>I need some help with Outlook Express.
> Under Win/XP, I disabled indexing and didn't realize this would affect Outlook Express. I now cannot open existing emails or write new ones.
> I'm looking for the following help:
> 1. I'm trying to confirm that my dbx files are not corrupted. If you have a working copy of Outlook Express, could I send you 1 DBX file, and could you try to open it and tell me if you see text in the emails?
> 2. If you have an idea about how to correct the problem so I can access old emails and write new ones, please write me.
> 3. I am considering making the switch now from Outlook Express to Outlook (assuming that my DBX files are not corrupt). Do you know if Outlook can import emails and folder structure from Outlook Express?

If by "indexing" you mean file search indexing in Windows (File) Explorer, there's no way that should have disabled OE. Do you have any recent backup? IME OE data files are fairly robust so chances are your data are still OK. That said, I seem to recall there are a couple of critical data files (metadata about folder structures etc) that if missing or corrupt will make OE misbehave.

Migrating to Outlook: It's been a while since I last did this so my memory might not be 100% accurate, but here goes.

- I believe Outlook 2007 and 2010 can import OE data directly per https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Import-your-messages-or-account-from-Outlook-Express-to-Outlook-ca8ecaab-3330-46a1-b925-deac3f3c4359

- If you're moving to a newer version of Outlook, I believe Outlook no longer has the ability to import directly. The workaround used to be per http://www.geeksacademy.net/2016/10/import-outlook-express-to-outlook.html . This involves downloading and installing Windows Live Mail 2012 as an intermediate step. However, I could no longer find that product for downloading on the MS site; according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Live_Mail#Replacement it reached EOL in January and MS no longer offers it for download.

So, migrating to Outlook should still be possible if you can at least temporarily install Office 2007 or 2010, or you can find a copy of Windows Essentials 2012.

IME OE to Outlook conversion works best if you can install Outlook or WLM on the same computer, using the same user account/profile as OE. Once the OE data are imported into a PST file (mail, plus OE Address Book to Contacts), you can uninstall Outlook/WLM. The PST file can then be opened using any reasonably recent version of Outlook on any other computer.

If all else fails I understand there are various converters available that will convert OE data to a PST. You can Google [outlook express to pst].