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BOOT CAMP 196 (11/10/01)
Transferring Outlook Express, part
1
Setting up a new desktop PC or laptop used to be easy, an
hour or two spent personalising Windows, loading a couple of programs and
transferring a few word processor and data files and it was ready to go; then
along came the Internet and email…
Nowadays computers accumulate a lot more baggage in the form
of email messages, address books and web site Favourites and naturally enough
most users want to copy them across to their new desktop and portable machines.
It should be easy, and indeed transferring your Internet bookmarks is perfectly
straightforward (simply copy the file C:\Windows\Favorites from your old PC to
the same location on the new computer, it should fit easily on a floppy), but
email is another matter.
Over the next couple of weeks we're going to look at how to
move all of your email messages, newsgroups contacts and some settings from one
PC to another. I make no apologies for focusing on Microsoft Outlook Express
version 5, it is far and away the world's most popular email 'client' program,
included with later releases of Windows 95, Windows 98, SE and ME and much of
what follows also applies to the most recent version 6.
Before we get our hands dirty it is worth knowing a bit about
how and where Outlook Express stores files, and this should also explain why
transferring from one PC to another is not as easy as it sounds. The files and
data that make OE tick can be broken down into three basic groups: your
messages, your address book and your personal settings and these are kept in
three locations.
All of your email messages (Inbox, Drafts, Deleted, Sent
etc.), Newsgroups and Cleanup Log plus various other housekeeping files are kept
in the 'Store Folder', by default this can be found at C:\Windows\Application
Data\Identities\{GUID}\Microsoft\Outlook Express.
The {GUID} bit stands for Global Unique IDentifier and will
actually be a long string of 30 or more numbers and letters that is unique to
your system. It is possible that your store folder may be located elsewhere, in
which case go to Options on the Tools menu, select the Maintenance tab, click
the Store Folder button and all will be revealed.
If you use Windows Explorer to look inside your Store Folder
you will see a list of files with the extension *.dbx (database, multiple use).
The master index is a file called Folders.dbx; some of the others you should
recognise, as they will have the names of your various inboxes and any
newsgroups that you are subscribed to. You can double-click on any of the *.dbx
files and they will open in WordPad. The text of messages will be shown but can
be very difficult to read as it will be jumbled in with lots of special
characters (mostly squares), headers and HTML coding. Nevertheless, it's worth
knowing that you can still get to your email messages in an emergency, should OE
keel over and die.
Your Outlook Express address book is normally kept by default
at: C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Microsoft\Address Book. If you can't find it
there, it may have been moved by other users or applications but you can easily
track it down by opening the Address Book in OE and clicking on Help and its
current location will be shown. Incidentally, if you still can't find an Address
Book folder that usually means that you also have Outlook on you PC and Outlook
Express has been set up to share the Contacts file.
If you take a peek inside the Address Book folder in Windows
Explorer you will usually see just two files <yourname>.wab and
<yourname>.wa~ . The 'wab' file (Windows Address Book) contains the
program and the data and clicking on it will open the Address Book. The '.wa~'
file is an automatic backup, usually made every time OE is running. Should your
address book become corrupted or unusable you can use the backup simply by
renaming the extension '.wab'.
The third and last group of Outlook Express files is what
makes transferring it to a new PC so difficult. These are your email account
settings, personal preferences, mail Rules and so on. These are kept in the
Windows Registry, a huge database of files that governs how your PC and all of
the software it uses works. As we have said many times before the Registry is
strictly off limits to novices and even seasoned Windows users should steer
clear, unless they know what they are doing. For those of you that may be
interested we'll have details of the relevant 'keys' next week. If you would
like to know more about the Registry have a look at Boot Camps 126 and 127 (June
1st & 8th 2000)
The Registry protects a lot of data it contains and Items
like passwords are difficult if not impossible to copy because they are
encrypted. That means you will still have to enter a few details when you move
OE to your PC but shouldn't pose too many problems, provided you take a few
simple preparations, and that's where we'll round off this week's session.
Before you begin you need to give some thought to how you are
going to transport the files from one PC to another. Some of them may be very
large indeed. If you receive a lot of email the contents of your Store Folder
can easily run to several hundred megabytes; clearly floppy discs are out of the
question. The alternatives (assuming your PC is not connected to a network) are
a cable connection, such as Windows Direct Cable Connection (Boot Camps 67 &
68, ) or Laplink, or by
transportable media (CD-R, Zip etc.), which will also provide you with a useful
backup. Lastly make sure you have all of your Dial Up Connection details (phone
number, passwords, mailbox settings etc.) to hand, and you're ready to go.
Next week – Transferring Outlook Express, part 2
JARGON FILTER
HTML
Hypertext Mark-up Language – hidden codes in text documents,
web pages and emails that define the layout and allow the reader to quickly move
about the document, or jump to another, by clicking on underlined, ‘links’
KEYS
Data held in the Registry containing values, settings and
preferences for the various programs stored on a PC
LAPLINK
Easy to use program that enables the transfer of large files
between desktop PCs and PCs and laptops, via a simple cable link see: http://www.laplink.com/
TOP TIP
You don't have to put up with the default toolbar in Outlook
Express. You can add or remove icons by right-clicking into an empty area of the
toolbar and selecting Customise. Scroll down the list in the left hand pane
(Available Toolbar Buttons), select one that you want to use and click Add. Two
that I find very useful are Mark Read and Preview Pane. The latter toggles the
Preview Pane on and off; I have it disabled by default (the option is on the
View menu, under Layout) as it clutters the desktop and can activate email
viruses like Nimda, but it's useful to have occasionally, when working through
long lists of messages.
NEXT
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