Helping people with computers... one answer at a time.
Even though they share similar names and do similar things, Outlook, Outlook Express, and Outlook.com 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," and now Outlook.com. Are those just other names for the same thing? If not, how do all these "Outlooks" relate to each other?
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The short answer is they don't. Not at all. They essentially have only two things in common. They're all related to email and they all have the word "Outlook" in their names.
And that's pretty much where the similarity ends.
It's unfortunate too because lots of people infer from the names that Outlook Express is some kind of "Outlook Lite" and that Outlook.com has something to do with one or the other or both. That's simply not the case at all. They're completely separate from each other.
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Outlook Express
Outlook Express was:
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Free - It was included on most Windows installations prior to Windows Vista and came with Internet Explorer versions 6 and earlier.
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An internet mail reader - POP3, IMAP or Hotmail accounts.
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An internet news reader - NNTP, as used on Usenet and other internet news servers.
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A contact list manager - Although aimed primarily as a way of managing contacts specifically for mail and news.
I say "was" because Outlook Express has been DISCONTINUED.
Outlook Express has been formally discontinued by Microsoft and won't be found in Windows versions begining with Vista. In fact, Outlook Express will not run in Windows 7 and presumably will also not run in Windows 8.
My experience answering questions on and trying to help people with Outlook Express is that it is long past time to move on and select another email program. I hear of more email lost because of issues with Outlook Express than with any other email program.
Microsoft Outlook
Outlook is:
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Not free - It's included in the Microsoft Office product.
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An internet mail reader - POP3, IMAP, or Hotmail accounts.
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An exchange server mail reader and support all exchange server features.
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A full-featured personal information manager (PIM) with address book, calendar, todo-list and more.
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Extensible - Outlook can be extended via add-ins and macros.
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Regularly updated and supported.
There are many more differences, of course, but those are the major ones that are visible. Under the hood, the most major difference between Outlook and Outlook Express is simply that that they share almost no code. They've come from completely different backgrounds to evolve into what they are.
Outlook.com
Introduced in 2012, Outlook.com is:
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A web-based email service that you access using your web browser.
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An email domain on which you can create your own free email address, much like Microsoft's Hotmail.
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An alternate user interface that you can use to access your existing Hotmail email.
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Rumored to eventually replace Hotmail's user interface completely (though Hotmail email accounts will continue to work)
As you can see, Outlook.com doesn't even come close to relating to Outlook or Outlook Express is any way. The latter two are email programs that you install on your PC, Outlook.com is a website you use to access email.
The only thing Outlook.com shares with Outlook and Outlook Express is the word "Outlook", which is apparently Microsoft's generic branding for anything email-related.
Which do you want?
Outlook Express was targeted at the home user and many people felt that it was both simple and met their needs quite nicely. Unfortunately, with it being discontinued for nearly a decade now, it's not a solution that you should choose if you're setting up something new. In fact, it's something that I strongly suggest you move away from if you're using it today. My recommendation would be to move to a program like Thunderbird.
Outlook, on the other hand, continues to be targeted more at the business environment, email power-users, or those simply wanting all the additional features it brings. With a lot of support from third-party vendors, including things like mobile device synchronization, Outlook is even a reasonable choice for the home or casual user.
Outlook.com is totally optional. If you have a Hotmail account, you can try out Outlook.com's new user interface and see if you like it. (My experience is that you can revert back to the older Hotmail user interface if you like, but some have reported difficulty doing so, so proceed at your own risk.)
A safer way to try the new Outlook.com might be to go there and sign up for a new Outlook.com email address, leaving your existing Hotmail address out of the picture.
(This is a revision of an article originally published August 17, 2003.)
You can read more about Outlook versus Outlook Express in the Microsoft support article: Differences Between Outlook and Outlook Express.
Article C1832 * September 27, 2012 « »
Leo A. Notenboom has been playing with computers since he
was required to take a programming class in 1976. An 18 year career as a programmer at Microsoft soon followed.
After "retiring" in 2001, Leo started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place for answers
to common computer and technical questions. More about Leo.
September 29, 2012 3:09 PM
@Ron
There are plug-ins for Thunderbird to use stationery.
As for whether it's as good or not that is always a matter of personal requirements and tastes. the fact remains that now OE is unsupported and has many issues, including losing emails. We just have to live whith what's available. If OE works for you, which it does for many people then by all means stick with it. It's just that in general, because of the many problems, Leo recommends against the risk of using it.
October 1, 2012 4:31 PM
Leo, The only reason you've given for continually disrespecting Outlook Express is that you've heard complaints from a lot of people about problems, but that's not conclusive evidence. I'm convinced that the people who complain to you about a problem with Outlook Express don't even have a rudimentary understanding of how to operate what is a very simple and almost bullet-proof program. I've been forced to try many other e-mail client programs on my Windows 7 laptop, and haven't found one that performs as well on my super computer as Outlook Express does on a low-ram, slow-CPU, slow-HD relic running Windows XP. There is no rational reason for a user to prefer Thunderbird over Outlook Express, unless they prefer sluggish performance, a clunky interface, and iffy behavior with simple tasks like message filters.
On September 28, commenter James mentioned a Thunderbird add-on called Compact Header. I use that too. But when I first started using Thunderbird, I had to put up with that ill-thought-out space-wasting big fat header until I was lucky enough to discover Compact Header. But then there was the problem that every time Thunderbird did a version update, Compact Header stopped working until its development team came up with an update to match. In my opinion, one shouldn't have to download an add-on to do a task that should have been built into the basic program. Thunderbird is on Version 15 I believe. Fifteen revisions since its debut while Outlook Express, as far as I can tell, is the same program that installed with Windows 98 over 15 years ago. I guess that something that's built right the first time doesn't need revisions every two or three months like Thunderbird did before they stopped developing it.
I don't know what those complainers are doing that causes them to break Outlook Express. I have saved e-mail dating back to 1997 on the machine that runs Outlook Express. It has never broken.
It would be great if Microsoft would sell the code for Outlook Express to a third party developer who would update it to run with Vista and Windows 7 and then market it. I would be happy to buy a copy and I bet a lot of other disgruntled former Outlook Express users would be too.
October 2, 2012 9:55 AM
Leo,
Several comments from Ron and Edward are relevant: (1) OE has been around since W 98 and is very reliable; (2) for the average person just doing e-mails and sending attachments (photos, Pdf’s etc.) the less is simpler. Remember not everyone is completely computer savvy from the get-go, especially us late starters with computers and there uses, remember your Grandmother never saw a computer as a girl but might want to use one to keep in touch with family and via Skype, so think KISS
Even some Microsoft code writers agree has never been adjusted-upgraded like some of their other e-mail programs (Outlook, Access, and Windows-Live) - Outlook is really a nightmare to navigate easily and set up your address book, e-mail addresses, as it looks more like a word document heading/taskbar and confuses many people (by having to set so much up before being really able to use and who found Outlook Express USER friendly for years). Like Edward I have used OE since the 90’s and never [really] had any crashes or lost data; I have more than 167,000 emails and 6,789 addresses in my WAB in this time.
Only bug they placed in the original code was the use of “Dbx.” format for the file set up. So when we are now forced to migrate to another system everything has to be transposed into either a “Pst. - Csv. – Eml. – format”; as “Dbx.”; cannot be read by Outlook. Was not a simple job and even for Microsoft Support had trouble guiding me through the Microsoft web-site maze on how to do it, took 3 tries before it worked, so now all are in “Pst.”
Someone at Microsoft should ask before making such changes and frustrate the users who have been satisfied for so many years; maybe Microsoft should offer a modified Outlook version which should integrate all the Outlook Express features for those who think KISS is the best solution.
W 8 looks like it MAY be more user friendly and intuitive by its looking like an “i-Pad” type screen!
October 3, 2012 9:36 AM
I have used Outlook Express for about 17 years now and I do not recall ever losing an Email. You should not listen to rumors about OE. I have heard that Thunderbird has a lot of problems but I don't know if it is true as I have never used it. For that reason I will not bad mouth it. Hint. Hint.
October 24, 2012 1:18 PM
Hi Leo, My sister-in-law has a Dell m1530 laptop
running Windows Vista. She has not used it in 2
years. It has 989 emails in the Windows mail box
in the in box. I unloaded the spam folder and the
deleted folder. I can only delete from the inbox
one at a time. Is there a faster way? She had bellsouth.com as an ISP. She is not using windows mail or outlook or outlook.com. How to
change to Yahoo.com ? Can her laptop be upgraded to Windows 7 (some flavor- maybe Home or Pro) ? I defragged the disk, ran the Mafee Scan. It needs a backup. Thanks
27-Oct-2012