Addressbook

[Julia]

I have been trying to share my Outlook addressbook with OE. I followed the
instructions below but I am still viewing my WAB address book.
Can someone please let me know if there is something else I need to check or
do?

The change I made was with Outlook Express closed, click Start>Run. Enter
"regedit" in the OPen field and
click OK. Locate the key
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\WAB\WAB4. Click Edit>New>DWORD Value.
Enter "UseOutlook" as the new key name and press Enter. Double-click
UseOutlook and enter 1 as the Value data. Click OK and exit regedit. Start
Outlook Express and its address book should reference your Contacts folder.

I look forward to your assistance.
Thank you.

 

[Vince Averello [MVP-Outlook]]

What version of Outlook are you using?

 

[Julia]

I'm using Outlook Express Version 6.00.29.

What version of Outlook are you using?

 

[Vince Averello [MVP-Outlook]]

But you mentioned sharing your Outlook address book with Outlook Express...
so you're using both but I wanted to know which version of Outlook you were
using not the version of OE (but thanks for posting that anyway).

 

[Brian Tillman]

I have been trying to share my Outlook addressbook with OE. I
followed the instructions below but I am still viewing my WAB address
book.

It worked for me with Outlook 2003. What other subkeys do you have under
WAB4?

 

[Julia]

I'm using Outlook 2002.

But you mentioned sharing your Outlook address book with Outlook
Express... so you're using both but I wanted to know which version of
Outlook you were using not the version of OE (but thanks for posting that
anyway).

 

[Julia]

I'm using Outlook 2002.

Under WAB4, the subkeys are (Default), FirstRun, OlkContactRefresh,
OlkFolderRefresh and UseOutlook.

Under WAB4\Wab File Name is the current location of my WAB.

Thanks again.

 

[Brian Tillman]

Under WAB4, the subkeys are (Default), FirstRun, OlkContactRefresh,
OlkFolderRefresh and UseOutlook.

And what are the values?

 

[Julia]

(Default) - value data is blank
FirstRun - 1
OlkContactRefresh - 0
OlkFolderRefresh - 0
UseOutlook - 0 (I left it as 0 for now, although it was set to 1 when I
originally tested it).

Thanks alot.
Julia

 

[Brian Tillman]

(Default) - value data is blank
FirstRun - 1
OlkContactRefresh - 0
OlkFolderRefresh - 0
UseOutlook - 0 (I left it as 0 for now, although it was set to 1 when
I originally tested it).

I can't explain it. Those values match mine and I can toggle UseOutlook to
my hearts content and have it obeyed by the Windows Address Book.

 

[Julia]

When I made the change, and launched WAB, 'Shared Contacts' was missing.

 

[Brian Tillman]

When I made the change, and launched WAB, 'Shared Contacts' was
missing.

Shared Contacts is a Windows Address Book construct and won't appear if you
are using the Outlook Contacts folder with WAB. You should see only
Contacts in the left-hand pane.

 

[Julia]

Yes, I am only seeing the Contacts folder via WAB. So that bit is ok.

Perhaps it is to do with the location of my Contact file. Do you know where
the default location of the Contacts file should be and also where is WAB is
looking for the Contacts folder? I could then check the Contacts file is in
the right location.

Kind regards.

 

[Brian Tillman]

Yes, I am only seeing the Contacts folder via WAB. So that bit is ok.

So what do you claim is not correct? If you see just "Contacts" instead of
"Shared Contacts" or "Main Identity's Contacts" or "<somename> Contacts",
this is a fairly conclusive indication that the Windows Address Book is
accessing your Outlook Contacts folder and not the WAB file.

Perhaps it is to do with the location of my Contact file. Do you
know where the default location of the Contacts file should be and
also where is WAB is looking for the Contacts folder? I could then
check the Contacts file is in the right location.

There is no separate file for the Contacts folder. It's in the same
location your Outlook Inbox, Outbox, Calendar, and so on are: your Personal
Folders file (PST). There's no one location that the WAB will look for it.
It will use it no matter where it's located as long as Outlook has a mail
profile configured and a PST defined in that profile.

 

[Julia]

How do I check I have a mail profile? The pst file is a copy which I had
on my old pc and I just copied it over to my new pc.

 

[Brian Tillman]

How do I check I have a mail profile? The pst file is a copy which
I had on my old pc and I just copied it over to my new pc.

Nothing like filling in the details late in the conversation.

When you said you were using Outlook 2002, this implies to everyone in this
group that you have installed and are using Outlook 2002 on the PC where
you're trying to do all this stuff. If not, then no matter what you do, you
can't "share" Outlook's contacts folder with OE because Outlook's Contacts
folder isn't accessible to anything unless Outlook is installed, running
properly, and accesses the PST that contains the Contacts folder in
question. If you have it installed and running then you HAVE ALREADY
created a mail profile, since Outlook can't operate without one.

Please describe the EXACT conditions of the PC where you want the sharing
done. Does it or does it not have an working copy of Outlook installed and
referencing your PST?

 

[Julia]

Yes, I have a working copy of Outlook 2002 SP3 installed on the pc I am
working on at the moment. Outlook does launch and I can access my
outlook.pst under c:\ docs and settings\julia\local settings\appl data
\microsoft\outlook. I also have OE Ver 6.00.2900 installed as well. For
now, I want to continue to use OE to send email and view newsgroups only.
I want to use Outlook to manage my contacts only and do things like delete
contacts, amend, add contacts etc. I want the Outlook contacts to be
exactly the same as the OE contacts, so that if I add a contacts via OE, it
will appear in Outlook Contacts when I launch Outlook. This is because I
have the option in OE selected called "Automatically put people I reply to
in my Address Book", under Tools\Options\Send.

When I made the registry change I was still viewing the WAB contacts in OE.
The 'Shared Contacts' (as mentioned) is no longer available. The file
location under Help\About was not longer there either. I did find the
following file on my pc to under c:\ docs and settings\julia\local
settings\appl data \microsoft\outlook\OutlookHotmail-00000008.pst (I'm not
how this file appeared unless is was created when I made the registry
change).

Not sure what other info you may require.. please let me know anything else
that you may need to know. Sorry about the slight confusion.

Thanks again for your help in advance.

 

[Brian Tillman]

When I made the registry change I was still viewing the WAB contacts
in OE. The 'Shared Contacts' (as mentioned) is no longer available. The
file location under Help\About was not longer there either.

Clear evidence that you are, indeed, referencing your Outlook Contacts
folder. I'm not sure why you believe the UseOutlook key isn't working.

I did find the following file on my pc to under c:\ docs and
settings\julia\local settings\appl data
\microsoft\outlook\OutlookHotmail-00000008.pst (I'm not how this file
appeared unless is was created when I made the registry change).

This is the PST used to cache the contents of a Hotmail account.

 

[Julia]

Hi,

I just tried the change again but instead of launching OE first (after the
registry change), I launched Outlook first then, OE, and it's working now.
Not sure what difference that made but at last it's fine and is exactly what
I wanted.

Thank you very much indeed for you patience and help. It is greatly
appreciated.

Kind regards
Julia
-----------------

 

[Brian Tillman]

I just tried the change again but instead of launching OE first
(after the registry change), I launched Outlook first then, OE, and
it's working now.

Whew! I thought I was going crazy (and perhaps I may be, but at least not
over this).