Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Where does Outlook store the credentials? - Username and Password

source: http://www.techspot.com/community/topics/outlook-2003-accounts-file.8927/

I've been looking everywhere for days to find out how to do exactly what you describe - move Outlook accounts from one computer to another, or to simply back up email accounts. Versions of Outlook preceding 2002 had a feature built in for this, but beginning with 2002 there is no feature. Plus it appears that Microsoft has mercilessly hidden its means of storing Outlook accounts from anyone who might be trying to find them.

During my search I found no "manual" solutions, but I did find several third-part programs to do the job, which leads me to believe that Microsoft made deals with third-party developers that led to the exclusion of the account export feature in newer versions of Outlook.

Nevertheless I was determined to find out how to do it, since there must be a way, and I did, and here it is. It's not pretty but it's also not too difficult.

Open your registry editor and navigate to the following key:

HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-1343024091-507921405-725345543-1003\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles\Outlook

Export the entire Outlook key to a file. You've now backed up your email accounts. To restore the backup to another computer, simply import the backup into the new computer's registry. You may need to delete the Outlook key off the new computer first.

source: http://www.techspot.com/community/topics/outlook-2003-accounts-file.8927/

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