Despite the obvious importance of doing so, backing up emails is actually a rather tricky thing to do. Most programs keep emails hidden away in obscure folders and, even if you are able to locate these folders, it's notoriously difficult to retrieve individual messages.

MsgSave has the ability to save individual messages or groups of messages to the hard disk, allowing you to archive them to CD. Each message is saved as a .msg file that can be opened in Outlook, but not Outlook Express, with just a double-click.

After a quick and easy installation, a MsgSave icon is left in the Outlook toolbar. Each message's file name can be constructed from whatever information you want, including the sender and subject line.

However, if the subject line is too long the file name will be cut down because of the character limit set by Windows.

MsgSave also allows you to automate Outlook folders, so that for each new email added, a dialogue box will appear so that you can archive the messages.

If you use your email account for important correspondence that you want to keep on hand then this is an essential tool and well worth the cost. However, it can't be used with Outlook Express, which makes it useless to many home PC owners.