What's the Passport Folder inside /contacts for?

I'm not sure if I should post this here, or in a Vista group, but here goes:
does anyone know what the folder inside the /user/contacts/ folder is for?
The folder is named with my email address for my Passport account, and it's
filled with 2269 files, all with names like
0A92B7BB-7987-4F8B-8565-6DA3898DED40, and it's identified by Vista as a
WINDOWSLIVECONTACT File.

I'm seeing all these because I'm using Windows Live Foldershare to sync the
Contacts folder between multiple computers - and it's made the hidden folder
and files public, so I see all this mess.

Are these files all of my contacts, in some sort of cached state, from Live
Messenger?

Greetings Jason,

It's the contact cards and their information from Messenger. For instance, if you
right-click a contact and choose Edit contact, it is all that information.

By default they're encrypted and useless but you can actually decrypt them and make use of
the data if you wish. To do so, just pop open Options, Security category and uncheck the
'Encrypt contact list data so that it is not accessible outside of Windows Live Messenger'.
Note: this option doesn't exist in the current v9 beta.

After this, head back into the folder and you'll see a radical difference. You can also pop
them open in notepad and see exactly what's in them now.

--
Jonathan Kay
Microsoft MVP - Windows Live Messenger
MSN Messenger/Windows Messenger
MessengerGeek Blog: http://www.messengergeek.com
Messenger Resources: http://messenger.jonathankay.com
(c) 2008 Jonathan Kay - If redistributing, you must include this signature or citation
--



"Jason Dunn" <www.digitalhomethoughts.com> wrote in message
news:62F72356-A2D4-41EE-A15A-42F3E09A9111@xxxxxx

Thanks for the reply Jonathan, I appreciate it - so it seems I shouldn't
just delete them all then. ;-)

"Jonathan Kay [MVP]" <msnewsreplies@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:8EA9EE66-81B1-4AD1-A6A2-36B71063CBFA@xxxxxx

Hi,

Well you can, but they'll just be back the next time you sign in.

--
Jonathan Kay
Microsoft MVP - Windows Live Messenger
MSN Messenger/Windows Messenger
MessengerGeek Blog: http://www.messengergeek.com
Messenger Resources: http://messenger.jonathankay.com
(c) 2008 Jonathan Kay - If redistributing, you must include this signature or citation
--


"Jason Dunn" <www.digitalhomethoughts.com> wrote in message
news:uZDc1snaIHA.5128@xxxxxx

nntp://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.windows.live.messenger/
<nntp://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.windows.live.messenger/<D3
E07C69-900E-4DFA-891E-6206DC8C441F@xxxxxx>>
<D3E07C69-900E-4DFA-891E-6206DC8C441F@xxxxxx>


_____

NewsGator Inbox attempted to retrieve the web page for this item but
received an error:

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_____

Hi,

Well you can, but they'll just be back the next time you sign in.

--
Jonathan Kay
Microsoft MVP - Windows Live Messenger
MSN Messenger/Windows Messenger
MessengerGeek Blog: http://www.messengergeek.com
Messenger Resources: http://messenger.jonathankay.com
(c) 2008 Jonathan Kay - If redistributing, you must include this
signature or citation
--


"Jason Dunn" <www.digitalhomethoughts.com> wrote in message
news:uZDc1snaIHA.5128@xxxxxx shouldn't just delete them instance, if you information.


<http://services.newsgator.com/subscr...url=nntp%3a%2f
%2fmsnews.microsoft.com%2fmicrosoft.public.windows.live.messenger%2f%3cD
3E07C69-900E-4DFA-891E-6206DC8C441F%40microsoft.com%3e%0d> Related...

nntp://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.windows.live.messenger/
<nntp://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.windows.live.messenger/<2A
6602D761B04D6A9AFB3441A9B05529@xxxxxx>>
<2A6602D761B04D6A9AFB3441A9B05529@xxxxxx>

nntp://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.windows.live.messenger/
<nntp://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.windows.live.messenger/<D3
E07C69-900E-4DFA-891E-6206DC8C441F@xxxxxx>>
<D3E07C69-900E-4DFA-891E-6206DC8C441F@xxxxxx>


_____

NewsGator Inbox attempted to retrieve the web page for this item but
received an error:

The URI prefix is not recognized.

_____

Hi,

Well you can, but they'll just be back the next time you sign in.

--
Jonathan Kay
Microsoft MVP - Windows Live Messenger
MSN Messenger/Windows Messenger
MessengerGeek Blog: http://www.messengergeek.com
Messenger Resources: http://messenger.jonathankay.com
(c) 2008 Jonathan Kay - If redistributing, you must include this
signature or citation
--


"Jason Dunn" <www.digitalhomethoughts.com> wrote in message
news:uZDc1snaIHA.5128@xxxxxx shouldn't just delete them instance, if you information.


<http://services.newsgator.com/subscr...url=nntp%3a%2f
%2fmsnews.microsoft.com%2fmicrosoft.public.windows.live.messenger%2f%3cD
3E07C69-900E-4DFA-891E-6206DC8C441F%40microsoft.com%3e%0d> Related...




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***RESOURCE NOT FOUND***

Hey,

With regards to the contactcoll.cache being an encrypted file, how would i go about decrypting it without using the uncheck method on messenger?

My friend has recently lost her password, she has been contacting msn with information about the content of her inbox, contact list etc, ip etc and they will not allow her access as she does not have the correct secret answer.

However if she was able to get her contacts back that would at least be something, as some are irreplaceable (people she met travelling etc)

How could she extract this info/decrypt as she can no longer access messenger to uncheck the box?

Any help would be much appreciated

Hey,

With regards to the contactcoll.cache being an encrypted file, how would i go about decrypting it without using the uncheck method on messenger?

My friend has recently lost her password, she has been contacting msn with information about the content of her inbox, contact list etc, ip etc and they will not allow her access as she does not have the correct secret answer.

However if she was able to get her contacts back that would at least be something, as some are irreplaceable (people she met travelling etc)

How could she extract this info/decrypt as she can no longer access messenger to uncheck the box?

Any help would be much appreciated

<Kirsty> schreef in bericht news:2008410204826kwib_uk@xxxxxx
Try this link, hope that it helps!
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/mspass.html