I tried getting the tools from M$, but they want me to register with them. This I cannot do...
I need the tools in the hope that Ximian's Evolution will run in Windows. This will help me to migrate users from M$ to GNU/Linux.
If anyone has any experience with Unix software on Windows, I'd really appreciate hearing about it.

Why can't you register with them?

Any bogus info will do, just like signing up for anything else on the net.

I tried to register with Moz/Konq even wine IE but The page just said error.
I eventually signed up at hotmail, was able to create a passport account and created a hotmail account just to get the software (270Mb!).

Perhaps Cygwin will give you what you want. I've never used X applications with it, but it runs Bash quite well.

Cygwin works well and the XFree86 port allows you to run tunneled apps from a remote location quite nicely too. I recommend it a lot if you're stuck on a Windows machine.

Håkan

Cygwin does work really well when you need Unix functionality on a Windows system. The install is relatively quick and intuitive to do. With a little bit of tweaking you can run your favorite window manager and applications.

I've used Cygwin before but it was so slooooww. I'll try it again.
I push my Windows clients to use Mozilla and thanks to IE's vulnerabilities the switch is progressing fairly well. OpenOffice/StarOffice hasn't caught on with any of my clients (its the fonts I think), Outlook is irreplaceable in their eyes. I think Evolution will help them make the move. I want to move as many desktops as possible to GNU/Linux. If the app runs in Windows and in Linux, the switch to Linux will be easier.
I need a smooth replacement for Outlook that can run in both Windows and Linux. Mozilla runs in both very well and wine runs Word very well, although it is a little slow. I hope I can get evolution working.... especially with the MS Unix Tools because there is some justice in using their own tools to help switch clients!

There's GnuWin32<gnuwin32.sf.net> if you want win32 ports of popular gnu/nongnu commandline tools.

Thank you mr DummyBot - I'll look into GnuWin32 - I am not enamoured with MS windows tools for unix, crude compared to cygwin...

The hard part about switching applications is not learning new software. Users tend to pick this up pretty quickly. The difficulty arises when trying to maintain access to the old data, which may be difficult in this case.

Hello stickman,

I've had decent luck extracting data from proprietory apps. The biggest challenge I encounter is the users reluctance to learn something new. I've run into this with StarOffice, users who can barely use Word, complain about everything they can think of. Same thing when I've attempted to switch email clients. I've had office's go down because a virus was executed by Outlook, yet they still won't switch. They need an application that looks and works like Outlook (Evolution). I have only one office that is 100% Linux and they need Win4Lin to use the main application (I have it running in wine, but not ready for deployment). I have several office's where at least one workstation is Linux, but users always say how hard it is to use, how come I can't ______ like I do in Windows? Is the question that I usually hear. The reason that a Linux machine can stay is because it is either performing a task a Windows client has failed at, or is an insurance policy if the company is infected by a Win32 virus. I also use Linux systems for TS at some clients.
I'm still thinking about evolution as a Win32 app will make the change easier.

At the risk of sounding "noob-ish", would you be so kind...and describe exactly what "tweaking" do I need to do to get the window manager (any at this point) working (much less well - feel free to email if you would prefer). I wouldn't be asking but I have been rather successful at getting my mandrake 9.1 dancing pretty well with wine but I just stabbed at the reverse and am attempting to use cygwin and have the bash just fine but not much luck with the wm. I get a big grey screen and that's about it. The documentation I HAVE been able to find has not been that helpful/clear. Suggestions?

Thanks.