How can I archive Outlook/Hotmail folders to my Windows PC?

Chris Holl 0

I have had a Hotmail account for decades, and it's running out of space. I want to archive some of the older folders to my PC to free up space. I just got an Office 365 subscription to do this, but still can't find out how. Is there any way to select folders and dump them out to a local file? Any help appreciated.

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Brian Tillman 26,765 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-07-25T20:45:27.3333333+00:00

LTSC means "long term service channel." It is a perpetual license but it means that the Office suite is intended to be used by organizations and governments. It is a volume licensed product, not a commercial license meant to be used by ordinary consumers. It does not get feature updates, although it gets security updates and bug fixes for five years. I don't believe it includes OneDrive storage.The latest consumer standalone Office version is Office Home 2024 (no Outlook) or Office Home and Business 2024 (new Outlook included). These, too, include no additional OneDrive or mailbox space. If you need additional storage for your mailbox and OneDrive, Microsoft 365 Basic and Office Home and Business 2024 would be a good pairing. You should also be able to get by with Office Home 2024 and the standalone Outlook available from the Microsoft store.Microsoft never had a product called Office 2012. Do you mean Office 2010 or Office 2013? Have you tried reinstalling the Office you have?
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Chris Holl 0 Reputation points

2026-07-25T22:16:49.68+00:00

I can't find the media/CDs to restore my old Office. I opened a Word doc, looking for the version that created it. Perhaps that's not stored. It may have been 2013. I don't intend to use cloud storage, which is why I was trying to archive old mail locally in the first place. I do have Basic now, so I'm okay storage-wise for a while. Interesting about LTSC. I didn't know that, but it seems to be working fine. I don't need feature updates, since my use is pretty simple. (I used the last version for over a decade.) I should be okay now, after the shock of loosing my old Office suite.

Hornblower409 12,160 Reputation points

2026-07-25T23:42:05.6266667+00:00

@Brian Tillman said

Office Home 2024 (no Outlook) or Office Home and Business 2024 (new Outlook included)

Very minor correction.

Office Home & Business 2024 includes Classic Outlook for Windows.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/p/office-home-business-2024/cfq7ttc0pbm7

Office Home 2024 has only New Outlook for Windows.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/p/office-home-2024/cfq7ttc0pqvj

And there is also Classic Outlook for Windows standalone.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/p/outlook/cfq7ttc0pbmd

From "Four ways to get Classic Outlook for Windows", the Answer by "Hornblower409 Jul 19, 2026" at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5944425/how-do-i-set-up-a-rule-to-move-emails-from-designa
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Brian Tillman 26,765 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-07-25T02:02:34.43+00:00

Microsoft 365 Basic is nothing more than additional online space for your OneDrive and mailbox. It does not include apps to install on your computer and if you had Office apps installed, adding the Microsoft 365 Basic subscription wouldn't affect that at all. If you had an Office version installed, what version was it? Do you see it on the Services page I cited previously?
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Chris Holl 0 Reputation points

2026-07-25T16:26:43.66+00:00

I had Office 2012. I bought 365 Basic to download Outlook Desktop, but when I went to export my mail, it still wanted an Office 365 subscription. (In retrospect, it may be that getting the Basic subscription and downloading Outlook desktop were unrelated.) I then got a 1-month 365 Personal, just so I could export my mail. That didn't work, which is why I asked for help on this forum. I was advised here to download Outlook Classic, so I followed the first link that provided here to download it, and that's when Office 2012 disappeared.

I have since purchased Office LTSC Standard 2024, which I believe is the latest perpetual license, and that is working for me. I need Excel and Word, and didn't think I would be able to recover Office 2012, since I couldn't find the CD.
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Brian Tillman 26,765 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-07-23T14:15:35.2733333+00:00

The installer that I cited should not have touched any other Office app. However, you say you have a Microsoft 365 subscription. Why not install the latest versions of the Office apps by visiting https://account.microsoft.com/services to find your subscription and install the suite?
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Chris Holl 0 Reputation points

2026-07-23T17:16:00.4866667+00:00

I got Office 365 Basic for Outlook, but when I tried to export mail I found Basic doesn't enable this. WTF??? I don't want a subscription so now I'm forced to shop for a perpetual one. It seems 2024 is the latest available. What a mess this has been!
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Brian Tillman 26,765 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-07-22T00:30:46.41+00:00

Hi. I'm Brian and I"ll try to help.

If you want to archive folders to your PC so they are not online, create new Outlook Data file with classic Outlook. Select New Items>More Items>Outlook Data File. Browse to the folder where you want to store the data file (I'd recommend not storing it under Documents if you sync your Documents folder to OneDrive), give the file a name and choose OK. This will add a new data file to the list of folders shown in the Navigation Pane on the left. You can then move the folders from your mail list of folders to the root of the new data file in the Navigation Pane. This will remove them from the server and store them locally in the data file.
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Chris Holl 0 Reputation points

2026-07-22T00:54:19.2966667+00:00

Hi Brian. Thank you. I removed my "new" Outlook app, and downloaded the installer for Outlook Classic. When I ran it (OfficeSetup.exe), it looked like it was installing Office 365, which I don't want (because I have an older version of Office that I don't want to replace/upgrade). Will this JUST install the Outlook app, so I can archive? Actually, I found my answer online. The installer will uninstall Office and reinstall the whole set of apps. It will NOT just install Outlook, so this is not an answer for me.

Brian Tillman 26,765 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-07-23T00:12:36.1233333+00:00

You can find classic Outlook as a standalone install in the Microsoft store or as a download on this page: https://support.microsoft.com/outlook/install-or-reinstall-classic-outlook-on-a-windows-pc

Chris Holl 0 Reputation points

2026-07-23T01:19:19.11+00:00

This installed just Outlook Classic, but it REMOVED all of my Office 2012 apps!!! Disaster. How do I get them back? I need Word and Excel, and they're gone!
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Brian Tillman 26,765 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-07-23T17:39:14.2033333+00:00

As I said, you should be able to install just classic Outlook from the Microsoft store at https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/xp9mhd8pgh9n47
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Chris Holl 0 Reputation points

2026-07-23T18:33:28.19+00:00

As I said, I did and it wiped out all my Office apps. You provided this link, below: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/install-or-reinstall-classic-outlook-on-a-windows-pc. It's not the same as https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/xp9mhd8pgh9n47.

Brian Tillman 26,765 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-07-24T20:01:02.5166667+00:00

If you open Settings>Apps, do you see your Office suite there?

Chris Holl 0 Reputation points

2026-07-24T23:14:59.75+00:00

No, I don't see any Office apps in the list. I do see Microsoft 365 Copilot (loaded 7/24/26) and Microsoft Outlook 2016-en-us (loaded 7/24/26). I looked for Excel and Word, the two apps I use most. Gone.

Chris Holl 0 Reputation points

2026-07-24T23:15:56.5233333+00:00

Thanks
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