Export and move Outlook Profile

Introductie


When you re-install your computer or your computer is replaced by a new one, you would like to copy your Outlook profile to your new computer. When you use pop email it is most recommended to do this. When you use imap email, most messages would be downloaded again. The way we are showing here will only require your email passwords. All other settings like email, calendar, contacts, smtp servers, and so on, can be transfered to your new computer. Please note: Hosted Exchange profiles can not be copied this way!

Requirements:

  • Nirsoft MailPV [Download]
  • Registereditor
  • x amount GB free space on external drive or usb drive for backup mailbox

Step 1.1

Open the registereditor by entering it in the search box of your start menu or by entering “regedit” in the function “Execute…” at the startmenu. If you have Windows 8 or 10 without a startmenu, the registereditor could be found in C:\Windows\regedit.exe. (Tip: In that case: install Classic Shell to get the good old Windows 7 Startmenu back)

Step 1.2

At the registereditor we are going to lookup this key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles. Double click on the following folders so they expand:

  • HKEY_CURRENT_USER
  • Software
  • Microsoft
  • Windows NT
  • CurrentVersion
  • Windows Messaging Subsystem
  • Profiles

Please check if the profilefolder is filled with your current profile and if subfolders are present, somewhat like the image at the right.

Step 1.3

Right click the folder “Profiles” and select option “Export”. You can now export the entire key, including all subfolders, to an external harddisk or usb drive. You can name it anything you like, as long as you can recorgnize it later.

 

Step 1.4

Start the program “Mailpv” that you have downloaded, like said above in the “requirements” section. (Some virus scanners mark this program as trojan, but it’s not. You can temporarily disable your virus scanner). This program scans for all email passwords used in currently installed email programs. You can now select the right email boxes and can be saved to a textfile by pressing CTRL-S (or in the menu “File” / “Save Selected Items”). Put this file also on your external harddisk or usb drive.

Step 1.5

Start Outlook to check some settings. Go to upper left menu “File” and select “Accountsettings” in this screen.

 

 

 

Step 1.6

Write down and remember the location of the mailbox files. Especially the name of the user is very important. This will have to be exactly the same on the new computer. If this folder name changes on the new computer (when you create a different user account in Windows), this outlook profile will become corrupt and this method of transfering the profile can not be used. Now Click on “Open Folder location…” at the upper right so we can go and save current mailboxes.

Step 1.7

Double click at the adress field so it becomes editable. We can remove “\Outlook” from the adress, so we can go back one folder for exporting. (Tip: Select the entire adress and copy (CTRL-C) it and paste (CTRL-V) this adress in a new document for future reference.)

Step 1.8

Copy folder “Outlook” by selecting it and pressing CTRL-C or rightclicking it and select option “copy” from the menu. Next you can navigate to your external harddisk or usb drive and paste the folder by pressing CTRL-V or rightclicking en select “paste” from the menu. The entire folder “Outlook” will now be copied including all email box files.

Step 2.1

On the new computer, you need to check if the username matches the username from the old computer, which you have written down at step 1.6. If it does not match, you should create a new windows user account with the exact username as the old computer by going to control panel / users.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stap 2.2

On your new computer, navigate to the external harddisk or usb drive. You can now doubleclick the *.reg file that you have created at step 1.3. This way, we are importing the old profile into the Windows register. The computer will ask your permission for administrator rights. You can confirm by pressing “Yes”. Next, the following message will appear, like shown in the image at the right. You can confirm this by pressing “Yes”, so the profile will be imported.

Step 2.3

Next, you can select the folder “Outlook” on the external harddisk or usb drive and copy it. We will need to place it back in the right location. Default location is C:\Users\[your username]\AppData\Local\Microsoft. If you navigate to this folder manually, you wil probably won’t find the folder “Appdata” in folder C:\Users\[your username]\, because hidden files and folders are not displayed. You can however doubleclick the address in the address field and manually add “\AppData”. After pressing [enter] you will arrive in the hidden folder anyway. Now we can select folder “Local” and after that we can select folder “Microsoft”. Another way to get here is by copy and paste the adress from the document that you have created in step 1.7. Inside folder “Microsoft” you can now paste the folder “Outlook”. Now all email box files will be copied to the right location. Please note: Newer Outlook versions safe email box files in folder “My documents”!


Everything is now ready for your first start. You can now start Outlook. If you are asked for a profile name, you should enter the exact same name as from the original profile. As soon as Outlook will send and receive, a password will be asked for each email box. You can now enter the right passwords (and remember to tick “remember passwords”!). If you don’t know your passwords, you can look them up in the textfile you have created at step 1.4.
You can now enjoy your old profile!