I have been using Outlook Express for years. It has been more than enough for my needs, and I am happy with it.

My son just bought me a "smart phone" and wants me to switch to Outlook so I can sync my contacts and calendar.

There appears to be an Outlook set up wizard that hopefully transfers over my contacts and sets up my connection to gmail. ???

After some research a few years back, I learned how to back up all of Outlook Express on my backup drive, including my address book and all my folders and emails.

Is it possible to do this with Outlook as well? Does anyone have a link to a good tutorial on how to do this?

Next question is, what happens to Outlook Express when I switch over? Must I delete it or disable it in some way?

Finally, If I find that I don't like Outlook, which I'm sure will not be the case, is there a simple way to go back to Outlook Express?

Thank You...

OE is a dead program. Its been replaced by Windows Live Mail. So you probably still have a Win XP machine.

OE is primarily an E-mail client. Outlook has a much more robust contact manager and has calendar and task mgmt features that OE lacks.

Outlook stores all its data in a PST file. So all you need is to back up that one file.

When you install Outlook it should pick up your e-mail foilder and address book. If it doesn't you can export them from OE into a PST file for import to Outlook.

Outlook will ask if you want it to be the default for e-mail the first time you use it. Answer yes, and OE just sits dormant.

Thanks SG.

Yes I have XP. I know that Outlook is a much more powerful program, and these features will come in handy. I just wasn't sure about how to switch over and do back ups. But it sounds easy enough.

One question, when you say that Outlook stores all of it's data in a PST file, you are probably referring to contact and calendar info. Do you know if there is a way to back up the folders containing emails as well? I do that now with OE.

Thanks again...

It all in the PST file.