Software Tip

Most small companies and home users don’t need to buy an expensive solution for data backup. They can simply copy important files to a CD or DVD
and if an information loss occurs
they can get it back easily.
If it is simply to copy documents
photos and other files
not the same is for emails
attachments
address book
stationery and other related information from your Outlook Express email client.
This article will explain how everybody can create a manual Outlook Express backup copy (because Outlook Express don’t offer a built in backup function) This email program is usually installed with the Windows operating system and is probably among the most commonly used email programs today.

1. Backup email messages
In Outlook Express
emails are stored in files with DBX extension. The easiest way to find these files is to open Outlook Express and from menu select Tools Options Maintenance and click the Store Folder button. Here you can find the path to the folder containing your emails.
This procedure works for all kind of email: SMTP / POP3
IMAP
MAPI
or even the Hotmail Account (some messages might be stored only at the Hotmail server).
To save all your emails and attachments you should copy all the DBX files from the folder.

2. Account settings:
Details about your mail and news accounts are stored in the registry. To find them
start RegEdit and select the “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Account Manager” key from the left panel. To save this data
from menu select: Registry Export Registry File. Save the file to a name like "accounts.reg".

3. Mail Rules
The Outlook Express mail rules are stored in the registry
in the “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities” key. To save this data
from menu select: Registry Export Registry File. Save the file to a name like "rules.reg".

4. Address Book
The backup of address book is easy to do. It is stored in files with WBA extension. To find the location where address book is stored
you should open Outlook Express and from menu select File Export Address Book and select the comma separated text file as your output format. Click Export
select the folder where the backup will be saved and set the name for the backup file. After that click Next and choose the fields you want to include in your backup. Click Finish and your backup will be ready.

5. Stationery
The Outlook Express stationery location is stored in a registry key. To find it
you should open RegEdit
find “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Stationery” key and look at “Stationery Folder” value. There you will find the path to stationery folder. To save the stationery
you should copy all files from that folder.

If you think that manual backup is too hard
you can use a backup software tool
which can make the job much easier. Outlook Express Backup Expert is one product that can be used to easily create Outlook Express backups. It can save your emails
attachments
address book
signatures
blocked list
mail rules
stationery
accounts and settings. The biggest advantage to use automatic email backup software is the schedule function
which will create backups at specified time intervals
without user action. The downside of using a automatic email backup utility is that it costs money
usually about 20-30 USD as one time payment
while the manual backups are of course
free.
The conclusion is that email backup is a critical operation for every user.

A free evaluation copy of Outlook Express Backup Expert can be found at: http://www.bodrag.com/outlook-express-backup.html