Recovering categories in a backed up registry?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Blue Max
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Blue Max

We rebuilt a system and failed to backup our categories in Outlook 2007.
Nevertheless, we backed up our full Windows XP registry before the rebuilt.
We know that our Outlook categories are contained in a key of that registry,
but what is the key and how to be extract just that registry key from a full
registry backup? We obviously would not want to restore the whole windows
registry back onto the rebuilt machine, only the pertinant Outlook category
key. Any ideas as to how we can restore just one key from a full Windows
registry backup?
 
In
Blue Max said:
We rebuilt a system and failed to backup our categories in Outlook
2007. Nevertheless, we backed up our full Windows XP registry before
the rebuilt. We know that our Outlook categories are contained in a
key of that registry, but what is the key and how to be extract just
that registry key from a full registry backup? We obviously would
not want to restore the whole windows registry back onto the rebuilt
machine, only the pertinant Outlook category key. Any ideas as to
how we can restore just one key from a full Windows registry backup?
Click to expand...

Why do you think you need to do this? The categories are likely still
assigned to the items to which they were previously assigned.
 
True, the categories are still present in the .PST file which we
successfully restored following the system build. Furthermore, the
categories also remain properly assigned to each item, just as before. The
problem is that their categories cannot be displayed until they exist in the
Master Category Listing which, unfortunately, was purged by the rebuild.
When Outlook was reinstalled, it was reinstalled with a small default set of
categories, not the complete customized list the user had before. So while
the category information actually exists in the restored .PST file, it
remains dormant until the user restores the prexisting categories in the
Master Category Listing. This has always been very mystifying to us; we
can't understand why Microsoft Outlook didn't include a utility for either
regenerating the Master Category Listing from the dormant information in the
restored .PST file, or for searching out the dormant categories in the
imported .PST file and automatically adding them to the categories in the
existing installation of Outlook. If we have overlooked something, please
let us know.
 
In
Blue Max said:
True, the categories are still present in the .PST file which we
successfully restored following the system build. Furthermore, the
categories also remain properly assigned to each item, just as
before. The problem is that their categories cannot be displayed
until they exist in the Master Category Listing which, unfortunately,
was purged by the rebuild. When Outlook was reinstalled, it was
reinstalled with a small default set of categories, not the complete
customized list the user had before. So while the category
information actually exists in the restored .PST file, it remains
dormant until the user restores the prexisting categories in the
Master Category Listing. This has always been very mystifying to us;
we can't understand why Microsoft Outlook didn't include a utility
for either regenerating the Master Category Listing from the dormant
information in the restored .PST file, or for searching out the
dormant categories in the imported .PST file and automatically adding
them to the categories in the existing installation of Outlook. If
we have overlooked something, please let us know.
Click to expand...

Check out http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/olcat.htm -
The Master Category list really doesn't matter as much as many people think.
:)
 
The Master Category list really doesn't matter as much as many people think.
:)
Click to expand...

Oh yeah? Just try assigning a category "not on the list" to an Outlook
contact! Unless you know something I don't (which is very possible, by the
way), I don't see how you can quickly assign a category to an item when it
doesn't even appear on the list?
 
In
The Blue Max said:
Oh yeah? Just try assigning a category "not on the list" to an
Outlook contact! Unless you know something I don't (which is very
possible, by the way), I don't see how you can quickly assign a
category to an item when it doesn't even appear on the list?
Click to expand...

I don't use a gazillion categories, so it's pretty easy for me to type the
category names in the Categories field if I wish. Or, if you don't see an
item in your master category list but it's assigned to the item, click the
categories button, and add it to the master list. Done. :)
 
Hello Lanwench,

We appreciate your circumstance, but hope you will sympathize with the
plight of those who DO use a 'gazillion' categories. Despite the
superlatives, there are many situations that justifiably merit the use of
many, many categories. When this is the case, the creation, deletion, and
management of categories becomes a very, very important issue. For such
individuals, your methods of manually recreating or entering categories into
a new master list, becomes extremely time-consuming and costly. This is why
we have tried to advocate more efficient methods of creating, preserving, and
migrating category lists.
 
In
The Blue Max said:
Hello Lanwench,

We appreciate your circumstance, but hope you will sympathize with the
plight of those who DO use a 'gazillion' categories. Despite the
superlatives, there are many situations that justifiably merit the
use of many, many categories. When this is the case, the creation,
deletion, and management of categories becomes a very, very important
issue. For such individuals, your methods of manually recreating or
entering categories into a new master list, becomes extremely
time-consuming and costly. This is why we have tried to advocate
more efficient methods of creating, preserving, and migrating
category lists.
Click to expand...

Then I hope the link I gave you proved useful. Categories are great, but I
fear you're pushing the edge of what they are capable of. Good luck.
 
Hello Lanwench, perhaps you will let me bend your ear once more? Being an
MVP, perhaps you can answer this question or properly redirect me. Despite
our exchange here, the original question has never been answered and we would
really like to find an answer. We have also posted in Microsoft discussion
groups, but are not getting a lot of response to this one.

Basically, we have a full backup of our pre-existing Windows registry that
includes the key for our Outlook categories. For obvious reasons, we cannot
import that full registry backup and overwrite our existing Windows XP
registry. Nevertheless, do you know of any utility that would allow us to
'Extract' the desired key from our full registry backup and safely import
just the desired Outlook key from that backup into our current Windows
registry? Furthermore, can the Outlook category key be safely imported into
Outlook 2007 from prior versions?

Thanks

*****************************
 
In
The Blue Max said:
Hello Lanwench, perhaps you will let me bend your ear once more?
Being an MVP, perhaps you can answer this question or properly
redirect me.
Click to expand...

I'm not an Outlook MVP, note! I just use Outlook a lot, and am nosy.
Despite our exchange here, the original question has
never been answered and we would really like to find an answer. We
have also posted in Microsoft discussion groups, but are not getting
a lot of response to this one.

Basically, we have a full backup of our pre-existing Windows registry
that includes the key for our Outlook categories. For obvious
reasons, we cannot import that full registry backup and overwrite our
existing Windows XP registry. Nevertheless, do you know of any
utility that would allow us to 'Extract' the desired key from our
full registry backup and safely import just the desired Outlook key
from that backup into our current Windows registry? Furthermore, can
the Outlook category key be safely imported into Outlook 2007 from
prior versions?
Click to expand...

Create a file somewhere on disk called whatever.txt.
Open/edit it in notepad.

Also open your backed-up reg file in notepad by editing it.

Copy the first line out of the backup reg file, to the new file. The one
beginning with "Windows Registry Editor ....."


Use edit/find to find your interesting category bits in the backup file.
Copy them, paste them into the new file.

Save the new file and rename it something.reg.

Double click to merge it in.

Re OL2007, no clue, sorry.

<snip>
 
I'm not an Outlook MVP, note! I just use Outlook a lot, and am nosy.

I did take note, but am desperate! You reply, you lose, I guess (ha, ha).
Thanks again for the help, this is the first time I have had an explanation
of how we could possibly modify the full backup, dangerous as that might be!

Thanks
 
In
Blue Max said:
I did take note, but am desperate! You reply, you lose, I guess (ha,
ha). Thanks again for the help, this is the first time I have had an
explanation of how we could possibly modify the full backup,
dangerous as that might be!
Thanks
Click to expand...

You might consider something like Acronis TruImage to take image backups of
your machine, so you don't have to fuss around with registry backups.
 
Here is an update to our own message . . . HALLELUJAH ! Microsoft finally
included a facility in Outlook 2007 (Beta 2 Technical Refresh) for adding
the pre-existing categories in a .PST file to the 'Master Category Listing'
of the current machine! The feature is accessed using a button on the
'Properties' dialog for the folder (in the folder tree pane) associated with
that .PST file. The help information, after pressing the button, is a
little hard to interpret, but we have confirmed that it adds all our old
categories, linked to contacts, back into the master listing. This is a
GREAT improvement . . . way to go Microsoft!
 
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