Windows 7: How to save & move Outlook settings, etc.?

I haven't tried this yet, I only just downloaded the resource kit tools, but it looks promising. Create an Outlook Profile file (*.PRF)

This does look promising. I will have to give it a try and report back. It's on my Prioritized Daily Task list...

Back Up or Copy Your Outlook Mail, Contacts and Other Data

To create a copy of your mail, contacts, calendar and other data in Outlook for backup or copying:

• ›› Step by Step Screenshot Walkthrough

• Go to your Outlook folder in Windows Explorer.
• Highlight all files ending in ".pst".
  • Make sure in particular your selection includes "outlook.pst" and "archive.pst".
  • If you have Windows Explorer configured not to show file extensions for known formats, look for Microsoft Office Outlook Personal Folders files.
• Select Edit | Copy from the menu to copy the selected files.
• Open the folder where you want to put your backup copies in Windows Explorer.
  • Ideally, this will be on another computer, on a removable disk stored far away from your home, somewhere on the Internet, or at least on a different hard disk.
• Select Edit | Paste from the menu to paste your .pst files to the backup location

Restore from Your Outlook Backup

Your backup copy of Outlook data is now in place, ready to be restored when you need it.

Restore Outlook Mail, Contacts and Other Data from a Backup

To restore your mail, contacts and other data from a backup copy of an Outlook PST file:

• Select File | Import and Export... from the menu in Outlook.
• Select Import from another program or file.
• Click Next.
• Highlight Personal Folder File (PST).
• Click Next again.
• Now use the Browse button to select the backup copy of the PST file you want to recover from your backup location.
• Make sure Replace duplicates with items imported is selected.
• Click Next.
• Finish the import process with Finish.

Usually, the default import settings work fine, but you may want to tweak them to suit your needs.

It's near the top of my to do list too, I'm going to be doing a clean install in a week or two and it will be a good test to see if it works. I probably won't get to it for a couple of days though maybe even not till early next week. My backs been acting up and things tend to be put on the back burner when that happens. There are times where I would like to get my hands on one or two of the guys at Microsoft that worked on Office. I use a lot of rules to sort my e-mail into folders. every rule i create has "on this machine only" automatically added to it. If I leave it in the rule does not work. I guess it's because I'm on pop3 e-mail. Anyway I have to edit it out of every rule I create. And another thing that peeves me is when I import my rules back into a clean install of Outlook I get a popup telling me some options aren't set when I try to click OK and save them. They are and everything looks OK. But once i save them every one has "select folder" where the actual folder name was. Then I have to go in and edit every one of them. The folders where there too because I had imported my PST file first.

Yeahhh, it is not just the PST file that is necessary for Outlook to run. There are the custom dictionary files, the settings files for options you have changed, rules, and not to mention email accounts setup. For some reaon the stupidos at MS Office never thought that people would be migrating either between versions, but also between machines, or installs, and need these settings too! The entire MS campus, I think, is shrouded by a plague of not workingness... And now they've extended that to India, where the new motto is, just reset all of your settings back to the factory original. Yeah, right!

I'm gonna test this and see how it goes...Outlook Backup - program to backup Microsoft Outlook

Tw33k,

That program looks just a bit more certain of getting everything from Outlook backed up than BackRex, but I do not know, since I have not tried eiher. Please do let us know what you find out!

It works perfectly. All my settings, contacts, tasks, rules etc were restored. The interface is easy to get around. You can't go wrong

The program for backing up Outlook at outlookbackup.com is a fraud! Do not trust it with your data!

Tw33k, I read their "fine print" and, I was prepared to try the program and buy it if it worked, however it says that the trial only backs up the PST files. That is not the hard part. The hard part is the Outlook settings, such as email accounts, SMS accounts, and Options. Did you try a version of the program which did this, or did you buy the program before you tried it?

Please do let me know.

Antonio,

As I suggested before Windows Easy Transfer purports to be able to transfer Email data between machines.
As I have not actually used the application i am currently performing some tests to see if this is a valid claim - The way the program works means that although designed to transfer between machines it should work to restore settings to a re-installed machine also.
As you have said it is not a complete restore solution but I do believe that it may be usable for your purpose, as part of a system restore solution.
I will post back on any findings I make I know that DocBrown has used this application extensively and successfully so you may want to PM him for his thoughts on it's use