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updated: April 26, 2005

Aid4Mail Review

Disclosure

Eric Fookes, the author of Aid4Mail, kindly provided a free Pro key for me. Also, I sent him a free TinyApps.Org t-shirt a few years ago (his free Notetab application was featured on the shirt).

Summary

Exceptional mailbox conversion and archiving utility requiring an unfortunate activation/verification process.

Supported Import/Export Formats

Import from:

  • Extended MAPI systems:
    • MS Outlook (all versions with MAPI support except Outlook 97)
    • Windows Messaging / Exchange Client
    • Novell GroupWise, etc.
  • Outlook Personal Storage files (.pst)
  • Outlook MSG files (.msg)
  • Outlook Express (versions 4, 5, and 6)
  • EML message files (.eml)
  • MHT Web Archive files (.mht)
  • Mozilla mailbox files (including Netscape and Thunderbird)
  • Generic mailbox files (mbox, Berkeley mail format, BSD mail format, Unix mail format)
  • Eudora mailbox files (.toc and .mbx)
  • PocoMail mailbox files (.idx and .mbx)
  • Opera mailbox files (.mbs)
  • Forte Agent mailbox files (.idx)
  • The Bat! mailbox files (.msb and .tbb)
  • Pegasus mailbox files (.pmi, .pmm, and .cnm)
  • Calypso and Courier archive files
  • PMMail message files (.msg)
  • FoxMail mailbox files (.box)
  • Mailbag Assistant mailbox files (.mbg)
  • E-mail Examiner mailbox files (.pmx)
  • Aid4Mail ZIP archives (.zip)

Export to:

  • Outlook Personal Storage files (.pst)
  • Outlook MSG files (.msg) - only if source is Extended MAPI mail
  • EML message files (.eml)
  • MHT Web Archive files (.mht) - linked from an HTML index page or an MS Excel Workbook file
  • MHT files with tab-delimited data file for import into a database
  • Mozilla mailbox files (including Netscape and Thunderbird)
  • Generic mailbox files, (mbox, Berkeley mail format, BSD mail format, Unix mail format)
  • PocoMail mailbox files (.mbx)
  • Aid4Mail ZIP archives (.zip)

Notes:

  1. You can also extract attachments, embedded objects, and email addresses.
  2. For MAPI, PST, and MSG file access, you must have a fully functioning Extended MAPI system (as provided by recent versions of Outlook, for example).

Versions


Standard
Professional
Enterprise
Process popular mail formats
Yes
Yes
Yes
Export to standard mail formats
Yes
Yes
Yes
Extract email attachments
Yes
Yes
Yes
Extract email addresses
Yes
Yes
Yes
MS Outlook support
No
Yes
Yes
Extended MAPI clients
No
Yes
Yes
Read and write MSG files
No
Yes
Yes
Create MHT archives
No
Yes
Yes
Create ZIP file archives
No
Yes
Yes
Easy database import
No
Yes
Yes
Includes Win32 console version
No
No
Yes
Requires license activation
Yes
Yes
No
License Types
Single and site licenses
Single and site licenses
Unlimited site license
Price starting from
$24.95 US
$49.95 US
$1999.95

Download & Install

The Aid4Mail download comes in either a 2470k EXE installer or a 2462k ZIP. The ZIP file merely contains the same EXE installer, so there is no advantage in downloading it over the EXE. After downloading, double click setup.exe to install.

Usage

In this example, we'll export a Thunderbird mailbox to Outlook in a few seconds (the same thing using free tools took this fellow three hours).

Thunderbird mailbox we'll be converting:
thunderbird

Choose mailbox type to convert from:
source

Choose mailbox location:
sourcelocation

Choose target format:
target

Choose target settings:
targetsettings

Export options:
options

Start export:
start

Processing:
processing

Finished:
finished

Mailbox automatically imported into Outlook:
outlook

More Usage Examples

Here are a few Usenet posts by Eric which highlight some cases where Aid4Mail might be especially useful:

Activation & Verification

If not activated, Aid4Mail works in Trial Mode, which has the following limitations:

  • A trial-mode information screen is displayed for at least 8 seconds each time you start Aid4Mail.
  • Processing is limited to a maximum of 50 messages per mail folder.
  • When exporting to the MHT format, the limit is 10 messages per mail folder.

According to Eric, the activation process does not collect any details about you or your computer. Unlike Windows Product Activation, Aid4Mail does not tie your license to the PC. Rather, every time it is launched, Aid4Mail attempts to "phone home" in order to verify your license is in good standing. If unable to do so for more than 30 days, it will revert to trial mode:

I asked Eric what would happen if Fookes or softworkz (the activation service provider) went out of business. He assured me that a patch would be provided to bypass the activation and verification requirements. He also said that activation would never be disabled for "old" versions, that is, you will always be able to activate any version of Aid4Mail.

Pros & Cons

Pros:

  • Very fast and convenient compared to other options (when they even exist)
  • Incredibly wide email client support

Cons:

  • Product activation and verification
  • Free email import/export options often exist (although sometimes they are only free if your time is worthless)