This is for XP more than for Vista. I have been using Outlook since as far as I can remember but, there are times that I want to ring its neck or tear it apart limb from limb... I guess is better I don't know who the creator is

But I digress... Anyways, back to my original thought. I have been having some issues with Outlook (best to use a new thread for this) so I decided to change to Mozilla Thunderbird but it didn't work like I thought it would (again... new thread). Bottom line is ... I have to go back to Outlook 2003.

My pet peeve is that, even though I back up my pst files, eveytime I need to do a clean Outlook 2003 install or simple migration of sorts, I loose my custom settings, rules & alerts, etc, etc.



Is there an easy way to back up all these custom settings as well so you can migrate Outlook painlessly? I have done the google 'till my eyes drew blood but all I am getting are mixed solutions or me having to install a 3rd party software...

Right now I have 3 e-mail accounts being handled by Outlook, my Office Personal, Company's bulk e-mail and Company's g-mail so I use a lot of custom settings.

are you using the wizard to backup?

Description and use of the Save My Settings Wizard

No I am not, I am using the Export option so only my e-mails and contacts get to be backed-up and nothing else.

I am going to try that option on Monday when I am back at the office. I browse through it and it appears that it will be more than what I want or can handle but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

Thanks

some of your outlook profile information such as recently emailed contacts in the to.. dialogue box info is stored in a file called *.NK2 if you run a search it should come up! it will be called the same name as the profile in outlook so e.g. outlook.nk2

that in vista:
C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Outlook should be a case of restoring or overwriting that or changing the file name to match your new outlook profile name.

within this folder you will also file a file called with the extension *.srs this is your send and receive configuration file.

Rules and Alerts are apparently stored in a file called, Username.rwz however i cannot find it when I search unless i go through outlook's export procedure and then it would create one.

If you had an outlook signature it may be located in the following directory in vista:
C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Signatures

sorry could not be of more assistance hope that helps.

Kind Regards,

Benmarshall5364

Originally Posted by benmarshall5364

some of your outlook profile information such as recently emailed contacts in the to.. dialogue box info is stored in a file called *.NK2 if you run a search it should come up! it will be called the same name as the profile in outlook so e.g. outlook.nk2

that in vista:
C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Outlook should be a case of restoring or overwriting that or changing the file name to match your new outlook profile name.

within this folder you will also file a file called with the extension *.srs this is your send and receive configuration file.

Rules and Alerts are apparently stored in a file called, Username.rwz however i cannot find it when I search unless i go through outlook's export procedure and then it would create one.

If you had an outlook signature it may be located in the following directory in vista:
C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Signatures

sorry could not be of more assistance hope that helps.

Kind Regards,

Benmarshall5364

Thanks a lot for the tip.

Now, I am running XP Pro w/SP3... would I find those files in the same or different place than Vista?

Archie123, it appears the Wizard did the Trick. All I got to do now is install a fresh window + Office and try the wizard.

Although, now that I think about it, I am doubting if I am going to use the wizard or not... what is part of the problem is some of those settings I have? I hate 2nd guessing myself.

Hi,

Paths are slightly different.

c:\documents & settings\username rather than c:\users\username

hope this helps.

B.

Well, I decided to do a clean XP Pro w/SP3 install and everything went smoothly until I got to the Office 2003 installation.

After installing Office 2003, I went ahead and restore both my Outlook.pst and the settings I had backed-up with the Wizard and now, I seem to be having an error that I have never seen in my life and it seems that neither has Google

If you see the attached images, you will see what I am talking about. On my part, I already went to Control Panel/Add Remove Programs/Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003 and used the "Change" button to do a Reinstall/Repair to no avail. I am wondering if I clean install will yield the same results or not.