How to run Eudora v7 on Windows 10

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See also: Aid4Mail (Migration)

I still run Eudora v7.1.0.9, currently on Windows 7 (32-bit), and now need to move everything to 64-bit Windows 10.

It is not straightforward, because you can’t run Eudora from the 64-bit /Program Files/ directory, and you certainly can’t store your emails there, because the directory is write protected.

Moving to Windows 10 32-bit /Program Files (x86)/ might appear to be a workaround, but you can’t move your Eudora installation to another directory, because all the directory paths would change, in particular, the directory to attachments.

One of the error messages I was getting was “Cannot start Eudora the first time with attachments”

Here’s how I solved the problem…

Current installation

  1. I have Windows 7 32-bit
  2. I run Eudora v7.1.0.9. I don’t have the original installation file, and you don’t need it.
  3. The Eudora program, and all the data files are stored in C:/program files/ Some installations store data elsewhere, but unfortunately I am not familiar with it, and do not know what tweaks might be need to make it would

Target installation

  1. Windows 10 64-bit
  2. Drive C: is a smallish 300Mb solid state disk drive
  3. Drive K: is a largish 2-Tb hard disk drive

What you need

  1. The “Link Shell Extension” (home), a utility that lets you create various kinds of links between files and directories. We need to the ability to create a “junction”, a phantom directory that points to an actual directory. They have been supported by the Windows NTFS filing system since Windows 2000, more about them from Microsoft on these pages here.

    From the “Link Shell Extension” home page, click the link to the Download section near the bottom of the page, and in the subsection “Windows 7/8/10 64bit”, download and install (now no need to install prerequisites for Windows 10):

    1. The x64 prerequisites (Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable Package (x64) )
    2. The x86 prerequisites (Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable Package (x86) )
    3. The Link Shell Extension.

    If you are running 32-bit Windows 10, then you have just two files to download and install

What to do

Note: do not run Eudora until you have completed all the settings and configuration described below, otherwise you might get an error, or Eudora may create a fresh installation.

  1. Make a copy of your Eudora program and data files, in my case, to an external hard drive. Plug the drive into your new machine, and then right click on the Eudora directory, and select “Scan with Windows Defender”. This will identify and remove any viruses that may have come in with Emails you ignored. It is quicker this way, than Defender identifying malware when you copy your files to your new PC, and asking you what to do with each one.
  2. Copy your Eudora program and data files to your Windows 10 hard disk drive. Do not choose either the /Program Files/ or /Program Files (x86)/ directories.

    For example, I copied C:/program files/eudora to K:/eudora

  3. Now we will create a “junction”, a phantom directory C:/Program Files/Eudora that really mirrors our copied destination directory at K:/eudora
    1. In Windows 10, run File Explorer: right-click on the Start Menu button in the bottom-left corner, and in the pop-up menu, click File Explorer (or click the “yellow folder” shortcut you may have on your task bar).
    2. In File Explorer, right click the new destination directory K:/eudora and select Pick Link Source
    3. Navigate to C:/Program Files/ and right click it, select Drop As and choose “Junction”.

    4. If you look in C:/Program Files/ you will see a new entry, C:/Program Files/eudora. The folder shows a link icon, indicating that it is a phantom directory, a junction, that now appear to contain the contents of your destination directory, K:/eudora
  4. In the new “junction” directory, C:/Program Files/eudora, scroll down to the eudora.exe application, right click and select “Send to”, and from the fly-out sub-menu, choose “Desktop (create shortcut)”. A shortcut icon will appear on your Desktop.
  5. Right click the new Eudora icon your desktop, and select Properties.
    • In the Shortcut tab, the Target should specify the (a) the location of your Eudora program, and the directory from which it runs. For me, it read (include the quotes):
      “C:\Program Files\eudora\Eudora.exe” “C:\Program Files\eudora”

    • The Start in box specifies the directory in which the program starts, for me: “C:\Program Files\eudora”

    • Select the Compatibility tab, and in the section “Compatibility mode” click the checkbox next to “Run this program in compatibility mode for:” and select “Windows XP (Service Pack 3). Click OK.

All done. Double click your Eudora desktop icon to run the program.

Update Dec 2015

After installing MS Office 365, I begun getting the warning message: “Eudora is unable to update the system registry”

To resolve this, in Tools | Options, and in the section “Extra Warnings”, I check the box “Start Eudora and it’s not the default Mailer”.

The next time I started Eudora, it asked whether I would like it to be the default mail program. I checked the box “Don’t ask any more”, and clicked No.

Issue resolved.