Obtaining the latest version
Outlook Express is free but there is a catch. It is part of Internet Explorer. So to get an upgrade of Outlook Express (click here), you must also get the corresponding version of Internet Explorer. In other words, to upgrade to Outlook Express 6 from version 5 or earlier, you will need to download and install Internet Explorer 6. Furthermore, you must ensure that you also select Outlook Express as one your components to install. If not, you may end up with, for example, Internet Explorer 6 and Outlook Express 5.

When Internet Explorer (and therefore Outlook Express) is installed on your system, it generally does a good job of carrying over the files and settings to the new setup. However, it is a good idea to backup key Outlook Express files before running the update - just in case something goes wrong.

Equally important is the understanding that to properly patch Outlook Express with the latest updates you must patch BOTH Internet Explorer and Outlook Express. Some security updates that affect Internet Explorer also affect Outlook Express, but there are other updates specifically for Outlook Express. Yes, it is really confusing. The links above should help.

Operating system notes: you can't upgrade to Internet 6 on Windows 95. The latest version available for Windows 95 is Internet Explorer 5.5 SP2. This also means that you can only update to Outlook Express 5.5. All other releases of Windows should use Internet Explorer 6 SP1.

How to Backup Outlook Express
As mentioned above, few people know how to backup messages, settings, address books or rules. How would you feel if one day you lost all your messages and contact details but had no backup? In addition, there may come a time when you want to move your Outlook Express files and settings to another computer (a common occurrence when upgrading from Windows 95 or 98 to Windows XP).

We get many questions from visitors to this site who want to know if there is a simple button in Outlook Express that will backup everything. Unfortunately it doesn't exist, and the manual backup process is complicated - some stages involve messing around with the Windows registry. At absolute minimum, you should backup your message folders. This is the simplest of all the tasks.

Firstly, you need to realise that Outlook Express does not save messages as individual files - it stores them according to the folders used in Outlook Express.

Start Outlook Express

Select Tools-Options and then the Maintenance tab.

Click the Store Folder button. This path will be long - really long. Click and drag the mouse to the right to see the location.

Exit Outlook Express, start Windows Explorer and go to that location.

Copy the folder and its entire contents to a backup location such as a CD.

Importantly, the steps above do not cover the all your contacts, settings and other files. Plus restoring is not so simple. If you use an older backup copy of your Outlook Express files to overwrite your new folders, then you will lose all messages and changes since the backup. You can try importing the messages (File-Import), but this process frequently fails with cryptic messages and it will often result in duplicate messages appearing.

The easy solution
Get a copy of OE Backup. It is absolutely free and will backup and restore all your Outlook Express settings and messages. The processes are managed with a few clicks of the mouse. Importantly, the program doesn't use specialised file formats (some backup programs require you to use the exact same software to restore files). This means you have the choice to use the program to restore any backups, or do it manually without the program.