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Outlook Express account settings

Discussion in 'Microsoft Mail (Outlook / OE / Windows Mail)' started by cassidy, 2008/10/28.

  1. 2008/10/28
    cassidy

    cassidy Inactive Thread Starter

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    I made a full sytem backup with Acronis True Image 10 just before my XP became unstable and was about to crash. I have since done a complete new install of XP with SP3. I have been able to restore all my email dbx and wab files and OE6 runs fine except that I cannnot find my email account settings.

    I seem to recall that XP stores the account sttings in a windows\system folder but I can't recall which. Since I was using a significant number of email accounts, it would be nice to recover them instead of reinventing the wheel (call me lazy...). I was thinking that if I can find the location of the account settings in my backup, then I could simply restore them to the original location.

    Any ideas?
     
  2. 2008/10/28
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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    Hello cassidy,
    welcome to WindowsBBS ... :) ... !

    Outlook Express account settings are not in a file but in a registry key. On Win XP Pro (and I think it is the same in Win XP Home) it is in:

    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Account Manager

    It should have been backed up prior to reinstalling and restored after reinstalling. I don't know if it can be extracted from the image. Let's hope some else knows.

    Christer
     

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  4. 2008/10/28
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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    I checked OE > Tools > Accounts and found out that the accounts can be exported to a file. This file has the extension *.iaf and is stored in a location chosen by the user.

    Christer
     
  5. 2008/10/28
    cassidy

    cassidy Inactive Thread Starter

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    Thanks, Christer. I thought that registry keys are actually files stored in sevearal folders in the windows\system (or system32)\config (?) area.
     
  6. 2008/10/28
    cassidy

    cassidy Inactive Thread Starter

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    I wish I had done a separatae backup of the appropriate registry keys to make life a lot easier, but XP gave up the ghost before I got around to doing it. So I only have the full system backup. I know that there is no separate file that contains all registry keys (such as ...\...\registry), so the registry information has to be stored in system files somewhere. If I only knew where ....
     
  7. 2008/10/28
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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    It was easy in Win95/98/ME, two files in the Windows directory, user.dat and system.dat but in Win2K/XP it is more complicated. I'm searching but have yet to find the files and locations.

    Christer
     
  8. 2008/10/28
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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  9. 2008/10/28
    cassidy

    cassidy Inactive Thread Starter

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    Thanks, Christer, for your help. I'll see what I can do with the registry files
     
  10. 2008/10/29
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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    You're welcome ... :) ... !

    I have no idea if or how specific keys can be extracted from any of these files. Thread carefully!

    Christer
     
  11. 2008/10/29
    Steve R Jones

    Steve R Jones SuperGeek Staff

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    Why not just go to Tools->Accounts->and ADD the account(s)
     
  12. 2008/10/29
    cassidy

    cassidy Inactive Thread Starter

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    Hi Steve: Because i'm lazy?? But mainly to see if and how it can be done
     

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