability to import from a number of sources and oddly enough, OE5 is NOT one of them. It does however import from OE4 and OE6. Using the OE6 selection I was able to import the OE5 messages to Outlook, go figure! Then, going back to OE6, I was able to import the messages from Outlook. What a long way around a simple problem!
At one point I could have simply copied the “identities” folder from the saved data disk to the same path in the primary hard drive. Something about such a move seems inherently wrong!
One final note for those who have gotten this far. When moving “favorites” or bookmarks from the old IE5 files to the new IE6, IE6 won’t import them like it says it does.
Here is the HELP section from IE5 and IE6:
(If you use Internet Explorer on several computers, you can easily share favorite items between computers by importing them. Also, if you use both Internet Explorer and Navigator, you can keep your favorites and bookmarks up-to-date with each other by importing them between programs.
To import bookmarks or favorites, click the File menu, and then click Import and Export.)
Well, you try it! When you try to import from a file it looks for “bookmark.htm”. The first and only place it found that file was in the Netscape directory. Beyond that it is looking for .html and .htm files and it should find them in C:\Windows\Favorites directory. But it cannot SEE them to choose them!!! AARRGG!!
Questions, comments and corrections are welcome!!
Have a nice day!
:)
Well, OK. Here is the long and short of it. The problem is/was that there are older versions of the Outlook Express software that are not compatible with the new ones.
Prior to rebuilding the system, I saved the contents of the hard drive to a CD-R so that I would be able to reestablish the mail and browser favorites among other things. Ha!!
After I reformatted the hard drive to do a clean install of Win98, it loaded IE4 and of course OE version 4.
No it is NOT Win98SE or ME! Now most folks would not have this problem, as they are probably prone to go out and buy the newest OS and related software and backward compatibility is not much of an issue. Unfortunately it is even less of an issue with the people who write the new software and I suspect that even the term “backward compatibility” is becoming as extinct as the dinosaurs!!
Version 4 of OE does not use the same setup to use multiple identities. It simply logs you off and starts a different desktop with another user. I am not sure how it keeps track of the different email settings and messages. I didn’t leave it running long enough for that much investigative work, maybe later on my test system.
Anyway, I downloaded IE6 and installed it and it installed OE version 6 as expected. What I was using before was version 5. The version 5 came with the installation disk for my ISP setup.
Now, about importing messages. OE4 does not have that capability simply because of the difference in the PATH where the messages are kept. OE5 does have import capability but it CANNOT import files from another source, the cd-rom files. In other words, it cannot import OE5 messages. That is simply not an option in the selection when importing. My solution was to load MS Outlook via Office 97 and run an import function from Outlook. Outlook has the ability to import from a number of sources and oddly enough, OE5 is NOT one of them. It does however import from OE4 and OE6. Using the OE6 selection I was able to import the OE5 messages to Outlook, go figure! Then, going back to OE6, I was able to import the messages from Outlook. What a long way around a simple problem!
At one point I could have simply copied the “identities” folder from the saved data disk to the same path in the primary hard drive. Something about such a move seems inherently wrong!
One final note for those who have gotten this far. When moving “favorites” or bookmarks from the old IE5 files to the new IE6, IE6 won’t import them like it says it does.
Here is the HELP section from IE5 and IE6:
(If you use Internet Explorer on several computers, you can easily share favorite items between computers by importing them. Also, if you use both Internet Explorer and Navigator, you can keep your favorites and bookmarks up-to-date with each other by importing them between programs.
To import bookmarks or favorites, click the File menu, and then click Import and Export.)
Well, you try it! When you try to import from a file it looks for “bookmark.htm”. The first and only place it found that file was in the Netscape directory. Beyond that it is looking for .html and .htm files and it should find them in C:\Windows\Favorites directory. But it cannot SEE them to choose them!!! AARRGG!!
Questions, comments and corrections are welcome!!
Have a nice day!
:)