Export Account Settings in Outlook 2007

[Roee]

Hello,

I'm re-installing Office Enterprise 2007, how can I export my account
setting in Outlook?

I know that exporting the PST file is not enough, and I don't have "Save My
Settings Wizard" under Office Tools (was that only for Office 2003?).

Another question: are the rules also exported when I backup the PST file?

Thanks,
Roee.

 

[DL]

You dont export or import the pst, with OL closed you copy it

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Reinstalling Office won't delete any configuration settings or data.
To answer your questions;
1) You can't specifically only save your Outlook account settings without a
3rd party tool
2) There is indeed no Save My Settings Wizard anymore
3) When you backup the pst-file; yes. When you export the pst-file; no.

 

[Jonathan R. Portwood]

Hi Roady,
Can you suggest a third party tool for saving Outlook 2007 Account Settings.
I'm about to transfer everything to a new laptop and would really appreciate
NOT having to enter all my Account Settings manually into Outlook 2007 on
the new computer!

I'm currently running MS Outlook 2007 SP1 with Business Contact Manager, on
Vista Business Edition (no SP1 yet).
The new system will be pretty much exactly the same, except that it'll have
Vista Business Edition SP1 installed.

In the past I've used a program called 'ABF Outlook Backup' from ABF
Software www.abf-soft.com Unfortunately, according to the ABF-Soft website,
the current version of ABF Outlook Backup isn't compatible with MS Outlook
2007. :-(

Any other suggestions would be most welcome, ASAP. I'm needing to do the
transfer in the 1st week of April, so time is getting short!

Thanks in advance,

Jonathan R. Portwood.
Professional Quality Support & Assistance.
Assisting NGO's with IT Services.

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Personally I avoid using such tools to do a cross computer restore of my
settings because of the amount of dependencies You're usually much faster
doing the settings manually than fixing the issues that come with them.
Configuring it is only a matter of minutes. If the computer is really
similar you can use the Windows Easy Transfer tool of Windows Vista.

 

[Jonathan R. Portwood]

Thanks Roady,
It might be quicker to manually re-do the settings, IF you only have a
single e-mail account in Outlook. I have 8 separate accounts so it's much
quicker to use some sort of migration tool than to manually enter the
settings for all 8 accounts! All the accounts are POP3/IMAP accounts, not
Exchange Accounts. Hence using ABF Outlook Backup in the past. But
as I mentioned that isn't an option this time.

It seems a shame that there isn't an easy way of exporting your account
settings, especially since both Outlook Express and Windows Mail (on Vista)
have that option. It seems a little backward to not have that facility
avaliable in Outlook. I'm sure I'm not the first person who has need to
transfer settings from one system to another!!! Anyway I'll give the Windows
Easy Transfer Tool a go and see if that will surfice.

Thanks again,

Jonathan R. Portwood.

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Or lose a few mail accounts ;-) I personally prefer multiple aliases on a
single mailbox than having multiple mailboxes.
It's indeed a shame that there isn't such a tool but so far I have yet to
come across a tool that does it that reliably that I will actually trust my
transferred configuration afterwards. Not having an "too old" original
installation and a very similar target installation will increase the
reliability though. Yours sounds like it's worth a shot but plan some
manually recovery time either way ;-)

 

[alt.testing]

Or lose a few mail accounts ;-) I personally prefer multiple aliases on a
single mailbox than having multiple mailboxes.
It's indeed a shame that there isn't such a tool

It's a shame? It's a joke. Why there isn't such a mechanism to perform this
task seamlessly is outside the scope of human understanding. Hell, I could
write something in a scripting language that could do this, if provided a
decent API. Testament to much of the disdain that exists towards Outlook.

 

[Galen]

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message.

In

It's a shame? It's a joke. Why there isn't such a mechanism to perform
this
task seamlessly is outside the scope of human understanding. Hell, I
could
write something in a scripting language that could do this, if provided a
decent API. Testament to much of the disdain that exists towards Outlook.

The Outlook APIs and SDK are among the best on the planet. Put up or shut
up. We're not talking some obscure OS or small time operation here. We're
talking about the most popular Office suite on the planet. Put up or shut
up.

--
Galen (Not Current MS-MVP)

My Geek Site: http://kgiii.info
Web Hosting: http://whathostingshould.be

"In solving a problem of this sort, the grand thing is to be able to reason
backwards. That is a very useful accomplishment, and a
very easy one, but people do not practise it much. In the every-day affairs
of life it is more useful to reason forwards, and so
the other comes to be neglected. There are fifty who can reason
synthetically for one who can reason analytically." - Sherlock
Holmes

 

[Wolf]

Galen,

Your reply almost pushed me to say "bad words"!!!!

Doesn't matter how wonderful or powerful the suite is if it lacks of such a
simple and important tool as an "account exporter"... The "Outlook Develop
Team" should be at a shame of themselves for this stupid failure (and
Microsoft, as a company, for not providing a external tool of fixing upgrade
for that).

People who PAY MONEY for their operational tools should not be required to
waste their valuable time studding SDKs and APIs to develop solutions to
cover up the incompetence of a so well paid team (the Outlook Develop Team).

Why don't you shut up and stop bragging about how "wonderful" the "most
popular Office suite on the planet" is and open your mind to realize that,
regardless of its "wonderfulness", IT STILL LACKS OF SOME SIMPLE AND
IMPORTANT RESOURCE!!!

Stop saying to people to "put up or shut up" because they PAID for something
and they have the right to complaint once it doesn't do the job entirely!!!

-- Wolf

 

[Wolf]

BTW,

I forgot to say it on the previous post: it is possible to export the
Outlook Email Accounts direct from the Registry and import it back on the
other installation. To do this open the Regedit and go to:

[HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-xxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxx-xxxx\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles\Outlook

Note: "S-1-5-21-xxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxx-xxxx" is your GUID, which will
differ for each installation.

Edit or delete entries as you need, then export the entire key to a file and
import it into your new installation!

If you use this method to move the settings to another PC, make sure you do
a search and replace on the xxxxx as your GUID will be different.

It's usually a good idea to back up the existing key on the new PC before
deleting it. Remember to always make a registry backup first and just be
careful in there!

It works for me all the time. My "FULL backup procedure" is simple:

1) Save the PST file (which is your Post Office file, containing all the
e-mails, calendar, address book, etc)
2) Export your RULES
3) Export the aforementioned Registry Key

To import it on another installation is simple (just a few more steps):

1) Open Outlook at least ONCE, and DO NOT create an e-mail account a this
time. Just follow the start up screens until it is done.
2) Find out the location of your PST file (go to TOOLS -> ACCOUNT SETTINGS
-> DATA FILES). Take a note of the PST file location.
3) Close Outlook (don't minimize, CLOSE IT).
4) Go to the folder where the PST file is located and DELETE IT, replacing
it by your own backup copy
5) Open the REGEDIT and import the KEY with your email accounts settings
(make sure you have changed the GUID on the backup file as explained above)
6) Open Outlook again. Don't be scared if it gives you an error message.
Just ignore it and close the message window. Outlook will open with all your
e-mails and accounts already restored.
7) Import the RULES back (TOOLS -> RULES AND ALERTS -> OPTIONS -> IMPORT
RULES). Note that you may have to "adjust" some rules in very rare cases. In
most cases you just need to re-enable them.
8) As your PST file uses "direct access" to link some "shortcuts", the
Address Book link will probably be lost (but all the addresses you have are
still there). To fix it just delete the EMPTY address book on the tree and
link yours using the address book tool to fix the shortcuts (TOOLS -> ADDRESS
BOOK).

It is pretty much simple this procedure and it may takes 15 minutes only of
your time (a lot less than develop a solution for that).

I've been thinking myself to create an automated tool for the task, but as
I've said: it is so fast to do it by hand (and failure free) that doesn't
make sense on my case to develop a tool for the task. However, I'd love to
see someone else doing the job (maybe YOU, Galen?). If someone wants to
develop a tool I'd like to help. Just drop me a line and I can provide lots
of information about Outlook tricks...

Hope this post have helped someone else.

-- Wolf

4)

 

[Glostah]

BTW,

I forgot to say it on the previous post: it is possible to export the
Outlook Email Accounts direct from the Registry and import it back on the
other installation. To do this open the Regedit and go to:

[HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-xxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxx-xxxx\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles\Outlook

Note: "S-1-5-21-xxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxx-xxxx" is your GUID, which will
differ for each installation.

Edit or delete entries as you need, then export the entire key to a file and
import it into your new installation!

Wolf this is great but I have a simple [probably stupid] question.

So Do I export the entire key "Outlook"? Or is it necessary to find the
keys that actually hold the account settings themselves?

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

BTW,

I forgot to say it on the previous post: it is possible to export the
Outlook Email Accounts direct from the Registry and import it back on the
other installation. To do this open the Regedit and go to:

[HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-xxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxx-xxxx\Software\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles\Outlook

Better to use HKEY_CURRENT_USER rather than the GUID.

You should be able to export whatever is below "profiles". It may not be
the word "Outlook", since your mail profile name may not be "Outlook". It
will be whatever your mail profile name is.

 

[Wolf]

As Brian brightly replied, exporting the entire KEY named "Outlook" (or, the
KEY that reflects the Outlook profile name) should do the trick very well.

Also I would like to reinforce what Brian also said about using the
HKEY_CURRENT_USER instead of
HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-xxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxx-xxxx... Both work as same, as
far as you are on the same Windows Account in which the Outlook runs... The
fact is that on the majority of time when I execute this procedure I do it on
the "safe mode" and the user has another account... But, if you are logged on
the same account in which the Outlook is running, both methods will work as
same.

Just some remarks:

1) I am not sure if this "backup method" will work entirely if the account
is using Microsoft Exchange. I can assure it will work with
POP3/IMAP/HTTP/RSS, but I haven't have a chance to try it on a machine with
Microsoft Exchange. If someone else is able to try it and post the results it
would be nice;

2) On the Office 2007 the KEY also carries the RULES, so then you don't need
to export them. On the previous version of Outlook the rules use to require
the exporting method;

3) Don't forget to backup any existing signatures, they are commonly save on
external files.

Besides those remarks, this procedure is wonderfully fast and safe.

Regards to you all.

-- Wolf

BTW,

I forgot to say it on the previous post: it is possible to export the
Outlook Email Accounts direct from the Registry and import it back on the
other installation. To do this open the Regedit and go to:

[HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-xxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxx-xxxx\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles\Outlook

Note: "S-1-5-21-xxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxx-xxxx" is your GUID, which will
differ for each installation.

Edit or delete entries as you need, then export the entire key to a file and
import it into your new installation!

Wolf this is great but I have a simple [probably stupid] question.

So Do I export the entire key "Outlook"? Or is it necessary to find the
keys that actually hold the account settings themselves?

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

1) I am not sure if this "backup method" will work entirely if the account
is using Microsoft Exchange. I can assure it will work with
POP3/IMAP/HTTP/RSS, but I haven't have a chance to try it on a machine
with
Microsoft Exchange. If someone else is able to try it and post the results
it
would be nice;

It won't retain any account passwords. You'll have to redefine them.

2) On the Office 2007 the KEY also carries the RULES, so then you don't
need
to export them. On the previous version of Outlook the rules use to
require
the exporting method;

For Outlook 2007 rules are in a hidden folder in the PST, not in the mail
profile. If you move a PST properly, the rules can move with it. Hoewever,
it's always best to use the Rules Wizard to export the rules and move the
exported RWZ file, importing them again if needed on the target PC.

 

[Fawks]

This link looks very promising.

http://www.backuphowto.info/how-to-backup-restore-data-e-mail-account-settings-outlook-2007

 

[DWD]

@Galen: Just passing through, almost a year after you wrote this, I wonder if
you're still as big a tool as you were when you wrote it?

Exactly how, I wonder, did you think this absurdly arrogant and
self-aggrandizing post accomplished anything beyond making you look like a
complete jerk?

The truth of the matter is that it's generally bad form to take features
away without providing alternate means for accomplishing the same goal(s),
so, in fact, MSFT did drop the ball here, your "my big brother can lick your
big brother" remarks notwithstanding. If you would leverage some of that
backwards reasoning you extoll in your Sherlock Holmes quote instead of the
backSIDE reasoning you used here, you'd know that.

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

@Galen: Just passing through, almost a year after you wrote this, I wonder
if
you're still as big a tool as you were when you wrote it?

Chances are Galen won't ever see this. I don't recall any other posts of his.

 

[Sneaks]

BTW,

I forgot to say it on the previous post: it is possible to export the
Outlook Email Accounts direct from the Registry and import it back on the
other installation. To do this open the Regedit and go to:

[HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-xxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxx-xxxx\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles\Outlook

Note: "S-1-5-21-xxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxx-xxxx" is your GUID, which will
differ for each installation.

Edit or delete entries as you need, then export the entire key to a file and
import it into your new installation!

If you use this method to move the settings to another PC, make sure you do
a search and replace on the xxxxx as your GUID will be different.

It's usually a good idea to back up the existing key on the new PC before
deleting it. Remember to always make a registry backup first and just be
careful in there!

It works for me all the time. My "FULL backup procedure" is simple:

1) Save the PST file (which is your Post Office file, containing all the
e-mails, calendar, address book, etc)
2) Export your RULES
3) Export the aforementioned Registry Key

To import it on another installation is simple (just a few more steps):

1) Open Outlook at least ONCE, and DO NOT create an e-mail account a this
time. Just follow the start up screens until it is done.
2) Find out the location of your PST file (go to TOOLS -> ACCOUNT SETTINGS
-> DATA FILES). Take a note of the PST file location.
3) Close Outlook (don't minimize, CLOSE IT).
4) Go to the folder where the PST file is located and DELETE IT, replacing
it by your own backup copy
5) Open the REGEDIT and import the KEY with your email accounts settings
(make sure you have changed the GUID on the backup file as explained above)
6) Open Outlook again. Don't be scared if it gives you an error message.
Just ignore it and close the message window. Outlook will open with all your
e-mails and accounts already restored.
7) Import the RULES back (TOOLS -> RULES AND ALERTS -> OPTIONS -> IMPORT
RULES). Note that you may have to "adjust" some rules in very rare cases. In
most cases you just need to re-enable them.
8) As your PST file uses "direct access" to link some "shortcuts", the
Address Book link will probably be lost (but all the addresses you have are
still there). To fix it just delete the EMPTY address book on the tree and
link yours using the address book tool to fix the shortcuts (TOOLS -> ADDRESS
BOOK).

It is pretty much simple this procedure and it may takes 15 minutes only of
your time (a lot less than develop a solution for that).

I've been thinking myself to create an automated tool for the task, but as
I've said: it is so fast to do it by hand (and failure free) that doesn't
make sense on my case to develop a tool for the task. However, I'd love to
see someone else doing the job (maybe YOU, Galen?). If someone wants to
develop a tool I'd like to help. Just drop me a line and I can provide lots
of information about Outlook tricks...

Hope this post have helped someone else.

-- Wolf

Actually I had real problems with replacing the key using regedit, Wolf. I
carefully exported my W7 laptop key to a file then edited it so the GUID was
the same as the one on my desktop. I saved it to a thumb drive, stuck it in
my desktop and tried to replace the key. All I got was error messages.
After an hour of frustration I simply loaded Acronis, saved the Outlook data
and restored it on the desktop. I hate to launch a bloated program for such
a simple job.

Don

 

[Dan Cyr]

I know this post is old, BUT:

I have just confirmed this works with EXCHANGE accounts!

Export the registry key from HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles\PROFILENAME

Thanks for the help!

Dan