Might it be better for a thumb drive Windows XP user of Pegasus Mail V4.41 to wait for version 5 of the program ? Will it then be possible to just install the software to an external, portable drive (that can be used on both Windows XP AND Windows 7 Pro 64 Bit) and drag and drop in folders containing many years' worth of organised messages ?

I've been running V4.41 without problems for years.  I was moving to a new Windows 7 machine and thought I should upgrade to the current version.

The upgrade went without errors, but when I was done, it told me it could not find my username.

I copied the old 4.41 program files back over the new install and all is working again.

Any clue on what I can do to get my old mail files found in the new version? 

Install location on old machine? Location on new machine?

Install mode on old machine, single user or multiple users? Install mode on new win7 machine - single user or multi user? Was there a c:\pmail\mail\admin created?

Use Help menu, About, Info to see install location and we can tell the type from that by home and new mail location(s).

To make thinks simpler, I am only trying to upgrade the old machine (Windows XP Pro).  If I can get it working, I should be able to move the result to the new machine.

Data files are in D:\Application Data\Pmail\Mail\Ken

Ken is my user name.  Ken is the only user, but I do have a bunch of Identities.

The program files and operating system are on G:

They are in folder:  G:\Program Files\Pegasus

The desktop icon I use to start Pegasus has "G:\Program Files\Pegasus" as the "Start In" location.

The shortcut command line ends with "-i Ken"   (without the quotes)

This setup has been working fine for many years.

After choosing "Update" option on 4.70, I get the following:

On Startup, I get a box saying "No Such User!" "The user you are attempting to become (Ken) does not exist on this system." and then the program terminates.

If I go to the Program Files Directory and run Winpm-32.exe directly, It asks me for a user name, I give it "Ken" and it says no such user.

In either case, Pegasus never starts, so I can't find out what it is trying to do. 

There is no C:\Pmail or D:\Pmail or G:\Pmail folders.

d:\Application Data\Pmail has the only mail files and the only user is Ken. 

Here is the info from my old install:

Pegasus Mail for Microsoft Windows
Copyright (C) 1992-2006, David Harris, all rights reserved
Electronic mail to support@pmail.gen.nz.

WinPMail version: Version 4.41 (Win32), Jul 16 2006
Language resources: Standard UK English resource set
Extension Manager version: 1.13
Operating mode: Standalone
User name and ID: Ken, 0
Windows version: 5.1
Windows flag word: 0
WINPMAIL.EXE directory: G:\Program Files\Pegasus
Home mailbox location: D:\APPLIC~1\PMAIL\MAIL\Ken
New mailbox location: D:\APPLIC~1\PMAIL\MAIL\Ken
TMP environment variable: G:\DOCUME~1\Ken\LOCALS~1\Temp
TEMP environment variable: G:\DOCUME~1\Ken\LOCALS~1\Temp
LAN-based SMTP support: N, N, N
NetWare MHS support: N, N, N
Built-in TCP/IP support: Enabled
  - WINSOCK version: WinSock 2.0
  - WINSOCK path: G:\WINDOWS\system32\WSOCK32.DLL
Commandline: -i Ken
Active -Z options: 32768
PMR variable: (None)
PML variable: (None)
MAI variable: (None)
NB variable: (None)
 

On win7 you musts install to c:\pmail location and no program_files location can possiblly work because of UAC which is present in win6.0 Vista and later and win7, 8, 8.1

Only data files like *.pmm and *.pmi file pairs (folders) and *.cnm (new mail messages) should be copied to new \ken location but no other files containing path information because all paths will no be valid on later OS systems.

Copy from old machine to new could only have worked if old XP install was  to default c:\pmail and below.

[quote user="Ken22"]

To make thinks simpler, I am only trying to upgrade the old machine (Windows XP Pro).  If I can get it working, I should be able to move the result to the new machine.

[/quote]

Copy and install are very different functions. With later OS and later winpm-32  you *must* run the installer in order to not only copy new fiies but to also handle registry and satart menu and desktoop icon if used  and to set winpm-32 and WSENDTO as mail handler for system.

To "fix" XP install you must install new version to c:\pmail or at least root of the preferred drive. Then that gets into another problem with running PCONFIG which is still 16bit and works  fine on XP but nt work on any 64bit OS system like XP-64 or Vista and later 64bit versions. If running PCONFIG  can't be avoided due to hardware limitations you would have to use DosBox application to run it on 64bit system.

In my opinion it is far better to do new clean full install on new machine and then  only copy from old drive(s) the necessary folder and address book pairs and new mail message and maybe any distribution list files. Avoid copy of anything with a  path within it.or any settings or ini file  and of course any thing from winpn-32.exe old location. Newer versions also use c:\pmail\programs as the executable location, not c:\pmail like long ago.