Migrating From Outlook 2003 to Windows Mail

[Jody Thornton]

Given that Microsoft Office 2003 extended phase support ends along with XP. I am migrating to Windows Mail and Calandar apps in Vista for now. Is there ANY way at all to convert the Outlook 2003 rules to ones that can be uised by Windows Mail? All directions seem to point to "no", but I wanted to double and triple check with the experts.

[jaclaz]

OT , and completely unlike useful for your actual issue , some old time wise words to ponder upon:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumping_from_the_frying_pan_into_the_fire

jaclaz

[Jody Thornton]

So I take it that you're saying Windows Mail is insecure? What is it that's bad about Windows Mail?

[bpalone]

You might want to consider some other FREE alternatives. Mozilla's Thunderbird is a decent free email client that I have used for years on both Windows and Linux. I am not sure, but I think that it can import your setting and mail from Outlook. Maybe someone can chime in with a definitive answer to that.

There are other free email clients available, so don't just consider the one I use. Do a Google for email clients and you will have plenty to look at.

bpalone

[Jody Thornton]

I used T-Bird for years. I halted it's use as of version 3 when they began indexing mail and offering tabs. I've found it slow ever since.

I use Seamonkey Mail on my notebook and I tried it on my desktop as a POP client (it reminds me more of version 2x of Thunderbird). But it's just as slow as Thunderbird 3x+.

I have also tried Evolution, Opera and maybe fifteen others. I really liked the interface of Windows Mail.

What is it that's really wrong with Windows Mail (no one has answered that yet). Is it any worse than Outlook 2003?

[jaclaz]

I don't think that the built in Vista Windows Mail (which I believe is what you are wanting to use) has the features that Outlook 2003 has.

AFAIK the Windows Mail is the "evolution" of Outlook Express, i.e. a "consumer version" of a "professional tool" (Outlook).

You may want to try Zimbra desktop:

http://www.zimbra.com/products/zimbra-desktop/index.html

but importing contacts, Rules, etc. will likely, if possible at all, be a nightmare .

emclient:

http://www.emclient.com/features

is said to be a "direct competitor" to Outlook, and seemingly has some facilities for migrating, but I have never actually tested it (I use Opera M2 and see no real reason to change it for anything else, given my limited - or primitive if you prefer - needs for e-mail).

jaclaz

[Jody Thornton]

Yes I realize that Windows Mail is the next "Outlook Express" and has less faetures than Outlook. Is it any less secure though. I figured that using the Windows Calendar and Windows Mail would give me most of the features I need. I haven't tried emClient to my memory, but I HATED Zimbra. Outlook 2003 was MUCH faster.

[bphlpt]

You talk about your desire for speed, compatibility, and security. If you also throw in familiarity, then I think you have set yourself a very high goal, though I agree that it is the ideal solution. Speaking strictly about security, though to be honest I have no figures to back up my feelings, I think of ALL of the the MS internet, mail and security tools as being more likely to be insecure than third party tools strictly from the standpoint that having the largest installed base they are more likely to be targeted by hackers. That sure seems to be the case for IE, for example. So I avoid them all if I have any options at all. Just my opinion.

Cheers and Regards

[Jody Thornton]

No that's fair. I just want to know if Windows Mail would be as secure as say Outlook 2007. I really don't want to move to Office 2007 (I'm not a ribbon fan). So I've moved to Kingsoft Office 2012, which provides excellent Office 2007 compatibility for Word, Excel and PowerPoint. I thought I would round out the suite with Windows Mail and Calendar.

What I would REALLY love is that if there was a way to continue using Office 2003. I really love the suite as is, including Outlook. I just wish I could keep using it. I simply wish there was a way to keep it "reasonably" secure. I think most times that security is down to how the user behaves by not opening the wrong attachments or links.

[bphlpt]

What I would REALLY love is that if there was a way to continue using Office 2003. I really love the suite as is, including Outlook. I just wish I could keep using it. I simply wish there was a way to keep it "reasonably" secure. I think most times that security is down to how the user behaves by not opening the wrong attachments or links.

Just like I have said in other threads here at MSFN along the lines of "How secure will XP after it is no longer officially supported after April 2014?", I think that a home user could probably continue to use Office 2003 for quite awhile and still be reasonably secure if you used a good router with a hardware firewall, kept your 3rd party AV and software firewall current, and most importantly, were a thoughtful, careful user, just as you stated above. If you like it and it meets your needs, and if you can't find a third party solution that is as good, I would say keep using Office 2003, just be a smart user. I might advise differently for a business user with different liability issues, but it still might be able to be used.

Cheers and Regards

[tomasz86]

Does it really matter that much in case of an e-mail client? One could say that there may be security flaws related to HTML e-mails and such, but I'd argue that it's no way as severe as in case of using ex. older web browser. As long as you download HTML / image content of incoming e-mails only on demand, and don't open e-mails coming from unknown sources everything should be fine. I can't speak for others but from my experience I can say that it's quite easy to distinguish betweem spam / malware e-mails and valid ones.

I agree that the newer versions of Thunderbird are horrible. They are way too heavy, bloated, buggy and the UI is very user-unfriendly. In the past I'd used Outlook 2003, then switched to Thunderbird and used the newest version available for a long time... but later downgraded to Thunderbird 3.1.20 which is the last version of the 3.x.x branch. It was released in 2012 so it's still relatively new. More importantly, it's MUCH lighter and faster than the new releases (you can disable indexing if you want in the settings). It also works in all Windows OS starting from Windows 2000 to Windows 8.1 (tested myself).

Here's the portable version if you decide to give it a try: Mozilla Thunderbird, Portable Edition 3.1.20

In terms of speed I can't really see any significant difference different between Thunderbird 3.1.20 and Outlook 2003. I didn't like Outlook 2003 mainly due to:

1. Lack of full Unicode support which caused a lot of problems with displaying e-mails / folder names that used language specific characters.

2. Need to reconfigure everything from scratch each time the OS was reinstalled.

[bphlpt]

@jody, you might want to read here - http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/170810-ok-ok-well-support-it-lol/?p=1067639, including the linked to articles. I think many of the same things discussed re XP also apply in this case to your concerns with the safety of Office 2003, if you would really rather stick with it rather than switch to a third party alternative,

Cheers and Regards

[Flasche]

@jody if I recall properly you said that you were a sea monkey user. Sea monkey has its own mail client too. ( I bet you know that though )

EDIT: heres a list of 11 free Email programs http://email.about.com/od/windowsemailclients/tp/free_email_prog.htm

and heres another site full of free alternatives http://alternativeto.net/software/mozilla-thunderbird/?license=free&platform=windows&tag=email-client

When I was doing some quick searching around for small fast mail clients this one was talked about alot i.Scribe/InScribe Email Client (free) **never used it**

Edited February 3, 2014 by Flasche

[Jody Thornton]

@jody if I recall properly you said that you were a sea monkey user. Sea monkey has its own mail client too. ( I bet you know that though )

EDIT: heres a list of 11 free Email programs http://email.about.com/od/windowsemailclients/tp/free_email_prog.htm

and heres another site full of free alternatives http://alternativeto.net/software/mozilla-thunderbird/?license=free&platform=windows&tag=email-client

When I was doing some quick searching around for small fast mail clients this one was talked about alot i.Scribe/InScribe Email Client (free) **never used it**

I will certainly check those out. Thanks!

[Jody Thornton]

Hmmm emClient and a few others look promising, but some of these were more out of date than Windows Mail to be honest. The truth is, Windows Mail along with Calendar and Contacts works well together in Windows Vista. So I am going to stick with it, but I appreciate all of your advice and tips folks. Thanks!