Upgrading from Outlook 2002 to 2003? For Free?

[govtdog - John M.]

I have a couple copies of MS Office XP which I originally was allowed to buy
from the MS Employee store due to my volunteer beta work over the years on
Windows and MSN. It includes Outlook 2002 and I have used it happily for
years.

Since that time, I have retired, and unfortunately, the economy has cost me
half my savings and is requiring me to find employment to pay my bills.

I am using a variety of POP, IMAP and HTTP email accounts to keep track and
respond to my employment seeking communications, and until recently, the
Outlook Connector allowed me to access all my email accounts via Outlook
2002... even if I had to hit send/receive a few times for all accounts to be
accessed.

But now, I cannot access any of my hotmail, Gmail or Yahoo accounts and a
text box tells me that I must upgrade to Outlook 2003 or Outlook 2007 in
order to continue to get my other email via Outlook.

Where can I upgrade to Outlook 2003 for free or for as little money as
possible?

Friends have suggested I try Thunderbird, but I love Outlook and am loyal to
MS... but money is very tight right now.

Thanks for any help you can offer me.

Take Care,

John

 

[N. Miller]

Friends have suggested I try Thunderbird, but I love Outlook and am loyal to
MS... but money is very tight right now.

How important is your loyalty? I don't believe that the later versions of
Outlook can be had free, and I don't know where to look for low cost
versions.

 

[govtdog - John M.]

Even when I had the money to buy anything, including MAC, I have been loyal
to MS. So, If at all possible, I'd like to stay with them now.
Thanks for responding to my query!

 

[Terry R.]

The date and time was Friday, April 17, 2009 8:54:11 AM, and on a whim,
govtdog - John M. pounded out on the keyboard:

I have a couple copies of MS Office XP which I originally was allowed to buy
from the MS Employee store due to my volunteer beta work over the years on
Windows and MSN. It includes Outlook 2002 and I have used it happily for
years.

Since that time, I have retired, and unfortunately, the economy has cost me
half my savings and is requiring me to find employment to pay my bills.

I am using a variety of POP, IMAP and HTTP email accounts to keep track and
respond to my employment seeking communications, and until recently, the
Outlook Connector allowed me to access all my email accounts via Outlook
2002... even if I had to hit send/receive a few times for all accounts to be
accessed.

But now, I cannot access any of my hotmail, Gmail or Yahoo accounts and a
text box tells me that I must upgrade to Outlook 2003 or Outlook 2007 in
order to continue to get my other email via Outlook.

Where can I upgrade to Outlook 2003 for free or for as little money as
possible?

Friends have suggested I try Thunderbird, but I love Outlook and am loyal to
MS... but money is very tight right now.

Thanks for any help you can offer me.

Take Care,

John

Hi John,

I use Mozilla Thunderbird and install it for single user clients all the
time. It is a very good mail client and news reader. But it is NOT an
Outlook replacement. There may be things you do in OL that you cannot
with TB.

http://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird/

Importing your PST into TB:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Import_.pst_files

Using OL Contacts with TB:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Using_Outlook_and_OE_contacts_with_Thunderbird_or_Mozilla_Mail

Creating accounts for different ISPS:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Creating_accounts_in_Thunderbird_for_popular_email_providers

Setting up webmail accounts:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Using_webmail_with_your_email_client

There is a support newswgroup at news.mozilla.org
Subscribe to mozilla.support.thunderbird

If you find TB can work for you, there are a lot of add-ins that offer
extended functionality of the program:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/

There is a calendar add-on called Lightning (or the stand alone program
called Sunbird):
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/lightning/
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/sunbird/

Maybe see you in the TB support group!

Terry R.

 

[govtdog - John M.]

Thanks for the help Terry, but before I see you on the Tbird forum, I'd first
like to see if MS can help me with an upgrade to the meager and outdated/old
Outlook 2003. I can't imagine that it would cost MS anything to allow me to
upgrade for free rather than move my entire email to Tbird while also
dismissing, during my time of need, one of their earliest Win pre-3.0 owners
and Windows, MSN and Office beta testers who did so for free for many years.

I guess we'll see how much they appreciate their old beta testers who paved
the way for their immense popularity and resultant income.

So, I am still hoping that MS can help me before I look elsewhere.

Thanks anyway.

John

 

[M]

Thanks for the help Terry, but before I see you on the Tbird forum, I'd first
like to see if MS can help me with an upgrade to the meager and outdated/old
Outlook 2003. I can't imagine that it would cost MS anything to allow me to
upgrade for free rather than move my entire email to Tbird while also
dismissing, during my time of need, one of their earliest Win pre-3.0 owners
and Windows, MSN and Office beta testers who did so for free for many years.

I guess we'll see how much they appreciate their old beta testers who paved
the way for their immense popularity and resultant income.

So, I am still hoping that MS can help me before I look elsewhere.

Thanks anyway.

John

Microsoft no longer makes Office 2003 and if you want it, you'll have to
PAY someone for a used copy like from Amazon.com. With Microsoft, there
is no free lunch no matter how much you lost with your investments or
worked for free as a beta tester. What is it that Outlook can do that
you can't do with Thunderbird?

M

 

[govtdog - John M.]

I don't really know what Tbird can do that Outlook can't or vice versa? I am
just looking to find the easiest and least changeable way to get what I
want... and that is Outlook functionality with ALL my email at a free/very
low cost.
I don't do anything fancy but just want to continue to get ALL my email via
my email application from Hotmail, MSN, Pop3 at my local ISP, Yahoo and Gmail.

Will Thunderbird 2.0 do all of that too?

 

[Terry R.]

The date and time was Friday, April 17, 2009 10:48:13 AM, and on a whim,
M pounded out on the keyboard:

Microsoft no longer makes Office 2003 and if you want it, you'll have to
PAY someone for a used copy like from Amazon.com. With Microsoft, there
is no free lunch no matter how much you lost with your investments or
worked for free as a beta tester. What is it that Outlook can do that
you can't do with Thunderbird?

M

You can't compare OL with TB. TB was designed to be an Outlook Express
replacement. But not everyone needs everything OL offers. Main & News
is what I want my mail client to do, and TB does that fine.

For businesses using Exchange, OL stands alone for obvious reasons. But
I can still access Exchange accounts using TB.

Terry R.

 

[Gordon]

What is it that Outlook can do that you can't do with Thunderbird?

A fair bit actually. Categories in Contacts is the major one - Journal,
calendar is a bit more sophisticated than lightning.
Mailmerge with Word is easier than Mailmerge using Tbird and Open Office....

 

[Terry R.]

The date and time was Friday, April 17, 2009 10:05:02 AM, and on a whim,
govtdog - John M. pounded out on the keyboard:

Thanks for the help Terry, but before I see you on the Tbird forum, I'd first
like to see if MS can help me with an upgrade to the meager and outdated/old
Outlook 2003. I can't imagine that it would cost MS anything to allow me to
upgrade for free rather than move my entire email to Tbird while also
dismissing, during my time of need, one of their earliest Win pre-3.0 owners
and Windows, MSN and Office beta testers who did so for free for many years.

I guess we'll see how much they appreciate their old beta testers who paved
the way for their immense popularity and resultant income.

So, I am still hoping that MS can help me before I look elsewhere.

Thanks anyway.

John

Well, if they gave it to you, they'd have to give it to everyone. Do
you see that happening?

Well I started with DOS, Wordstar, PFS File and Lotus 123 (the
essentials back then). I tried using Win 1 & 2. DeskView with QEMM
blew them both away and that's what I used and installed on friends who
were just getting into computers.

You make it sound like moving your mail to another program is a real
problem. It's not unless you are using features not supported in the
other program.

If you're going to wait for MS to step up, I'll be seeing you sooner
than you think. ;-)


Terry R.

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

I am using a variety of POP, IMAP and HTTP email accounts to keep track and
respond to my employment seeking communications, and until recently, the
Outlook Connector allowed me to access all my email accounts via Outlook
2002... even if I had to hit send/receive a few times for all accounts to be
accessed.

But now, I cannot access any of my hotmail, Gmail or Yahoo accounts and a
text box tells me that I must upgrade to Outlook 2003 or Outlook 2007 in
order to continue to get my other email via Outlook.

The Outlook Connector you used for Outlook 2002 won't work with the current
configuration of the Windowws Live servers, but an HTTP account might. It's
worth a try. Make sure your Hotmail account has been converted to a Live
account. Also, MSN just made free Live accounts available via POP so Outlook
2002 should be able to access the account that way.

I dispute your other claims. Outlook 2002 will definitely work with gmail
just as it has always done, either by POP or by IMAP. Yahoo.com allows only
web mail access to its free accounts and has for years, but for $20 per year
you can get a Yahoo Plus account. You can also use YPops
(http://ypopsemail.com/) to access free Yahoo accounts from Outlook.

 

[govtdog - John M.]

Brian,

Thanks for the response, but without any of the tech stuff, how can I get
Outlook 2002 to work with MSN, Hotmail, Gmail and if possible Yahoo email?

Right now, it is still working with my MSN, gmail and consolidated(ISP)
email accounts but not with my HOTMAIL or Yahoo accounts? If you can get it
to work with my various hotmail accounts, all would be well.

Thanks for your help.

John

 

[govtdog - John M.]

Terry,

Thanks for the response.

I too am an oldie who worked with DOS 4+ and was an original MS Works user
while beta testing the new incredible Panasonic 24 pin dot matrix personal
printer. I still miss using Lotus Approach but switched to the more complex
MS database to make sure it jived with the Windows and Office versions I was
beta testing at the time.

I still have the "gold" Windows beta discs if you might want to trade some
"specific email app" for them?

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

Right now, it is still working with my MSN, gmail and consolidated(ISP)
email accounts but not with my HOTMAIL or Yahoo accounts? If you can get it
to work with my various hotmail accounts, all would be well.

As I said, unless you PAY Yahoo, you cannot access a Yahoo.com account via any
version of Outlook without using YPops.

MSN has been disabling HTTP access to Hotmail accounts for years. They allow
POP access now, though, so make sure your account has been converted to a Live
account and you should be good to go on that account.