Is there any way to make OE portable? Its mail database is portable in a way as you can setup the location; the address book is also in a single wab file if I remember correctly. But the mail rules and the accounts are all in the registry... I'm pretty wet behind the ears with all this stuff, but I've read somewhere that you can actually intercept the program when it's writing to the registry and write it to a set location. So is there a way that I could make Outlook Express portable for my own personal use? I've been using it for a decade and I still think it's the easiest tool out there. If I could just carry it around with me...
EDIT: I'd like to use this post to ask if there is also a way to make FeedDemon portable?
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The app isn't open source. Sorry.
Isn't Thunderbird Portable good enough? If you search themes at the mozilla addons I bet you'll find an Outlook Express theme for Thunderbird.
[edit: I found one. Here you go
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/2349]
All Windows systems have OE so you don't need the sw to be portable you just need a process that would add your OE id (ISP name, signon id and password) and USB file locations to the host's Registry and then remove them when exiting. That would seem to be a simple process for a PA launcher to do.
However improper or inadequate removal of the OE entries could leave your email permanently compromised on the host machine.
Learning to use your ISP's webmail service is a safer option.
Ed
Seeing this post made me chuckle. I happy to suggest that Thunderbird will do as well, if not better than Outlook Express. I used it for years but this app, besides the legal issues, is so embedded in Windows and uses the Internet Explorer renderer it would be like separating the brain from the body, while it might be possible its very problematic.
So please try out Thunderbird.
Does your version of Thunderbird open internet links automatically? Mine won't that is why I was also looking for OE portable.
Darcy
add the Thunderbrowse add-on it will open them right in the Thunderbird window
“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.” Dr. Seuss
I've tried switching to TB a few times in the past - but it's so much different than OE that I just gave up every time. I have about а 100 message rules in OE and even more folders so getting everything into TB seems like mission impossible to me mainly because TB handles the message rules in a quite different fashion. But I'll do it again and hopefully will manage to switch this time.
getco, perhaps you want to review this Mozilla tutorial: Getting started with Thunderbird
Oh, I've checked them all out. I guess it'd just take some hard labor to set everything from scratch. And then some more time to get used to it. But it'd be well worth it!
http://www.imaginelan.com/winboot/index.html
This well rated app provides O and OE portability but is proprietary. But it proves the concept is doable. And there is a U3 version.
http://software.u3.com/Product_Details.aspx?ProductId=24&Selection=2
But not for Vista systems.
Ed
it is rather the data you have on your stuck and use the local inst of the prog.
The local settings are not affected and all functions needing profile and thus local data are pointed to the portable storage of the data.
Is slightly different approach then by portable thunderbird , but might be solution for people who need the outlook format to be preserved.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
I was just getting my emails into Thunderbird and I just remembered why I gave up on it the first few times - it's just so SLOOOOW. I mean the speed at which OE opens my mail folders is like 10 times faster than TB... and the mail database in TB takes about 50% more space. I wonder why in the world would that be so... I mean OE is like 10 years old and yet it's much faster and more compact.
You said it, and that's the key word.
If you delete, the emails are just marked for deletion but they stay in place.
They don't actually get deleted until you compact the folders.
Jim
neutron1132 (at) usa (dot) com
I shifted OE to thunderbird a long time ago. It is easy to import mail from OE to thunderbird but if you change your mind and choose another mail program then it is not impossible but very difficult to get your mail out of thunderbird. I now use iscribe http://www.memecode.com/scribe.php It is portable & very small, it also has a calendar and allows you to preview the mail headers online before downloading. I don't have a huge amount of mail so I just preview & delete online so I don't bother with spam filters - It does have a filter system if your want to use it.
So I just might try that little bugger and see how it goes... Though I still can't believe that TB is so slow. It just ain't right.
By the way is there a way to backup something from the registry? Just figured out that if there is I could probably stick around with OE for another decade until someone finally comes up with something to replace OE.
hmm, I dont think you really find any mail program being slow or fast. OK, when you the storage on the usb stick, there is a speed limit in how fast this can be stored on the stick. But then all progs must be same, since the protocol used (POP3) is same in both cases. And this one is not the fastest communication mean, the mails need to be called up one by one regardless of mail client. The deleting of the mails goes also same speed, much much much slower then any mail client software can act. Remamber, it is simple ascii commands sent back and for, one by one, confirmed one by one.
To delete 50 mails form average POP3 server can take often more then one minute, delte 50 mails local is matter of seconds.
Comparing speed, you need only to measure how fast the mails are stored on the local storage media.
If sometimes some mails are downloaded slowly, then best check the mailserve by telnet access, you will see, also then mails will come down slowly, since this means the server ist simply overloaded at that moment.
So speed comparison of POP3 clients can not be really done.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
I'm comparing the speed at which they access their own databases on my HDD. And so far OE is the winner! Not to mention its DB is smaller than the other two programs. I've just tested Scribe and it is also not a solution. I really don't see how OE could be faster than these two. I mean the program is old and is MS. That is beyond my imagination. If only I could program I'd create the ultimate portable, fast, simplistic mail program. It'd be the Google Chrome of mail programs.
I mean both progs have database. OK in OE it is more compressed stuff then under TB ofr example. TB stores in fact everything in plain text, so there is nothing much to be processed.
OE has to process the mails slightly more, since they have to be uncompressed first.
But then on any computer such mechanisms are measurable only when you have same number of same mails and measure the microsecs till a particular mail appears on the screen.
What measuring instruments do you use for it? With my eyes and some clock in my hand I can not measure time differencies of milisecs or even less.
So now I was trying to observe or 'measure' the difference between outlook 2000 (mails are all in one file compressed on the hard drive) and TB portable, mails are in plaintext on the usb stick.
Opening the same mail so it just appears in the preview pane, can not measure any differencies, since this must be in fractions of miliseconds.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
I have different mail folders some of which contain in excess of 10,000 mails. So when I click on that folder I it takes some time for the program to load it. That's the time I compare - OE opens the same folder much faster than TB. And the difference is huge enough to be spotted without even a clock. To me that is beyond any logic - why would a newer program, that is open-source at that, be slower than something engineered 10 or more years ago, that is a MS product at that.
to test it.
The difference is only so far, that OE is storing a windows directory for each folder in the mailbox. In contrary to outlook which has all in one folder as TB.
TB has mails in folders and subfolders similar like OE.
But since my mailfoders are in both cases some 150mb I can not see any difference appart from that I mostly use the portable TB, thus reading and writing mus t be expected somewhat slower here. Could not really measure any difference in opening a subfolder even the TB here just now is on stick.
But there might be some other way of indexing all under OE, the TB keeps all in plain text, OE has some other mechanism. That OE had often some experimental things build into it is known, the full thing the outlook was then kept more conservative probably.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
I have about 1GB of mail in OE and when I import it to TB it becomes 1.5GB...
This is expected. Outlook Express stores email as proprietary binary files. When corrupted, you lose a good chunk of the folder. Thunderbird saves email in mbox format (like text files). The advantage is that if a small chunk gets corrupted, you only lose a partial message or two. Plus it's compatible with virtually everything and movable from Windows to Mac to Linux. The disadvantage is that it will be a bit bigger.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
here are some other email apps here at PA.
https://portableapps.com/node/9677
or
https://portableapps.com/node/13591
search email clients and you may find more
An Old Irish Blessing
May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind always be at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face, and rains fall soft upon your fields. And until we meet again, May God hold you in the palm of His hand.
MickeyJ4J
You should upgrade from Outlook Express to another email client when you can. Microsoft has abandoned Outlook Express and will not be providing further enhancements. Outlook Express will not work with Windows Vista or future Windows platforms. They're now using Windows Live which is supposed to replace it (and only works with Vista).
You'd be far better off upgrading to a solid, supported, cross-platform email product like Thunderbird. It'll take some doing to recreate all your rules, but then you'll be on a client that you can move to Windows, Mac or Linux and carry portably courtesy of PortableApps.com.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Technically OE still exists in Vista, it's just called something different: "Windows Mail".
Requirements
* Microsoft Windows® 98 or later
* Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 ® or later
That last one will cause some problems. Thunderbird and Firefox can do feeds, its native or extension.
It's also freeware, doesn't appear to be open source
Too many lonely hearts in the real world
Too many bridges you can burn
Too many tables you can't turn
Don't wanna live my life in the real world
I tried switching to TB for the 10th time probably... and I must say - this time it was a success!
I have no idea what happened but this time the importing went fast and smooth. The database itself was the same size as OE. The folders open pretty quick. The only difference was that just before I did the switch OE prompted to compact the folders.
So after I imported into TB I deleted some attachments using a pretty cool add-on called Attachment Extractor (http://www.eviljeff.com/?page=moz-extensions) and freed up even more space.
Interesting thing is my PC seems to work better as a whole right now and I have no idea why would that be.
Anyways - I'm with TB now and I'm pretty happy. So far it looks very good and very promising... I've been using OE for almost a decade so I kinda feel a bit sad right now, but I'm sure I'll quickly fall in love with TB
There's just one thing about TB I'm trying to figure out a fix for. You see when OE downloads a message it displays the time when it was received by my server as the message's time. However TB seems to be displaying the sender's server time and I have a few messages that were sent in 2101... I know spammers do this kind of thing to get their messages at the top but the people I've received these messages from are no spammers so probably they've had their time messed up or something... or their mail server time messed up.
So is there a way to edit a message's time?
EDIT: Now that I look at them they all have the exact same date and time: 06.2.2101 06:28 (in dd.mm.yyyy format)
for the attachment deletion, you can simply open the message, right-click the attach & click delete.
for the time change, you may have your motherboards battery KO
since the date and time of the mail is supposed to be taken from the 'Date:' statement in the header.
This is when the message was sent by the mailclient to the smtp sevrer.
The later times included in the 'received ' lines of the header are nor relevant. Both the OE and TB and any other mail clients should display the same. If there is 2101 year stated, so then the sender has such time in his computer or what I do dnot know so far, there could be some bug in some mailclients reading the date/time wrong from the header.
I can not see any difference on my side, in TB and MS clients , the times and dates are exactly the same, if the headers are the same.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
Thanks those messages are missing the Date.
Yes there is one version available on runasxp.com forum
here: [link to illegally packaged app removed by mod JTH. Outlook Express can not be packaged without permssion from Microsoft.]
that works on windows 7 and 8.
That version keeps mail folders, accounts, settings, rules e.t.c on same folder so it is good for usb memory.