Thanks for your reply Roady
Thus spake Roady [MVP]:
Reinstalling Outlook won't lead to setting loss; it restores program
files. The settings are kept in the registry but backing those up
won't do you any good as the combination of files and registry is
required. Use the Save My Settings Wizard if you want to back up
Office settings. Note that you still have to back up the pst-file as
that is considered data and not a setting.
Just curious; why do you need to reinstall Outlook?
Actually, I'm not reinstalling Outlook but occasionally return to an earlier
partition image of of both my C & D drives.
When I fresh installed WinXP last, I created a Slipstreamed XP SP2 CD where
the Documents & Settings folder & Program Files folder are both on my D
drive. Stuff like Outlook Express identities, Documents, IE history,
Favorites, Desktop, pst files & most Outlook settings were moved from the
default location on my D drive to a Profiles folder on my E drive under my
name (leaving the profile parts of the registry on D). I used X-Setup Pro
(very carefully!) to move these system folders. My main pagefile resides in
its own 1st partition on my 2nd identical h/d. This leaves my C drive as
read-only as it can be, therefore hardly fragments.
I recently played around with FlyakiteOSX that overwrites many of XP's
systemfiles in the process of installing an Apple OSX style of theme. It
looked great but I found a number of issues that had long been sorted by
various XP updates had returned. This "theme" & its associated applets can
be largely uninstalled but still leave traces so a complete re-image was in
order. I run a batch file that takes all my folder customisations (bagsMRU),
IE history ready to be merged afterwards. If I reinstall the image of both C
& D on the same day of the week it was created on, even my IE history gets
installed comletely intact, otherwise it can take up to a week for the
history folder structure to normalise. When I last carried out this
procedure, everything apart from my Outlook a/c settings were restored. The
only other task was to visit Windows Update. Next time I create an image, it
will include these recent Outlook email a/cs & a raft of newer XP updates.
Although XP System Restore screwed up once only very early on, I read too
many problems with it in the XP newsgroups, so decided to disable it
completely. I hadn't considered the Files & Settings Transfer Wizard mainly
because last time I looked, it didn't seem to give enough fine control over
what got restored.
Although my installation probably seems overly complex, it is very easy to
manage & only takes 20mins to restore, although getting the slipstreamed CD
right took about 3 attempts. It means I can completely toast my OS &
applications but recover from doing so. I'm also less hesitent to experient
& can remove all traces of programs I no longer want.
Outlook Express which I run in news only mode allows me to export a/c
settings but Outlook XP doesn't appear to let me do so but the penny has
dropped - you mean Office Save my settings & not the XP wizard! Thanks for
reminding me - sorted!
