WinMail Backup/Restore Procedures
Do yourself a big favor right now - First, Create Backups !
Now I know on the bottom of the Page 1 WinMail Tutorial there is a link to 'How to Backup and Restore Messages in Windows Mail' from the 2007 Vista version, that's fine for what it is and is an alternate way of doing it although not nearly as good or complete as what I will explain next: Specifically for 'WinMail to WinMail' setups, I Much Prefer to do it this next way for a number of beneficial reasons. This next method is used when you already have WinMail fully setup with all options and settings the way you want, and it contains years of Accounts and their settings, all Emails, all Newsgroups, and all their Folder structures, all your GUI settings, etc. So before you upgrade or do anything - be sure to create this WinMail full 1, 2, 3 backup for safety, so that you can always easily recover from any message-store corruptions or whatever happens; or you can also Transfer it to another computer your entire WinMail setup to different OS's right back to Exactly how it was on the source the day you created it, without the need for 'importing' which never gets things like folder structures right anyway. This is a direct backup, and assumes you're using the default message store location folder.
There is nothing more comprehensive and accurate than this manual Backup/Restore procedure:
Create Backups:
1. On your latest, fully working ..already setup WinMail client, right click and create a zip backup on this Message Store folder:
C:\Users\yourcomputername\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Mail
..also referred to as: %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Mail
It contains All Mail/News emails with All their Folder Structure layouts, All Accounts info
*, and more..
The important reason to .zip (or .rar) that MSF (Message Store folder) ..is to preserve it, Always having it readily available, as is, able to unlimited times unzip, its pristineness; never allowing any function ever able to modify its valuable contents!
2. Regedit: right-click Export this entire Folder Key below:
(on your latest WinMail already fully setup)
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows Mail
It contains All Settings for the WinMail GUI Layout ..all Tools> Options Settings, Columns, Rules, etc.
3. Open WinMail, go to Tools> Accounts> and highlight Each Account and click the Properties button, click the Servers tab, and write down or better yet copy/paste into a text file the username & password - Do This For Each Account! ..while Everything Else throughout there already gets saved automatically in 1st process above doing the Message Store folder save.
Tip: If you forgot passwords and want to reveal the xxxx asterisks, use
This Program to reveal them.
Now save all Three of these backups above aside - to somewhere other than your current hard drive..
To Restore:
When you do a fresh install of a new Windows OS, or an OS Upgrade, or OS Update, and then to setup WinMail again afterwards you
First run through the appropriate steps on its corresponding OS WinMail tutorial, in order to reverse the WinMail regression done. Then before opening WinMail - restore those 3 items you've previously created above, like this:
1. Delete the message store folder that's currently there, then extract the zip of your Latest saved message store folder in its place - and
Be Careful when you replace the Current Windows Mail message store folder: ..first you
Delete it, then extract your zip backup one in its place - understand it needs to be at the Exact Path! You can select to Extract Here, but no matter what just Be Sure you Do Not end up with Two nested: '
Windows Mail\Windows Mail' message store folders one inside the other or it'll break default path and corrupt - the end path must be:
%USERPROFILE%\
AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Mail
Do Not extract/copy/paste over itself (on top of) the current folder and its contents which causes mixing and sure corruption, so understand you need to
Delete the old folder first, then, place the working backup one in its place! That's So Important!
2. Merge the latest saved registry export of your personal HKCU reg saved above.
(right click - merge)
3. To complete
* the last item of the Accounts restore, security, you only need to re-enter the name/ password of your mail and news servers, in the Accounts> Properties> Server tab, in the slots for it, and is the preferred way (or instead when you first connect to your mail server it'll prompt you to enter it, and checkmark remember box) You should know what your servers name/pass are anyway having them saved in txt file somewhere.
*(Everything else within the Accounts settings, gets restored with step 1)
This 3 step Backup/Restore process is many times faster and much More Accurate than any other method, matching its complete source layout so that when you open WinMail, Everything, is already setup Exactly like its source in every detail, fully setup with All Emails, Accounts, Settings, complete WinMail client GUI layout, including exact mail folder structures layout, etc.
Obviously 'Always' keep your backups dated very current!
Note: Even though these Backup/Restore procedures only, are good for Vista\Win7\8\10\Server, it's More OS Pertinent for newer Windows 8/10/Server users to read/use the Backup/Restore Process found on their own tutorial, within the Backup/Restore Procedures 'Spoiler' button: Here
Caution: Naturally this procedure won't transfer properly for those who have message store corruption on their 'source' setups! ..It also may not work correctly for those who have moved their message store folder from its default location to another! ..So don't use it! A modified backup/restore procedure would have to be done (which has not yet been specified) or, on your new setup when you reinstate WinMail not using the Backup/Restore procedure, instead do the rest of the tutorial which starts a fresh WinMail and sets it up from scratch. Then if needed because of a non-WinMail mail client source, you can use the built-in import features, it's not as good, but certainly better than nothing.