Problem

Sometimes you need to take backups from the messages you've received with Outlook Express. Of course, you can select them one-by-one and do "File->Save as...". Or you could choose multiple messages and drag&drop them into some suitable folder in Windows Explorer using your mouse. Both of these ways take quite a lot of time and require that you're sitting in front of your computer most of the time. If you're forced to doing this often, it becomes very boring after a few times. There should be an easier way to do the task.

This application has not been tested under Windows XP SP2. It is possible that it does not work and that your computer may stop responding if you run it on the named platform.

However, since this application has read-only-access to Outlook Express -files, testing should not harm your system in any way.

Solution

[Screenshot of OE Backup Tool]

After having done the backup manually a few times I though "oh, what the heck" and made a "small" utility for automating the process as much as possible; enter the OE Backup Tool.

Using the tool is actually quite straight-forward; If you haven't already, download the file oebackup.zip and unzip contents of the file into some comfortable location. After this:

  1. Make sure that Outlook Express is not running at this time and start the application (otherwise OE's datafiles will be in use and the application can not access them).
  2. Select the folders you wish to backup by ticking the appropriate checkboxes.
  3. Click on "BACKUP SELECTED".

You're done. The application starts going through the selected folders and backing up anything it finds inside them (this operation can take quite some time if you have messages with large attachments). After everything has been backed up, the application will ZIP the messages into a single file and clean up the mess it made during the process :P

The application does not modify anything inside Outlook Express's DBX-files, the files are opened in read-only -mode, so there is no possibility for data loss during the backup process.

Known bugs

It's not actually a bug, but rather a feature; the application does not backup messages that are not stored locally (sometimes this is the case with IMAP-folders and Usenet-messages). This is because the contents of the message really is on the server and thus can not be retrieved.

Unknown bugs

If you encounter a bug using this application, please report it to me at markku.uttula@disconova.com

Hold on - what's the price?

Everybody using this program is granted a free right to use it. No other rights are passed - you should also check the legal mumbo-jumbo below.

Let's make this clear. I'm not selling this program to You or anybody else for that matter. Furthermore, I'm not taking any money from people who choose to use it. As the copyrightholder, among other rights I keep myself the right to change my mind anytime and possibly start charging a small amount of money from people who use this application - at present, if you so wish, you could give some money to some charity work. :)

Legal mumbo-jumbo

You are not allowed to make this application available for download on any other site than this one. Link here; after all - this is the Internet, linking is easy. However, you are not allowed to link directly to the ZIP-package. Every link must be pointed into this page exclusively.

You agree that the program is offered to the Public without warranty and is offered as-is. The Author takes no responsibility implied or otherwise to the loss/damage of data or information. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.