MailStore Home: Free Email Archiving on Windows
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If you want a separate copy of your email on a Windows PC, MailStore Home provides a local archive you can search and export. Archiving means keeping a copy outside the original mailbox, so messages remain accessible even if you later lose them there. MailStore Home is free for private use at home; the vendor directs commercial users to its separate MailStore Server product.
MailStore Home is a Windows program with a graphical interface. For a different approach, mailmd is a free, open source alternative that copies email into Markdown files you can read and search on your own computer. Choose MailStore if you prefer its archive and search tools. Choose mailmd if you want files you can use with ordinary editors and scripts.
What MailStore Home archives #
MailStore Home brings email from supported sources into a local archive. The vendor lists desktop mail programs including Microsoft Outlook, Windows Mail, Mozilla Thunderbird, and Mozilla SeaMonkey. The product page describes archiving from a range of sources, but the available Home documentation does not establish whether the program directly archives hosted accounts such as Gmail or Outlook.com. If that is your use case, check Home’s current source options before choosing it.
The archive stays on your computer. A standard installation stores it on the internal drive; the portable version stores it on the drive where you install the program, such as a USB drive. MailStore says the company cannot access archived data. The documentation cited here does not say whether MailStore encrypts the archive while it is stored on the drive, so protect the computer or removable drive that holds it. The MailStore Home product page describes the program’s local archive and supported uses.
MailStore does not automatically make a second copy of its archive. If the drive fails or the archive file is lost, MailStore cannot recover it for you. The installation guidance also advises against syncing the archive directory with services such as Dropbox or using instant or nonstop backup tools on it. Because that guidance does not specify an approved backup method, check MailStore’s instructions before choosing how to protect a separate copy.
Install it and choose where the archive lives #
MailStore Home’s installation help lists Windows 11 and Microsoft.NET Framework 4.8 or later as requirements. Optional IFilter packages let Windows index text inside some file types, which can make attachment contents searchable. The extent of attachment search depends on the indexing options you configure.
During setup, choose a standard installation or a portable installation. The standard option places program files under Program Files and archive data under Documents. The portable option installs to a location you choose and can run from a USB drive without prior installation on another PC. MailStore advises against placing the portable version in the local Program Files directory because of Windows security settings. See the installation instructions before selecting a location.
Search, open, and export archived messages #
MailStore Home searches message fields, including sender and recipient. It also searches the subject and body. You can narrow a search with prefixes such as subject: or from:, use * to match a word fragment, or search by a message’s ID. For example, auto* can match “automatic.” Advanced search can also filter by message size, priority, date, or archive date, and When you open a saved search, MailStore runs it against the archive again. The archive search help describes the syntax and options.
Attachment-content search depends on indexing settings, so do not assume every attachment’s text is searchable by default. MailStore also warns that its filter for messages with or without attachments can be imprecise: background images, for example, may count as attachments.
You can open archived messages in a regular email program such as Outlook, or export messages to restore them or move them to another program or service. Exporting helps with migration, but check that the destination contains the messages you need before deleting anything from the original mailbox.
When mailmd is a better fit #
MailStore Home suits someone who wants a Windows interface for searching and exporting a local email archive. mailmd suits someone who wants individual files that work with standard text tools. It saves one Markdown file per message, with message headers in a frontmatter block, a section of metadata at the top of the file. It converts HTML email into readable Markdown, saves attachments beside messages, and organizes folders and years as directories. An index.jsonl file lists the messages for scripts, and --keep-raw also saves each original .eml file.
mailmd works with mailboxes that use IMAP, an email access protocol. It connects to Gmail through the Gmail API and to Outlook.com through Microsoft Graph. To connect to Gmail or Microsoft, you must create an OAuth app, a configuration for authorizing mail access, in Google Cloud or Microsoft Entra. Its logins request read access, and mail folders open read-only: mailmd does not mark messages as read, move or delete them, or send mail. It also never deletes archive files; if a message later disappears from the mailbox, its saved file remains marked as deleted on the server.
The tool has no built-in search engine. Open the Markdown files in an editor or note app, search them with rg or grep, or filter index.jsonl with jq. You can keep the archive in Git or include it in a regular backup. You can schedule a command such as mailmd sync --quiet to add new messages and update read and starred marks. mailmd excludes spam and trash unless you request them; for Gmail over IMAP, mailmd syncs All Mail so archived Gmail messages are included.
mailmd is a better fit when you want portable, inspectable files, command-line control, or access through scripts and coding agents. For example, you can start Claude Code or Codex in the mail folder and ask it to find information in your saved messages; the agent reads those files with its normal tools and sends what it reads to its model provider. You type your password into mailmd yourself, so the agent does not see it. Login details are stored outside the archive, are not encrypted, and are readable only by your user. mailmd sends no telemetry or usage data and runs without a mailmd server.
To try it, use the mailmd setup instructions and code, or give a coding agent this prompt:
Set up mailmd so you can read my email. Use https://github.com/vincentsch/mailmd: read its AGENTS.md and follow the steps. Connect my mailbox and run the first sync. Then show me where the files are.
mailmd is an email copier, not a mail client. It does not free mailbox space by itself; you must delete messages from the mailbox separately after keeping a copy. It also does not import messages back into a mailbox or convert them to PST or PDF.
Free and open source
Try mailmd
mailmd is a free command-line tool that copies your email into Markdown files on your computer, one file per message. It works with any IMAP mailbox, and with Gmail and Outlook through their own APIs.
Install
$ curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/vincentsch/mailmd/main/install.sh | sh
Set it up with your coding agent
Set up mailmd so you can read my email. Use https://github.com/vincentsch/mailmd: read its AGENTS.md and follow the steps. Connect my mailbox and run the first sync. Then show me where the files are.