How to backup Windows Mail messages and contacts?

About Windows mail: 

Windows Mail is the default Email client included in Windows Vista. It possesses the functionalities of both an email and newsgroup client, before Windows Mail Outlook Express was used. Outlook Express was bundled with IE (versions 4-6) but this is not the case with Windows Mail. Later on Windows Live Mail succeeded Windows Mail. Windows Live mail is used as a replacement for Outlook Express for Windows XP. 

About Windows Mail store folder: 

If you want to identify your Windows Mail store folder, do the following: 

• From the menu, Go to Tools > Options

• Go to the Advanced tab

• Click Maintenance

• Click the button ‘Store Folder’

• Highlight the full folder location by clicking the location 

• From the pop-up menu, click the option ‘Select All’, then copy the string by using ctrl-c

The copied string is the path to your Windows Mail store folder.

Now you can easily go to Windows Mail store folder in Windows Explorer:

• Press Windows-R

• Then paste the folder location in the Open box by using the Ctrl-V command

• Click OK to open the specified folder. And close all other open dialogs and windows 

If you cannot launch Windows mail to open the store folder location then, you can go to the standard default folder storage location and open the folder from there.

Windows Mail messages are stored at the location: 

C:\users\(user-name)\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Mail\Local Folders

Backup windows mail: 

Taking regular backups of data is considered a good practice. So that if unfortunately you lose your data or its gets corrupt then you have some mean to restore that.

 

Fortunately, Windows mail also provides you a way to backup/copy the Windows Mail address book. Instead of proving helpful in case of data loss situations, data backup is also required if you want to migrate the Windows contacts to a new computer. 

With Windows mail you have various backup options:

•  To Backup Your Email Messages to Restore Later

•  To Backup Your Email Account(s) to Restore Later

•  To Backup Windows Mail Settings to Restore Later

In this article I am going to focus on first one i.e. “To Backup Your Email Messages to Restore Later”.  I will cover rest options and way to reset Windows Mail in my upcoming articles.

For now, let’s move on to know, “how to backup and copy Windows mail messages and contacts”.

Windows mail provides the Export option to backup and copy your messages and contacts. And the import option is used to restore the exported messages/contacts. Windows Mail uses .eml file format for storing the email messages.

Steps to backup Windows Mail messages and contacts in Vista:

To backup messages:

• First create a new empty folder at any desired location where the backup files/messages are to be stored

• Start Windows Mail

• Open File > Export > Messages

• Choose the option “Microsoft Windows Mail”

You can also choose to export the messages from Windows Mail to Microsoft Outlook or Microsoft Exchange. For this you need select the Outlook profile in which you want to receive the messages. After that click Ok

• Click Next

• Use the browse option to select the location where you want to store the messages.

Here you can navigate to the empty folder which you have created in step 1. The exported messages will then be exported in this particular selected folder

• Click ‘Next’ after choosing the ‘Export To location’

• After that choose the folders that are to be backup, you can choose all folders or only specific folders to be backup.

If you want to select all folders then, check the radio button ‘All folders’.

• Click finish 

• Exit the Windows Mail Export.

To backup contacts:

• Go to File > Export > Windows Contacts.

• Now, choose the format in which the contacts are to be saved. You can choose to sane the contacts as CSV or VCF file format. 

• After that, select the fields (First name, last name, middle name and name etc.) that are to be exported 

Steps to restore the exported/backup Windows Mail messages and contacts in Vista:

If you want to use the exported messages and contacts on another computer then, you need to use the Windows mail import option to restore the contacts and messages. For that:

• Go to file> import.

• From there you can choose what is to be exported: windows contacts, messages, mail account settings, news account settings.

Click Microsoft Windows Mail 7.

• Click next  

• Click Browse to select the location where the backup folder is saved.

Click on Select Folder and choose the exported/backup folder.

• Click Next after choosing the ‘Import From location’

• Select the radio button ‘All folders’ if you want all folders to be imported. Or choose only specific folders to be exported.  

• Click finish 

After following the above steps you have now imported the Exported/backup folders into your system. Now you can access and work with them.

If you don’t want to follow such long procedure to backup the Windows mail then, you need to choose some Windows Mail Backup software. With a petite online search, you can find ample of Windows Mail Backup software that possess powerful backup features and advanced options. 

Before buying any Windows mail backup utility make a check list of your desired features, carefully check the system specifications, the various available compatibility features and other additional features if given.  Make a comparative study after trying the Demo version of two or three software that seems to meet your criteria. Once you are satisfied with the Output of the Demo version, select the best & suitable one and go ahead for the software purchase.