How to Set up an Outlook Express Email Account

Your Internet Service Provider has probably given you the option to set up more than one email address. Most come with at least five. So you're not limited to just the one. If somebody else in your household wants his/her own address, you should be able to do it. You'll learn how to configure a new address right now (We're using Outllook Express, the most popular Email software.)

To set up an email address, make sure you are looking at an Outlook Express screen and not a New email screen. Then do the following.

From the menu bar, click on Tools
From the drop down menu that appears, click on Accounts (one click, left mouse button)

When you click on Accounts, you get the Internet Accounts dialogue box popping up. Click the Mail tab at the top to see the following:

The Mail tab shows you all the email accounts that you have set up. In the image above, there are no email accounts set up yet. To set up an email account, do the following:

Click on the Add button in the top right hand corner
A popup menu appears
Click Mail with your left mouse button

When you click on Mail, you get an Account Wizard popping up, which will ask you a series of question. We'll run through the various pages of the Wizard in the next part.

Adding an Attachment with Outlook Express

To add a document as an attachment, do the following.

Create your new email
Then click Attach (the paper clip icon) in the toolbar

The Insert Attachment dialogue box appears. You now have to search for that file you want to send

To search for your file, click the little black down-pointing arrow, to the right of "Look in".
A drop down list appears. In the image we have moved the mouse pointer down to "Local Disk (C:)". A list of files and folders will be displayed.
In the image below, we have double-clicked the wpProjects folder to get inside of it:

Click on the file you want to attach (click once, left mouse button)
Then click the grey button that says Attach.
A copy of the file will be added as an attachment to your email
You email will now look like the one below

As you can see, there is now an Attach text box. The document we wanted is displayed in the text box, along with how big it is: imageFile.jpg (39.0KB). In other words, we'll be sending an email with an attachment that is 39 kilobytes.

How to Backup Emails in Outlook Express

Backing up emails in Outlook Express is not for the faint hearted! It's a lengthy process. If Microsoft decide to update this free email client, a "Backup" button would be a welcome addition. However, the software giant shows no sign of doing anything with Outlook Express, and haven't changed the look and feel of it for some years. (They do security updates, though.)

You can backup individual Outlook Express email folders, or backup all of them. The process is the same, so we'll see how to backup all Outlook Express folders in this tutorial. Off we go.
First, create a folder on your hard drive. Call it something like "backupOE". This folder is where we're going to be saving copies of all of Outlook Express's email folders. Once you have created a new folder, we can begin. (If you don't know how to create a new folder on your hard drive, the tutorial is here: how to create a new folder.)

Outlook Express email folders

Outlook Express keeps all of your emails in folders. When you send an email, Outlook Express keeps a copy of it in the Sent Items folder. Likewise, there is a separate folder for emails in your Inbox. You can see all of Outlook Express's folder by clicking on the View menu. Select Layout from the menu. From the dialogue box, make sure there is a tick next to Folder List. On the left hand side of Outlook Express, you should see something like this:

These are the folders that we will backup, ensuring that we have a copy of all our emails.

Where Outlook Express saves your email folders

All of these folders are stored on your hard drive, in a special location. Because that location may differ from user to user, we can find out where the email folders are stored. So do the following:

From the Outlook Express menu bar, click on Tools
From the drop down menu, select Options.
On the options dialogue box, click the Maintenance tab
Then locate the Store Folder button, as in the image below:

Click the Store Folder button, and you'll see another box pop up. This one:

This is the location on your hard drive of your emails and email folders. We need to copy this location.

Using your Right mouse button, click where it says "C:\Documents and Settings\user … " etc
You'll get a menu popping up
Click Select All with you Left mouse button

When you click Select All, the location turns blue
Right click on the Blue highlighted area, and select Copy from the menu

Clicking on Copy will copy this location to the Windows Clipboard. It will then be available to other programmes.

Now that we've copied the location to the Clipboard, we can come out of Outlook Express. So,

Click Cancel on the Store Location dialogue box
When you get back the Maintenance tab of the Options box, click the Cancel button
Then close down Outlook Express altogether
How to Restore Outlook Express Emails

In a previous tutorial, you learnt how to backup your Outlook Express emails. In this tutorial, we'll see how to restore them if anything goes wrong with your PC. The process is not quite as long as it was for saving them. Here's how to do it.

How to Restore Outlook Express backups
- Open up Outlook Express
- Click on the File menu
- From the File menu, select Import > Messages, as in the image below:
When you click Import > Messages, you get a Wizard popping up. The first screen looks like this:

Select Microsoft Outlook Express 6 from the list, then click Next. You'll then get this screen:

Select "Import mail from and OE6 store directory", as in the image above. Then click OK. You'll then be taken to the next step of the wizard:

You now need to select the folder where you saved your Outlook Express backups. So click the Browse button. You can then navigate to where you saved all those DBX files. In the image below, we've navigated to our second hard drive. If you have your backups on a backup CD, you would navigate to there:

Click the OK button when you have located your backup Outlook Express folder. Click Next when you are return to the Location of Messages step of the Wizard. The next step of the wizard will then look like this:

You can select either individual folder to import, or import all the folder that the Wizard finds in your backup folder. We've chosen All folders. Click the Next button to continue. Outlook Express goes to work, importing your backup DBX folders:

When your emails have been imported, click the Finish button on the final step of the Wizard. You will be congratulated on successfully importing your messages. Such a lengthy process is it, you deserve those congratulations!

How to Backup an Outlook Express AddressBook

If something happens to your PC, the loss of your Outlook Express Address Book can be devastating. Imagine all those valuable contacts disappearing when you computer refuses to ever boot up again! In this tutorial, we'll see how to backup your Address Book. That way, you can restore it at the click of a few mouse buttons. Off we go.

Backup an Outlook Express AddressBook
- Open up Outlook Express
- From the menu bar, click Tools > Address Book
- When your Address Book opens up, click the File menu
- Then select Export > Address Book (WAB)
Choose a location and file name for your Address book, then click the Save button. Outlook Express will save your address book.

Note the location in the Message Box. This address book is being backed up to a folder on the F drive called Backups. The name of the file is AddressBook.wab.
You now need to learn how to import this file, just in case anything goes wrong with your PC.

How to Import an Address Book in Outlook Express
The process to import an address book into Outlook Express is quite straightforward. Do this:
- Open up Outlook Express
- Click the File menu
- From the File menu, select Import > Address Book
- Navigate to where you saved your Address Book
- Then click the Open button
- If all went well, you'll see this message:
All your contacts will then be restored to Outlook Express.