Hi,
I've just upgraded to 64-bit Vista Business Edition, and am using Windows Mail as my newsreader.
On WinXP, I used to use Outlook Express, and have several message rules there which I would like to bring into Windows Mail, if possible.
I found the following article: support.microsoft.com/kb/276511 which describes how to export Registry keys etc.
I tried to follow this procedure, once I'd realised that the Identities key is not used by Windows Mail. Although the Registry files were successfully imported, when I went to check them in Windows Mail the actual email addresses in the rule definitions were garbage - looked like Japanese characters...
Has anyone successfully managed to export rules from Outlook Express and import them into Windows Mail?
Any assistance gratefully received.
Mark

"Mark Rae"

Does no-one know how to do this...? Am I asking the impossible...?

from whithin your XP must export from registry de rules key ( it is a .reg file and with your Vista running, pick wuth righy button to merge the reg file to get rules running, need to restart computer
sorry i don't know a simplest way to do this

Saludos
Antonio

"Mark Rae"

Mark, it is not something that I have done, but it has been discussed. Google is your friend, but I suggest that you read the entire thread as some debate does take place on the methodology?
groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.windows.vista.mail/browse_thread/thread/dc12dd095acf2d7c/8a8112c62a520119?lnk=st&q=&rnum=7&hl=en#8a8112c62a520119

"Antonio Amengual"

See my original post...

" mac"

See my original post...

"Mark Rae"

Figured it out, as follows:
Both Outlook Express and Windows Mail store the individual addresses in the rule objects as binary (DWORD) strings. If I added mark markrae.co.uk and mark markrae.com to a rule, the values would be stored in Outlook Express like this: markrae.net/OE.jpg
That is, each individual address is separated by a 00, and there are three 00 values at the end of the string.
However, in Windows Mail, the values would be stored like this: markrae.net/WM.jpg
As you can see, there is an additional 00 value between each character.
I strongly suspect that this is because I'm running Windows Mail on 64-bit Vista, whereas I was running Outlook Express on 32-bit WinXP Pro - either that, or it's Unicode...
Therefore, although the mechanism of exporting and importing Registry keys will almost certainly work for 32-bit Windows Mail, it clearly won't for 64-bit Windows Mail, which is why I was getting the garbage.
Hmm - I think I feel a utility coming on... ;-)

I meant to answer this earlier. The rules shift to Unicode so you have to fix that. Here's the basics that I posted back in December. The mail folders you will have to respecify as they don't carry over.
Okay there are actually 4 issues, but I figured out two of them.
This is for a single rule at the moment. I'll try and program it so it doesn't have to be done rule by rule.
First export the rule from the machine with OE:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities\{GUID}\Software\Microsoft\Outlook Express\5.0\Rules\Mail\002
where GUID is the Identity and this is rule 3
Then edit the reg file with Notepad.
Do replace for
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities\{GUID}\Software\Microsoft\Outlook Express\5.0
with
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows Mail
Then save the file.
Then the search strings have been changed to Unicode so set the cursor where the Rule Criteria start. Then do a second replace until the end of the file and search for
,
replace with
,00,
Then in the last line of each criteria add
,00
Then save.
Then create a mock rule in the registry with WinMail and close WinMail. Then delete that mock key in the registry. Make sure the rule number in the saved reg file matches that that you just deleted.
Then merge the file into the registry.
Open WinMail and go to Tools | Message rules and you see the new message rule spelled out okay when you click on it, except for the folder name. You will still have to specify the folder names again because those are coded numerically, I think.
Anyway, that will work, but its a bit involved to do manually.
steve
"Mark Rae"

"Steve Cochran"

Actually, once I'd figured it all out, it was a piece of cake to update manually - just very tedious :-)
This is crying out for someone to write a utility...

Yeah, yeah. <G>
"Mark Rae"