Backup
and Restore Your OUTLOOK
EXPRESS Mail, News and Settings
Manual
Backup:
Your
safest bet is to move the Outlook Express Mail
Store to a new folder, on a different partition, if available and
export a few Registry keys to back up all your settings.
1)
In Outlook Express, go to Tools, Options, Maintenance. Select the
Store Folder button. Change the location of the OE
Mail and News store folder to a drive/partition/folder that will not be affected by the
uninstall or re-install. This is especially true if you plan to reformat the system drive. You will
be prompted to log off/back on, or reboot, do so.
2)
Do a Find on *.wab and copy all WAB files to a folder on the same
drive/partition you used in Step 1. This can even be the same folder
that you moved the Mail Store to (recommended).
3)
Open Regedit and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\WAB\WAB4\Wab
File Name. Modify the value to point to the folder you copied your
WAB file to.
NOTE: If you only have one available partition, complete
steps 1 through 3. Then backup the contents of the folder(s) that
you moved the Mail Store and WAB files to. This can be to floppy
media, CR-R/RW or whatever you prefer.
4)
Now export the following 4 Registry keys to a location that will be
available after your reinstall, or whatever (a floppy will work for
the REG files). If you're going back to a Windows 9X OS, you need to
ensure you select Win9x/NT4 in the Save as type pull down.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Account Manager
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Outlook Express
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\WAB\WAB4\Wab File Name
5)
Uninstall XP and/or reinstall your desired OS. NOTE: DO NOT open Outlook Express until you completed this
procedure
6) Recreate the folder(s) you used in steps 1 and 2, making sure the
path is the same. NOTE: If you were required to backup your Mail and
WAB files to other media, you can restore them now.
7)
Open Regedit and delete the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities key.
8) Locate the 4 REG files you exported in Step 3 and import them
into the Registry.
9) Open OE and enjoy. Note: Your passwords for mail and news accounts will have to
be reentered. These are not saved in the Registry.
How
to Share OUTLOOK
EXPRESS over
Multiple Operating Systems
Start
in Win98, open OE and use tools/options/maintenance to move the OE
store folder to a share drive (*Note*, this drive must use the same
drive letter in both OS's, while Win98 will not allow you to
reletter drives, WinXP will, so plan accordingly).
Once
you have it moved to a "share" drive, click Start, Run and
enter REGEDIT. Navigate to each of these keys and do a file/export
of the key to the share drive (call each whatever you wish):
For
the address book:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\WAB\WAB4\Wab File Name
Once this is accomplished, restart in WinXP. Before starting OE,
open REGEDIT and go to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities Right click on the Identities sub key
and select Delete. Then locate the 4 REG files you exported in the
steps above and double click each one to import them into the XP
Registry. Answer yes to the import prompt.
Note
for the personal e-mail: If you're exporting the keys from XP to 98,
then you need to ensure that you select Win9x/NT4 in the Save as
type dialog. After completing this, OE should open up with the
same settings, folders, mail, and news as you had in Win98.
Note: This works in reverse as well if you prefer to use the WinXP
settings, however, when you export and save the WinXP registry keys,
you must change the file type from .reg to Win9x/NT4 reg file.
How
to Share OUTLOOK EXPRESS
(Mail/News/Address Book) between Users in Windows XP
If
you don't mind having Signatures, Rules and all the other settings
the same, this method works.
From the user account that is already set up: Click Start, Run
and enter REGEDIT
Locate the following 4 branches of the Registry
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Account Manager
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Outlook Express
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\WAB\WAB4\Wab File Name
Right click on each branch above and select Export and save the REG
files to your hard drive.
For each account you want to have the same mail settings, log into
that account. Click Start, Run and enter REGEDIT. Locate the
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities branch, right click it and select
Delete. Next open Windows Explorer and locate the 4 REG files you
saved above. Double click each one and answer yes to the import
prompt.
Now you can open OE in any of the User accounts, and all the
settings, accounts, will be the same. This was tested with the
Mail and News Store on a FAT32 drive. I can't guarantee it will work
on an NTFS drive.
Note:
You will need to re-enter the passwords for mail and news group
accounts.
Note2:
If you use Signatures, you should put them in a text file and change
OE's settings to use them. Signatures are often corrupted during the
import. This is due to the Unicode storage of the signatures in the
Registry.
Sharing
the Outlook Express
Address Book in Windows XP
While
logged on to the user's desktop that has the address book you want
to use: Click Start, Run and enter REGEDIT:
Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\WAB\WAB4\Wab File
Name
Note the path to the WAB file in the (Default) entry. Log into the
other desktop and open REGEDIT there. Navigate down to the same
location as above. Double click the entry for (Default) and make it
match the entry for the first user.
Outlook
Express keeps prompting for your password
NOTE:
Following this procedure will remove all stored passwords for your
user account. Make sure you know what they are before performing
this procedure!!
This fix also
applies to Outlook, other programs that store passwords in the
Protected Storage System Provider sub branch of the Registry.
It also corrects some issues with Internet Explorer and Auto complete.
This is caused by a damaged
Registry key. To Remove the broken Key in Windows®
XP
1) Click Start, click Run, and then type regedt32 in the Open box.
2)
Locate the following registry key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Protected
Storage System Provider
3) Right click the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Protected
Storage System Provider key, and then Select Permissions.
4)
In the Permissions for Protected Storage System Provider dialog box,
click the Advanced tab. Make sure that the <Username> has Full
Control access. Select "Replace permission entries..."
5) Click OK.
6) Repeat steps 3
through 5 for each subkey that is listed under the Protected Storage
System Provider registry key; otherwise, you may receive the
following error message when you try to delete the Protected Storage
System Provider key:
Registry editor could not delete the key
currently selected. The key or one of its
subkeys does not give you
delete access.
Note: The sub keys
under Protected Storage System Provide will look something like
this:
S-1-5-21-1085031214-1202660629-1708537768-1003
7)
At this point, you can delete the Protected Storage System Provider
key by clicking Delete on the Edit menu. If you prefer, you can
first export a copy of this key, and then delete the key. To export
the key, right click the Protected Storage System Provider key, and
select Export. The exported file can be re-imported by double
clicking on it.
8) When you click
Delete, you receive the following message:
Registry editor will delete the currently selected key and all its
subkeys. Do you want to continue
the operation?
Click Yes to finish the process.
9) Start Outlook
Express. When Outlook Express checks your mail account(s) you will
be able to re-enter your password(s). This process repopulates the
Protected Storage System Provider registry key with the correct
information for that computer's SID.
