Outlook Profile Gibberish

[Eric L.]

I am a new network admin, and when a user boots into Outlook, it prompts him
to choose a profile. There are about five different ones. One is perfectly
fine-it is simply his name. This one has all his Outlook data, as far as he
or I can tell. The others, however, are complete gibberish. No one in my
department knows what this would be about.

It looks as though they are encrypted and being read as text. Can this
happen? I'm wondering if there was an old certificate being used in the
network which was used to encrypt his profile, which no longer exists.

I'd like to get rid of them from the list. How would I remove them safely
without outright deleting them from the system, in case they turn out to be
important? Is there a folder I can cut them from so that Outlook no longer
knows they exist?

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Looks like what is encrypted? What does "gibberish" look like? A profile is just a collection of mail account, data store, and address book settings. Deleting a mail profile through the Control Panel | Mail applet doesn't remove any data, but it would break the connection between an .ost file and an Exchange mailbox.

 

[Eric L.]

Thanks for your response, Sue.

The profile that is working is just called "Outlook" or "Bob Smith", but the
others are a long, random string of letters and numbers, like:
bm5op3n435j5glgf7h6k5qnspx4b6v3jh45

Would I be able to add the profile back after removing it from Control Panel
| Mail, then? If so, how?

BTW, when I went into the Mail applet, I noticed you can have it
automatically use a certain profile. That would solve my problem, except
this user uses his wife's profile sometimes.



Looks like what is encrypted? What does "gibberish" look like? A profile is
just a collection of mail account, data store, and address book settings.
Deleting a mail profile through the Control Panel | Mail applet doesn't
remove any data, but it would break the connection between an .ost file and
an Exchange mailbox.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

No, once you delete a profile, there's nothing to add back unless you do a registry restore.

Why not look at the profile settings and then start Outlook with the profile and see if it's worth retaining those settings?

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Microsoft Outlook 2007 Programming:
Jumpstart for Power Users and Administrators
http://www.outlookcode.com/article.aspx?id=54

 

[Eric L.]

I can't get into the profile, as it gives errors. Since the information in
the profile is only pointing to stuff, and not special in it's own right, I
think I'll just back up the registry and go with my 99.99% confidence that
it can be removed without incident.

Thanks for your help!


No, once you delete a profile, there's nothing to add back unless you do a
registry restore.

Why not look at the profile settings and then start Outlook with the profile
and see if it's worth retaining those settings?

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Microsoft Outlook 2007 Programming:
Jumpstart for Power Users and Administrators
http://www.outlookcode.com/article.aspx?id=54

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

What do you mean by "can't get into the profile"? What errors?

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Microsoft Outlook 2007 Programming:
Jumpstart for Power Users and Administrators
http://www.outlookcode.com/article.aspx?id=54