Bitzenbytes.com

Introduction

Outlook Express (OE) seems to cause a lot of questions to be asked on the forums, particularly when it comes time to move messages and settings to a freshly installed OE on another machine.  There are so many questions, in fact, that it is clear that Microsoft should have provided a better thought-out method of backing up OE mail data, but they haven't.  That's why this is here.

Microsoft Outlook Express is a free e-mail client that is usually installed with Internet Explorer and Windows.  As you patch, update, and upgrade Internet Explorer, Outlook Express is also patched, updated, and upgraded.  OE has the advantages of being free, being easy to use, and working well.  If you have limited needs, OE does just fine.  If you need more in a mail client, compare it to Microsoft Outlook.

The questions most frequently asked seem to be "how do I backup", "how do I restore", "how do I move my address book", and "where are the files associated with OE?"

At their most simple (for simply backing up, restoring, or moving the message store), these procedures generally work without getting into the registry unless things get really whacked.  This may be difficult to remember as you read the descriptions.  You must understand your circumstances, as requiring registry intervention, before doing that.   Read what is here until you do understand how the different data structures work together.  Remember, if you must work with the registry, always back up the registry before doing any work with the registry.

Backup Outlook Express

The data associated with OE has several parts and resides in several places.   The data that you probably want to consider as candidates for backup include:

• Email messages
• Address Book
• Account settings
• Mail rules
• Passwords

Backup Email Messages:

This is easy.  You just copy all of the data files to somewhere else.  The trick is finding the right folder (container) that holds the OE e-mail data files.   But first make a folder/directory that will hold the files that you will copy, the backup folder/directory. 

The way to find the folder that contains the OE e-mail data files is to select Tools—Options—Maintenance from the OE menu, and click on the StoreFolder button.    You will find the name of the directory, for the current identity and account, that holds all the data files, in a grayed-out dialog box.  This will be different for different identities, if you have established more than one, and your backup operation will be separate for each identity.

The registry key

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities

stores the ID signature key for each e-mail identity established.  Each of these keys has a long alpha-numeric string used to ensure a unique ID for each identity.   Stored in data below this key in the registry are all of the settings specific to each identity.  This data can be important to a specific type of OE restoration.   More information on this is provided lower in this document.

Use the cursor to highlight the whole name of the folder in that dialog box, and copy that string.  First, paste the string into a text file that you will store in the backup folder.  This is to remind you about the details in the future for when you forget.  Next, paste the name in the address bar of my computer or Windows Explorer.   When you have the folder/directory located and can see all the .dbx files, make a shortcut to the folder/directory.  Save that shortcut to the backup folder.

With the shortcut, you'll be able to get to that folder/directory easily, making backups quite simple.   With Outlook Express closed, just copy all of the files in the e-mail data folder to the backup folder you created.  The files you will copy all have a .dbx suffix.  These are the database files that contain your mail messages.  You should see files named for all of your mail folders and news groups.

Copy these files on a regular basis to back-up media and you have a protected mail store.

Restore Email Messages:

To restore, essentially, you copy the files you saved off, back to where they were.

We're presuming the reason that you need to restore is that your database got whacked somehow.  The original folder structure is still good.

If you want to restore a folder that doesn't exist.  Create a mail folder of the same name in OE.  Exit OE.  Now overwrite the newly minted mail folder file with the one you need to restore.

Another way to bring files into the current mail store is to use OE's File—Import—Messages feature to import one or more of the backup folders.

Email Account Differences

This backup and restore method works for the way most ISP POP3/SMTP accounts function.  There are some accounts however where the message store and settings are not controlled through OE, and this doesn't work for them.  Very few people have this.  And you are not particularly worried about backup of the messages if the messages are not stored on your system.  Well, maybe you are, but you need a different method than this.

OE Account Settings:

As with most Microsoft Applications, some information about the application is stored in the registry.  Always backup the registry before doing work in the registry.   In this case, the registry key

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Account Manager

is used to store information about your mail and news accounts.  It is prudent to save the contents of this key when you do your backup of the mail folder.  Start RegEdit from the Start—Run box, and select the key listed above in the left-hand pane of the RegEdit application.  From the menu select Registry—Export Registry File.  Save the file to a name like "OEyymmdd.reg" where a 6 character date is used in place of "yymmdd".   You will be keeping this file in the backup folder that you created.

If it becomes necessary to restore your account settings, right click on the .REG file and select Merge.

OE also gives you the opportunity to save your account information through less esoteric methods.  With OE opened, select Tools—Accounts—Export and save the settings to a file name you specify.  The information for each account will be saved separately.

OE Signatures, E-Mail Rules, and other such stuff

Registry again.  The registry key

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities

is used to store the signatures, mail rules, and other configuration information.   You can create a backup Registry file that can be used to restore all of the previous identities if needed.  The process is much the same as described for Account Settings above.  Run Regedit to export the entire Identities subkey to a file using Registry—Export Registry File.  Save the file to a name like "MIyymmdd.reg".

The Identities key for each identity is likely to look something like this:

{7D94CBAB-7F45-44A4-A2B2-7FB845538D62}

There will be one of these for each identity.   Either take them all, as described, and deal with them after restoration, or identify which key will be needed for each currently existing Identity and restore them as needed. If you have a new install, you will need to merge the .REG file, otherwise if the keys already exist, just restore the values.

Address Book

To backup the address book, select File—Export—Address Book from the menu.  For output format, select comma separated text file. Next, select the fields that you will need to export.  This list is worth checking; you may be suprised at what might not be exported by default.  For the destination filename, use a full path specification so that you know , for sure, where the backup file is going.  

To restore the address book, select File—Import—Other Address Book. A wizard is launched.  Select the comma separated text file option.  Check off the fields to be imported.  Finish replying to the wizard program.

The Export process produces a .WAB file.  This is the native file format for the OE Address Book.  If you simply locate the WAB file currently being used for the address book under your profile and copy that, you will be able to import from that file at any time.

Hot Mail and OE

Yes, you can get your hotmail e-mail using OE, but don't expect it to have the same behavior as you see when the account uses any POP/SMTP mail server.   To set this up:

1. Open Outlook Express
2. Click Tools and choose Accounts
3. Click on the Mail tab
4. Click Add and choose Mail
5. Enter the name that people will see when you send mail
6. Enter your hotmail e-mail address
7. Make sure that the incoming mail server is a HTTP server
8. Make sure that the mail service provider is Hotmail
9. Make sure that the account name is your hotmail e-mail address
10. Enter your password
11. You've clicked NEXT through the Wizard steps and end by clicking FINISH
12. Click CLOSE
13. If you have a connection to the internet now, respond YES to "Would you like to download folders from the mail server you added?", otherwise respond NO.
14. Having responded YES, in addition to your Local Folders, you should now see Hotmail folders including
    1. Inbox
    2. Sent Items
    3. Deleted Items
    4. MSN Announcements
    5. Bulk Mail
15. Hit the Send/Receive button and download your mail.

Sometimes OE will show duplicate messages for the Hotmail account.  This occurs if, for the Hotmail account, OE is configured to both open directly to the Inbox (which downloads headers automatically) and check for new messages when starting (which also downloads headers automatically). Hotmail delivers the headers first and then the messages.  To stop duplicates e-mail messages, choose one option or the other, but not both. Go to the Tools menu and click on Options.  On the General tab, remove the check mark for "When starting, go directly to my 'Inbox' folder" OR remove the check mark for "Send and receive messages at startup".  If you already have duplicates showing, go to Tools and click on Synchronize All.
 

Moving

There are a couple of possibilities.  It helps if OE is at the same version on both systems.  I have successfully moved version 5.5 files to version 6.0, but I wouldn't challenge that too much.  In older versions of OE, the file structure and naming was somewhat different.  As always, backup your registry before making any changes.

A clean install or a new system typically does not have more than one identity installed.  If the default identity has the same containers (.dbx files) as you have in your backup folder, just copy them over.  If not all the folders were established, open OE and create the folders.  Make sure the names are exactly the same.

Another way: You can also import the registry files to do this and this may be easier for multiple accounts:

• Export the Identity registry key to a .REG file on the old system.
• Copy the .REG file to the new system.
• Find the new identity key established in the registry.
• Open the .REG file with a text editor.
• Search for the old key and replace it with the new key ( {...} )
• Save and close the file.
• Import the file into the new registry.

Links:

• Microsoft Outlook Express Support Center
• Q175017: How to Import and Export Address Books in Outlook Express
• Q270670: How to backup and restore Outlook Express Data
• Q276511: How to backup other OE stuff
• Q291387: Using Virus Protection Features in Outlook Express 6
                   (blocked attachments, read messages in plain text)
• Q329570: Cannot Open E-Mail Attachments in Outlook Express 6 After You Install SP1
• How to configure Norton Anti-virus including Email protection
• FAQ about Norton Anti-virus 2003 E-mail Scanning