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It does seem there's an IMAP option, however I didn't know before disconnecting the old PC, and appears I may have needed to change the settings in OE before saving it on the external disc. The second possibility is to import whatever they store online (just my inbox apparently) over to the new email system, but so far when I opened it it asked me for an account, I entered my NTL details and the screen just went white. I am making progress but yet to open an email program on the desktop. I think I will be able to run NTL from here without any further software but if it won't perform at all will save it as a reserve. There must be a standard protocol to set up an account on Windows 8 and will use IMAP now, but so far it's literally only provided a blank screen when I tried.