|
BOOT CAMP 490 (21/08/07)
Moving Word, Outlook Express and IE Data
Following hard on the heels of our recent series on
transferring data and settings from an old PC to a new one, this week, as
promised, we’re going to look at copying configuration settings and files for
the five most popular Windows applications, namely Microsoft Word, Outlook
Express, Outlook, Internet Explorer and Firefox (see this week’s Top Tip).
Word is quick and easy and all of your layout and view
preferences, formatting instructions, macros and custom dictionary entries are contained in a small file (usually less than 100kb)
called the Normal Document Template, or ‘normal.dot’.
Normal.dot is being constantly updated and is prone
to corruption, making it responsible for the majority of Word problems, so it’s
worth making a backup in any case.
Assuming that you are using the same version of Word
on both PCs, all you have to do is copy the normal.dot file on your old PC to a
flash drive or floppy, pop it into your new PC and use Windows Explorer to
Paste the file into the correct location. On Windows XP you will find it in:
C:\Documents and
Settings\<yourname>\Application Data\
Microsoft\Templates\normal.dot.
In Vista it lives in:
C:\users\<yourname>\AppData\Roaming\
Microsoft\Templates\normal.dot
Moving Outlook Express from one PC to another is a
bit of a chore as the account settings, email messages, address book, Rules and
so on are all stored in different locations and some of them are not very easy
to get at. It’s made more complicated by the fact that in Vista OE has been
replaced by Windows Mail. If you are moving from XP to Vista and want to avoid
a lot of messing around then I suggest that you use the ‘Easy Transfer’ utility
(see last week’s Boot Camp). Otherwise the basic procedure is to use both
program’s Export and Import facilities; just don’t try to copy files and
folders into the same locations – it doesn’t work.
In Outlook Express go to File > Export and select
Address Book then ‘Text File (comma separated value)’, choose the location (a
removable pen drive, etc.) and give it a name, select the fields you want to
export and click OK. On the destination PC the procedure in OE is reversed,
select Import > Other Address Book > Text File (comma separated value),
browse to the drive and file, click Next and it’s done. Importing your address
book into Windows Mail is more or less the same, go to: File > Import >
Windows Contacts > CSV (Comma Separated Values). You can try exporting and
importing the Address Book as a native .wab file but in my experience it is
prone to failure; the comma separated value (.csv) technique is a lot more
reliable.
My preferred method for manually moving OE messages
to another PC is to copy the entire ‘Store folder’ to a CD or flash drive (make
sure it’s big enough…), then copy that to the new PCs hard drive and use the
Outlook Express or Windows Mail Import facility. I wouldn’t recommend using
OE’s Message Export facility, and don’t try to import directly from a CD as it
is bound to fail because of the media’s read-only status. In Outlook Express
your messages will be stored in:
C:\Documents and
Settings\<yourname>\Application Data\Identities\{GUID}
The Windows Mail Store folder can be found in:
C:\users\AppData\<yourname>\Local\Microsoft\Windows
Mail
OE’s Rules, Signatures, Blocked Senders list and so
on all live in the Windows Registry and it is possible to transfer them from
one copy of OE to another. There’s a how to do it guide in Boot
Camp 311, but I warn you, it’s a nasty job and not for the faint-hearted.
It may be possible to copy them to Windows Mail but I haven’t tried, and am not
about to do so, so if you have managed to do it please let me know.
Next up is Outlook, which in comparison with Outlook
Express is an absolute doddle. All of Outlook’s settings, tasks, notes,
appointments, messages and contacts are stored within a single ‘personal
folder’ file with the extension .pst. The only proviso for transferring the
.pst file is that both versions of Outlook should be the same. In Windows XP
your .pst file will be in:
C:\Documents and
Settings\<yourname>\Local Settings\
Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook.
As usual the Vista location is slightly different:
C:\users\<yourname>\AppData\Local\Microsoft
\Outlook\Outlook.pst
Copy the .pst file to your new PC’s hard drive (it doesn’t matter where) then in Outlook go
to File > Import and Export >
Import from another program or file > Next > Personal Folder File (.pst)
> Next. Browse to find the .pst file from the old PC and follow the
prompts.
Our last port of call is Internet Explorer and moving
your web page bookmarks to another PC. This is another very simple job and IE
bookmarks are all stored in a single folder, called Favorites, which in XP is
located at: C:\Documents and Settings\<yourname>\ favorites. In Vista
it’s C:\users\<yourname>\favorites. All you have to do is copy the folder
from your old PC into the correct location on your new PC and it will replace
the old Favorites folder.
Next Week – TV on your PC
JARGON FILTER
GUID
Global Unique Identifier
– a long string of alphanumeric characters, unique to each Windows PC, used to
identify programs and applications
REGISTRY
A large,
constantly changing collection of Windows system files containing configuration
information for both the PC and programs stored on the hard disc
WAB FILE
Windows Address Book,
proprietary file format used by Windows applications to store contact
information
TOP TIP
The principle for
moving Firefox bookmarks to another PC is the same as IE, just paste the
‘bookmarks’ file to the correct location on the new PC, but they are not as
easy to get to as IE Favorites.
For the record in
Windows XP they are stored in:
C:\Documents and
Settings\<yourname>\Application
Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\zsjkllp7j86.default\bookmarks.htm
In Vista it’s: C:\users\<yourname>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\
Firefox\Profiles\lkjaflygydo\bookmarks.htm.
The simpler solution is to go to Bookmarks > Organise Bookmarks >
File > Export, choose a location (your removable media), load it into the
new PC and repeat the process, this time selecting Import (instead of Export)
on the File menu.
---end---
© R. Maybury 2007, 1408
|