Moving Outlook Express rules to another computer?

[tom61]

Anybody know of an easy way to move Outlook Express rules to another computer?

I've got a decent amount of rules set up to sort the incoming email for myself (mostly BYOAC stuff), my mom, and my brother, instead of lumping everything into the 'inbox' folder.

[JLR2000]

Not that this is easy, but here's how I do it:

Go in the Registry:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities\{1111YOUR UNIQUE NUMBER1111111}\Software\Microsoft\Outlook Express\5.0\Rules]

Do an export of the key and save off the info.

Now, go into that key in the target PC, find out that PCs {1111YOUR UNIQUE NUMBER1111111} and do a Search and Replace on your saved off rules.reg file.  Now import it and you are set to go.

Let me know if that makes sense....I've done it this way a few times with success....

Good Luck.

[tom61]

Everything but "search and Replace on your saved off rules.reg file." made sense. Can you explain?

[_Iz-]

you have to edit the regfile to match the new user identifier (the {1111YOUR UNIQUE NUMBER1111111} part). Easiest way to do this is search and replace. Then merge the edited reg file.

Basically the user identifier will be different between the 2 PC's. You need to update the regfile with new identifier so it matches the new PC and gets merged into the correct profile.

[JLR2000]

Exactly....if you merge the reg file with the {1111YOUR UNIQUE NUMBER1111111} from the source pc, it will merge into the target PC registry, but the target PCs Outlook won't know to use it, because the Target PC has it's own {1111YOUR UNIQUE NUMBER1111111}.

So what Iz said, once you have the reg file on the target PC, look up in the registry to see the target PCs {1111YOUR UNIQUE NUMBER1111111}, and then in an editor you can change the {1111YOUR UNIQUE NUMBER1111111} from the Source PCs number to the Target PCs number.

Hope that's clearer.....let me know.  Feel free to email me with any other questions.

[tom61]

Thanks for the help, I figured out what JLR meant to open it in a text editor and change that text not long after I posted.

Now to figure out how to get the messages moved over. You can drag and drop the emails into a folder, but any messages with duplicate titles are lost .

Hopefully copying the .dbx files from C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Identities\{D3B...}\Microsoft\Outlook Express to the new computer will work.

[_Iz-]

Hopefully copying the .dbx files from C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Identities\{D3B...}\Microsoft\Outlook Express to the new computer will work.

Yeap! That's exactly the way to do it. Just run OE once first, make sure your e-mail is configured, exit and find the proper folder and replace the dbx's.

[JLR2000]

Tom61-

Yes, that's correct.  What I do is I change the store folder for the Outlook Express .dbx files by going into Outlook Express and making changes here:

Tools -> Options -> Maintenance->Store Folder

I change it to my "Data" partition, which is drive "E" for me.  I do this for 2 reasons, 1. I back up that directory nightly, and also if I have a problem with my OS, I can format C:, reload the OS, then take the fresh copy of Outlook Express, start it up, then point it to my storage folder on my "E:" drive.  Outlook Express will ask "There's already storage folders there, do you want to use these?" and bingo you are back in business.  The same files can be transfered to another PC and you can follow the same procedure there.....

Good Luck.

[tom61]

Cool, I got it working, thanks.