Summary: Even though they share similar names and do similar things, Outlook and Outlook Express are actually not related to each other at all.
I see I have Outlook Express on my machine for email. But I also see references here and elsewhere to just "Outlook". Is that just another name for the same thing? If not, how do "Outlook" and "Outlook Express" relate to each other?
The short answer: they don't. They essentially have only two things in common. They're both primarily mail programs, and they both have the word "Outlook" in their names.
And that's where the similiarity ends.
It's unfortunate too, because lots of people infer from the names that Outlook Express is some kind of "Outlook Lite" and that's not the case at all. It's a completely separate program.
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Outlook Express is:
- free - it's included on most Windows installations, and comes with the free Internet Explorer download.
- an Internet Mail Reader - POP3, IMAP or Hotmail accounts.
- an Internet News Reader - NNTP, as used on Usenet and other internet news servers.
- a contact list manager - though aimed primarily as a way of managing contacts for mail and news.
Outlook, on the other hand, is:
- not free - it's included in the Microsoft Office product.
- an Internet Mail Reader - POP3, IMAP or Hotmail accounts.
- an Exchange Server Mail Reader and support all Exchange Server features.
- a full-featured Personal Information Manager (PIM) with address book, calendar, todo-list and more.
- extensible - Outlook can be extended via add-ins and macros.
There are many more differences of course, but those are the major ones that are visible. Under the hood, the most major difference is that they share almost no code. They've come from completely different backgrounds to evolve into what they are today.
In general, Outlook Express is targetted at the home user, and many people feel that it is both simple and meets their needs quite nicely. Outlook, on the other hand, is targetted more at the business environment or those simply needing the additional features it brings.
For what it's worth, I use Outlook extensively to manage not only my email, but my address book, my calendar, and my to-do list. I also use Outlook Express, but only to read Internet newsgroups.
You can read more about Outlook versus Outlook Express in the Microsoft support article: Differences Between Outlook and Outlook Express.
Article C1832 - August 17, 2003
For a number of reasons, I run both Outlook and Outlook Express (on a variety of machines that I have networked). Why is it that whichever is open when mail arrives displays the mail but those emails are not subsequently found in the other program? Put simply, if Outlook is running and receives an email, if/when I later open Outlook Express and download messages, any messages already received by Outlook are not "received" - (and vice-versa).
I would like for ALL emails to be received by both programs (not simply on a first-come-first-served basis).
Is there a "fix"?
The solution is to either use IMAP instead of POP3 (I'm weak on this, but my understanding is that this will work) which leaves the messages on the server, or in the advanced settings for your POP3 account in Outlook you can also check "leave a copy on the server".
19-Apr-2009
I get sending and receiving errors on my outlook express 2003 version which says
Posted by: Mithun at April 26, 2009 4:02 AMTask 'gtv-dubai.com - Sending' reported error (0x8004210B) : 'The operation timed out waiting for a response from the sending (SMTP) server. If you continue to receive this message, contact your server administrator or Internet service provider (ISP).'
How do I get my emails through Outlook ?
Posted by: Eve at August 4, 2009 7:20 AMNow that I have Windows 7 on my laptop, I can't find Outlook Express anywhere in my programs. Microsoft Office Outlook is there as expected but I am presently experimenting with Thunderbird which comes with Firefox.
Posted by: Tony at December 8, 2009 7:20 PMI would like to transfer my Outlook Express address book into Outlook Contacts where I have all my contacts addresses and telephone numbers that I synchronized from my Palm, but not my email addresses that I have in Outlook Express. How do I do that?
Posted by: Haris at January 17, 2010 11:59 PM