Backing up email addresses

[B.A.T.Man_Phln]

I've searched all day for a way to backup my email addresses. I've found
thousands of ways to back my email but not one for the addresses.

My Dell computer has had a few problems so Dell is completely replacing the
computer and upgrading me to a new one (I've had this one for 2 years) at no
charge. I have over 20 email addresses and it would take far too long to
enter them one by one considering most use different SMTP, POP3 and security
settings. Isn't there a way to back them all up and restore them all at once
to my new computer??

If it matters, I'm using Outlook XP.

Thanks!

 

[John Guin [msft]]

Do you have contact items for each of them?

Or are you relying on the feature that automatically completes the name of
the person when you start to type it?

 

[B.A.T.Man_Phln]

I'm not talking about my contact's email addresses. I'm talking about MY
email addresses. The ones I use to check my mail. Why would I have
mentioned the SMTP and POP3 if I was talking about my contacts??

 

[VanguardLH]

I'm not talking about my contact's email addresses. I'm talking about MY
email addresses. The ones I use to check my mail. Why would I have
mentioned the SMTP and POP3 if I was talking about my contacts??

Unlike Outlook Express, Outlook does not provide a convenient means of
exporting the definition of e-mail *ACCOUNTS* (which are not e-mail
*addresses*). The e-mail accounts defined within Outlook are saved in
the registry. The registry keys are:

For pre-2002 versions of Outlook, accounts are saved under subkeys of:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\<version>\Outlook\OMI
Account Manager\Accounts

For 2002, and up, versions of Outlook, the accounts are saved in the
mail profiles (which contain more than just account definitions):
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows
Messaging Subsystem\Profiles

You could export the parent registry keys into a .reg file for backup.
Then double-click that .reg file to add its entries back into the
registry.

Didn't Office XP come with a "Save My Settings Wizard"? The .ops file
that it creates includes the e-mail account definitions.

 

[DL]

You are using OutlookXP, and are getting a new PC. Are you aware Outlook pre
2003 is not fully compatible with Vista or Win7?
The primary issues are password not being retained
BTW The easiest way to backup up mail & data is to copy the data files, with
outlook *closed*
& do not use Export/Import functions

 

[Roady [MVP]]

You were looking for the term "email accounts" then but everything is clear
now

In addition to what everybody else already had mentioned, with such a
complex/large mail profile, I'd recommend using a specialized backup tool if
you do not want to recreate things by hand. I've had great results with ABF
Outlook Backup which even worked cross-version for either Outlook and
Windows. This will not only backup your Outlook data but also your Outlook
and mail profile settings.

For more info see;
http://addins.howto-outlook.com/abf_outlookbackup
If you decide to order use ABF-1HTJ8 to get a discount.

 

[B.A.T.Man_Phln]

WOW!! Thanks for all the help!!!

I don't have a dime to buy ABF so I guess I'll have to use the reg keys. I
know what you're thinking. A new computer but he doesn't have any money???
Dell is replacing and upgrading my old one for free since it's had so many
issues.

I've copied all of my files, including the entire doc's and settings folder,
to an external drive so I'll have the data files backed up as well.

As for Office XP not working on Windows 7, I'm gonna have to do what I can
'til March. When I get my tax refund I'm gonna get an updated Office. I
WANTED XP on the new comp but they can't do it anymore. DAMN!! There's NO
F'n WAY I'll let 'em put Vista on it. My cousin has it and it's worse than
M.E. was!!!

Anyway, thanks again for the help!!! I REALLY appreciate it!

 

[Roady [MVP]]

You're welcome!

For an overview of all the files, folders and registry keys of Outlook see;
http://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/filesandsettings.htm

Copying over the files and settings manually only has a chance of working
when all the exact paths remain exactly the same.
So if your old username was "batman" make sure your new username is "batman"
as well. When the paths are not exactly the same, then you're very likely to
end up with a corrupted mail profile and you'll have to recreate it manually
still.

As for waiting till March, I think you'll need to wait just a bit longer
because then you'd be able to get Office 2010 instead of Office 2007. Of
course it is your choice in the end but March will be getting quite close to
the Office 2010 release from the way things are looking now ;-)

 

[VanguardLH]

As for Office XP not working on Windows 7, I'm gonna have to do what I can
'til March. When I get my tax refund I'm gonna get an updated Office.

See below in my canned reply why passwords for Outlook 2002 won't work
under Vista (and now Windows 7). There is an add-on solution but it
cost a little bit of money. The macro utilities are free but then
you'll have to figure out how to write up their scripts.


Outlook 2002 will NOT remember passwords when ran under Windows Vista.
Outlook 2002 was coded to use pstore (protected storage system) in the
registry to cache the login credentials for the e-mail accounts defined
in Outlook; see http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb432403.aspx.
pstore is no longer available under Windows Vista. The registry keys
are still there but are read-only so Outlook cannot record your login
credentials into those registry keys but cannot update them. Vista
dropped pstore and went to DPAPI. For information on DPAPI, read
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms995355.aspx. DPAPI has been
around since 2001 starting in Windows 2000. The result is that you will
need to supply your login credentials for each e-mail account that you
have defined in Outlook for the first mail poll performed by Outlook.
After the first mail poll, the login credentials are reused so you don't
need to supply them again. However, if you exit and reload Outlook then
you need to supply the login credentials for only the first mail poll.

Outlook 2003/2007 are coded to use either pstore or the newer DPAPI
which means they will run under Vista and pre-Vista versions of Windows.
Mainstream support for Outlook 2002/XP has ended. There will be no
further feature changes, bug fixes, or enhancements to it. That means
it will remain incompatible for use under Windows Vista. Your
Microsoft-based solutions are: suffer with the problem when using
Outlook 2002 on Windows Vista, upgrade to Outlook 2003 or 2007, or use a
different e-mail program that runs properly on Windows Vista.

Read:
http://www.msoutlook.info/question/28
http://www.outlook-tips.net/howto/vista.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Securi...w_to_Windows_Vista#Other_features_and_changes
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb756884.aspx

The PStore keys in the registry are read-only in Windows Vista.
Removing the read-only attribute won't fix the problem. The PStore
interface used by Outlook is not available in Windows Vista. You cannot
manually edit the registry to retrieve or enter the passwords. PStore
isn't just a location in the registry with plain text data. It is a
method of encrypting the passwords using TripleDES that are cached in
the registry in a binary construct. Once a user is logged into Windows,
the CryptoAPI can be used to decrypt that Windows account's cached
passwords from the PStore in the registry. While Windows Vista no
longer provides support for PStore, it is possible to continue
supporting PStore using a program. Alas, there will be nothing
forthcoming as a hotfix or add-on from Microsoft to support PStore
functionality in Outlook 2002 under Windows Vista because Outlook 2002
is no longer supported.

A possible solution is to use a program (as a macro that runs inside of
Outlook) that manages the encrypted password for you in the protected
registry cache. If you don't want to write the macro or cannot find a
free one already written for you, there is OLAutoPW at
http://www.mgsware.de/index.php/OLAutoPW/138/0/#403. I've never used it
(because I don't use Windows Vista). Cost is 10 euro (~$16). It may
also be possible to use AutoIt, AutoHotkeys, or other keyboard macro
programs that can trigger on specific dialog windows to answer the
password prompt for you but then you need to leave them running all the
time and write up the macro that they run along with identifying the
trigger(s) on when and in which window to run their macro.