Link Safe

In Outlook Express, any email or group of emails can be saved simply by dragging and dropping inbox items to a folder. As you’ve already discovered, this isn’t possible with the new-style Mail app for Windows 8.1, one reason being the app only runs in full screen (so there’s no way to drag and drop inbox items out of that window). But there is a way round this. First, press Win+E to launch File

Explorer (the new name for Windows Explorer). Next, select the View tab, click Options on the right, and choose ‘Change folder and search options’. Select the View tab in the Folder Options dialogue

box, then select the ‘Show hidden files, folders, and drives’ button. Click OK to close the dialogue box.

                    Next, navigate to the       C:\Users\[Username]\AppData\Local\Packages

folder. From here, you need to find the folder names carrying a string of random alphanumeric characters (they are keyed to your personal account, so we can’t tell you precisely what they are). The full path is easy to follow because there should be only one folder at each turn. You’re looking for something like:

 C:\Users[Username]\AppData\Local\Packages\microsoft.windowscommunicationsapps_abc12345\LocalState\Indexed\LiveComm\abc12345\123456-7890\Mail

In this Mail folder you may find further subfolders, depending on how many email accounts you’re syncing and the folder structure you use. It’s in these folders that you’ll find your email messages. Each one is stored as a file with an .emil file extension and has a date and time stamp, which will tally with the dates and times of emails in your Mail inbox. To make a backup copy of an email, hold down the Control (Ctrl) key while dragging and dropping to where you want to save it.