Outlook Email Accounts in Registry

[AGP]

Where would I look in the registry to find Outlook Email account info.
I want to back them up but using an offline script. In other words I know
that you can back them via Outlook itself but I need to do this outside
of Outlook.

AGP

 

[Vanguard]

Where would I look in the registry to find Outlook Email account info.
I want to back them up but using an offline script. In other words I know
that you can back them via Outlook itself but I need to do this outside
of Outlook.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\Outlook\OMI Account
Manager\Accounts

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

That's for Outlook 2000 in IMO mode. More likely, AGP will want the mail profile information in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem key.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Vanguard]

That's for Outlook 2000 in IMO mode. More likely, AGP will want the mail
profile information in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem key.


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Since my setup is for Outlook 2002, and the Windows setup was a fresh
install with Office 2002 installed thereafter (i.e., Outlook 2000 was never
installed, plus I don't have it), it is strange that this registry key
exists if a different one is used for Outlook 2002 and up.

I looked under the registry key that you mention (Windows Messaging
Subsystem) but could not find any account definitions there. Those keys
look to define the user's profile but not the accounts themselves.

I simply did a search in the registry on one of my e-mail addresses (which
was probably unique than for any other string in the registry) to find where
the accounts were defined (in plain-text format so I could actually see them
versus some hashed key somewhere). Besides the key for the Windows Address
Book and which is used by Outlook Express
(HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Account Manager\Accounts), I
found my e-mail address under
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\Outlook\OMI Account
Manager\Accounts. Since I've never had a version earlier than OL2002
installed in this instance of Windows, and because the IMO and CW modes are
no longer separate or even presented, and because that key was the only
other one where I found my e-mail address (other than under the HKEY_USERS
from which the above keys are copied), it looks like that is where the
accounts are stored.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

The Windows Messaging Subsystem settings for Outlook mail profiles are mostly in Unicode, so you can't do a simple search to find references to a particular account.

The OMI Account Manager settings are for Outlook Express, which sort of makes sense, given that OE and OL2000 IMO used the same kind of account definitions.
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Vanguard]

The Windows Messaging Subsystem settings for Outlook mail profiles are
mostly in Unicode, so you can't do a simple search to find references to a
particular account.

The OMI Account Manager settings are for Outlook Express, which sort of
makes sense, given that OE and OL2000 IMO used the same kind of account
definitions.


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(only needed due to use of quoted-printable format in parent Usenet post)

I thought the accounts for OE were stored under
"HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Account Manager\Accounts".
That's where they appear when I create accounts in OE. As a test, I created
a new dummy account in OE. Before I added the dummy account, I used
InstallWatch to take a snapshot. I created the new dummy account. I ran an
analyze in InstallWatch to see what changed. The result was a new
hexadecimal 8-digit named registry key for the account's setting under:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Account Manager\Accounts

The OMI Account Manager key didn't get changed. I then did a similar test
in Outlook to create a dummy account. The registry keys that changed
(added) were under:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\Windows Message
Subsystem\Profiles\<myprofilename>

Hmm, interesting. Makes me wonder what the OMI Account Manager settings are
used for and who creates them. When tested by adding a new account, neither
Outlook or Outlook Express created or modified any keys under the OMI
Account Manager key. When I did a lookup at Microsoft KB support site on
"OMI Account Manager", I saw references to older versions of Outlook so
maybe this key gets syncrhonized to the Windows Message Subsystem key for
backwards compatibility, but I don't know when that synchronization occurs
since it didn't happen when I created a new dummy account in Outlook (or in
Outlook Express).

As of OL2002, Microsoft had not yet provided a means of exporting the
accounts (so they could be recovered later). Did Microsoft do anything yet
in OL2003 to let users backup their e-mail account settings? Office 2002
came with a "Save My Settings" wizard tool but it saves settings across all
Office components and doesn't let the user specify which settings to save
nor which settings to restore (i.e., you save all, you restore all, even if
you only are interest in some settings and don't want to step atop any
others). I haven't tried it to see if it save the Outlook account settings,
too.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

As of OL2002, Microsoft had not yet provided a means of exporting the

accounts (so they could be recovered later).

As you know, both Outlook 2002 and 2003 use the Office Save My Settings Wizard. This tool saves and restores mail accounts, as well as other settings. If you read up on it in the Office Resource Kit, you'll see that you can tweak the .ini file to make it save exactly what registry settings you want, potentially including just the account settings.

Makes me wonder what the OMI Account Manager settings are
used for and who creates them.

All I know is that everything I see in OMI is related to Outlook Express accounts, mostly those that I use for newsgroup posting.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Vanguard]

As of OL2002, Microsoft had not yet provided a means of exporting the
accounts (so they could be recovered later).

As you know, both Outlook 2002 and 2003 use the Office Save My Settings
Wizard. This tool saves and restores mail accounts, as well as other
settings. If you read up on it in the Office Resource Kit, you'll see that
you can tweak the .ini file to make it save exactly what registry settings
you want, potentially including just the account settings.

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(only needed due to use of quoted-printable format)

Thanks for the info on the .ini file. I tried running the ProfileWz.exe
utility but all it does it let me make major selections, like which
applications to include in the saved .ops file. Edit an .ini file? Uffda,
not user friendly, yuck, but doable.