# DBX & Outlook Express Questions **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 16, 2009, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dbx-outlook-express-questions/481547 "2009-01-16T03:56:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Girl\_Hermit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b38774/32.png) [@Girl\_Hermit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Girl_Hermit)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2009, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dbx-outlook-express-questions/481547/1 "2009-01-16T03:56:03Z")
My old computer died a slow and painful death a few months back. Before it could heave it’s final death rattle Mr Hermit kindly saved all my files, photos and emails to a disc for me. Tonight, needing to review a saved email from the old computer, I popped the CD into the new computer, found the file and tried to open it. No dice. It tells me I can not open a .dbx file (and I see all the emails are saved that way). Please note I know nada about computers, files, etc., and generally just poke buttons until something is either working or broken. If you could explain what I need to do with that in mind I would appreciate it. I’ve tried to google for help but I can only find sites that want me to download a program to open it (and I am a poor googler in general so maybe I missed something?). This may well be the answer but before I do that I thought I’d double check. If someone could help me with how to open this email/file I would really appreciate it. ---
**Author:** ![Dervorin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Dervorin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dervorin)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2009, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dbx-outlook-express-questions/481547/2 "2009-01-16T06:48:07Z")
Are you using Outlook Express at the moment for other email? If so, then here’s an easy way to import the dbx files: Import Your Mail and Folders 1. Open Outlook Express. 2. On the File menu, click Import. 3. Click Messages. 4. Click Microsoft Outlook Express 5, and then click Next. 5. Click Import mail from an OE6 store directory, and then click OK. 6. Click Browse, select the folder where the dbx files are, click OK, and then click Next. 7. Click All folders, and then click Next. This procedure imports your previous mail into the current Identity. After it is finished, click Finish. Repeat this procedure for each of the folders that contain dbx files. Instructions (slightly adapted) from [Microsoft Support](http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;313055) ---
**Author:** ![Girl\_Hermit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b38774/32.png) [@Girl\_Hermit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Girl_Hermit)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2009, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dbx-outlook-express-questions/481547/3 "2009-01-16T14:40:09Z")
Thanks **Devorin** , I appreciate the help here enormously. I tried the steps you listed but I just get the following error message: _No messages can be found in this folder or another application is running that has the required files open. Please select another folder or try closing applications that may have files open._ Nothing else is open/running (that I am aware of) so not sure that is the problem. When I click the folder, in the process of the Import steps, the folder shows empty but when I open the folder just on the desktop it is full of all the saved emails. 😕 Also, when I open the Import Messages thingy my options are Microsoft Exchange (which it won’t let me use), Microsoft Outlook (again, it won’t let me use it), Microsoft Outlook Express 6 (it finds an empty folder) and Microsoft Windows Mail 7 (again, empty folder). I don’t remember what I had on my old computer but it was whatever operating system came out prior t Vista I think. The new computer has Vista. ---
**Author:** ![Girl\_Hermit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b38774/32.png) [@Girl\_Hermit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Girl_Hermit)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2009, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dbx-outlook-express-questions/481547/4 "2009-01-16T15:11:33Z")
I Did It!! Woooo! Thanks **Dervorin** , I poked around on things from the link you provided above there and found a spot that said to copy the folder from the CD drive onto the desktop and then import from there instead of from the CD, and it worked! ---
**Author:** ![Dervorin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Dervorin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dervorin)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2009, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dbx-outlook-express-questions/481547/5 "2009-01-16T15:45:02Z")
Ah; Sorry about that. It looks as if OE needs to be able to write to the folder even if it’s just importing, and of course it can’t write to the CD. I had blithely assumed that you wouldn’t need to do that. Apparently poking buttons till things work is a useful strategy! 😉