Outlook Express 5 Tips

Have you ever had to re-install Windows, then IE5/OE5? A real pain to lose your Address Book, all your messages, and the Mail Rules that took you so long to assemble, ain't it? I have found a way to make the re-install (relatively) painless.
I use a seperate partition on my hard drive, but you can also use a floppy, a CD-R/W, or a second HD for this technique.

To get started, you will need to create someplace to keep all the data. Somewhere on another partition or hard drive (not C:\ -- mine is on E:), create a folder ( like OE5 for instance) where you want the data to be saved. Now, in the folder you created,

create a folder named Mailbox.
create a folder named Rules.
create a folder named Address Book.

To protect your messages, open OE5 and click the Tools menu. Select Options, then the Maintainence tab. Near the bottom, click the 'Store Folder' button. You will get a window informing you of where your messages are being stored. Click the 'Change' button, and browse to where you want the messages kept (I chose E:\OE5\Mailbox in my case. Your folder path may be different).

If there is already a message store in this folder (from a previous installation), you will get the following message from OE:

YES will abandon the message store you have RIGHT NOW, and start using the Mailbox found in the new folder.

NOTE: If you have re-installed, and are trying to get your old message store back after a re-install, you MUST SELECT 'YES' to get the messages you saved here back. If you select No, all the messages you saved in the \Mailbox folder will be deleted, and the messages you see NOW in OE5 will be moved to the new folder.

If this is the first time that you are moveing your messages to a new location, you will not get any message like this, and the switch will be over in a few seconds. Now, if you format C:\ to re-install, your email is safe. Simply switch to the store you saved after you finish re-instaling OE5.

To save a backup of your Mail Rules, open Regedit, and browse to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities\{A9E73E20-E73A-11D3-B14B-C5C4A5125C2C}\Software\Microsoft\Outlook Express\5.0\Rules

NOTE: The data will vary from one instalation to the next. The ID# between the {} brackets will not be the same from one time to the next.

When you find the Rules folder, click on thr Rules key to highlight it, and from the menus at the top select Registry / Expore Registry File... and browse to the backup folder (E:\OE5\Rules).
In the File Name box, type a name for the file (the '.REG' will be added automaticaly).
At the bottom, in the Export Range area, be sure that 'Selected Branch' is chosen, and not 'All'. Click 'Save'.

I have included text below for you to copy and save in the same folder as the exported registry branch. It is the same text that I have to remind me of exactly what to do to restore my message rules after *yet another* format/re-install of Windoze/OE5.

This branch was removed from:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities\{Your ID # Here}\Software\Microsoft\Outlook Express\5.0\Rules on DATE.

If you merge the .reg file, it will go under that identity. This will not be correct if you had to re-install Outlook Express.
To find the correct location, open REGEDIT and goto
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities and find the number similar to {A9E73E20-E73A-11D3-B14B-C5C4A5125C2C}.

Under that, there should be a branch like Software\Microsoft\Outlook Express\5.0\Rules

Take note of the whole path to the branch. For instance, mine is
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities\{insert identity number here}\Software\Microsoft\Outlook Express\5.0\Rules.

Hold shift while you right-click the .REG file. Select Open With... and scroll down to Editpad. If you do not have Editpad, you can get it by visiting http://www.jgsoft.com or you can use Windows Wordpad to edit the file. These programs give you tha ability to find and replace text.

NOTE: If you use Word Pad, you MUST *not* save the file as a Word 6.0 document or a Rich Text document. Select Text Document to prevent corrupting the .reg file with formating data.

If all else is the same but the identity, then you can Replace only the text between the {} brackets.

Once all changes are made to your satisfaction, you should select File>Save As... and save the modified .REG file with a different name.

To back up your Address Book, Open OE5 and in the Menus select File > Export > Address Book...
When the Address Book Export Tool window appears, highlight "Text File (Comma Seperated Values)" and click Export.
In the CSV Export window, click Browse...
In the next window, browse to wherever you will store the Address Book backup (E:\OE5\Address Book).
Give the file a name, and select Save.
Back in the CSV Export window again, select Next.
Put a checkmark in ALL of the boxes in the list, and click Finish.
Now, you can Close the Address Book Export Tool window.

To get the Address Book back after a re-install, goto File > Import > Other Address Book.
Highlight the Text File (Comma Seperated Values) item, and click Import.
Browse to the CSV File (E:\OE5\Address Book)
Now, click Next. In the CSV Import window, be sure that ALL the boxes are checked, and click Finish.