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General discussion

Address Book

Mar 6, 2004 4:05PM PST

My friend bought a new computer with Windows XP. I went into his old computer with Windows 98 and copied the OE addressbook (wab) to a floppy disk. It copied just fine but wouldn't install in the new computer.
Is it not possible to copy from one OS to another?

Discussion is locked

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Re:Address Book
Mar 6, 2004 7:58PM PST

Save the file as a Comma Separated Value(.csv) text file, when you Export it. Then when you Import, choose "Other Address Book". OE is funny that way.

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Re:Address Book
Mar 6, 2004 8:29PM PST

If you copy the Addressbook file from the old computer you can copy it to the new XP computer into this directory for it to work:
C:\Documents and Settings\User\Application Data\Microsoft\Address Book

If you want to copy the old emails .dbx files to the new XP computer they have to be copied into the following directory:
C:\Documents and Settings\User\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\{D22838D1-4BCC-4B66-BCEB-771060A04D7B}\Microsoft\Outlook Express

In order to be able to do the above successfully you have to first set up the new Email Identity in XP. Set the Folder Options to show hidden files otherwise Application Data & Local Settings folders will be hidden.

Also if you want to copy back the old emails do not connect to the Internet after creating the new Email account but copy back the old Inbox.dbx file before you connect and download the new emails otherwise the new emails will be wiped out when you copy back the old Inbox.dbx.
If you've already downloaded the new emails but want to copy back the old emails without erasing the new emails you have to create a folder and move the new emails to it first.

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Re:Address Book
Mar 6, 2004 8:55PM PST

To be perfectly blunt...

If your friend is stupid enough to still be using Outlook Express in the wake of all these email worms specifically targeting it, then the very least they could do is not use OE's address book, but some third party address book program. Why make it easy for people to use you as a tool for their own sick games?

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Re:Re:Address Book
Mar 7, 2004 3:08PM PST

Neither my friend nor I is "stupid"!!!!

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Re:Address Book
Mar 8, 2004 1:22AM PST

The easiest way to do this is for your friend to send himself an e-mail with the copied address book as an attachment. He should be able to open it up and get them copied that way.