OLEXP: How to Backup and Restore Outlook Express Blocked Senders List and Other Mail Rules Page 1 of 4

Article ID: 276511 - Last Review: January 29, 2007 - Revision: 2.2
OLEXP: How to Backup and Restore Outlook Express Blocked Senders List and Other Mail Rules
This article was previously published under Q276511

For information about the differences between Microsoft Outlook Express and Microsoft Outlook e-mail clients, click the following article number to view the article in the
Microsoft Knowledge Base:
257824 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/257824/EN-US/ ) OL2000: Differences Between Outlook and Outlook Express

This article describes how to back up and restore your Blocked Senders list and other mail rules in Outlook Express 5 and later. If
multiple Identities are in use for Outlook Express, these steps should be repeated for each Identity, and the backup data
segregated accordingly. This will facilitate restoration of each Identity.

Important This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might
occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back
up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to
back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
322756 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322756/ ) How to back up and restore the registry in Windows

How to Back Up Blocked Senders List and Other Mail Rules

The Blocked Senders List

1. Click Start, and then click Run.

2. In the Open box, type regedit, and then click OK.

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3. Locate and click the following registry subkeys (save each key to a different file):
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities\{Identity Number}\Software\Microsoft\Outlook Express\5.0
\Block Senders

4. On the Registry menu, click Export Registry File.

5. In the Save In box, change the location to your desktop.
6. In the File Name box, type blocked senders.reg (for the Block Senders key), and then click Save.

Other Mail Rules

1. Click Start, and then click Run.

2. In the Open box, type regedit, and then click OK.
3. Locate and click the following registry subkeys (save each key to a different file):
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities\{Identity Number}\Software\Microsoft\Outlook Express\5.0
\Rules\Mail

4. On the Registry menu, click Export Registry File.

5. In the Save In box, change the location to your desktop.
6. In the File Name box, type mail rules.reg (for the mail rules key), and then click Save.
7. On the Registry menu, click Exit.

NOTE: For additional protection, copy the registry key files from your desktop to any of the following locations:

z Another partition on your computer.

z A network location.
z Some form of removable media.

How to Restore the Existing Blocked Senders List and Other Mail Rules to Function on the Newly
Installed Operating System

1. Open Outlook Express on the new computer, and complete the Internet Connection Wizard to set up your Identity and
account information. If you had multiple identities in the previous installation, complete these steps for each Identity. To

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do this:
2. Click Start, and then click Run.
3. In the Open box, type notepad.exe.
4. Click Open on the File menu, and then locate the Block Senders.reg file that you created.
5. In the second line of text, select the text after "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identity\" that includes the braces {}. On the Edit
menu, click Copy to copy this text to the Microsoft Windows Clipboard.
6. On the Edit menu, click Replace. Click your pointer in the Find what box, and then click Paste on the Edit menu to
paste the text into that box. Do not close the Notepad application until you are directed to do so later in this process.
7. Start Registry Editor on the new computer (as in step 1 of "The Blocked Senders List" section), and locate the
HKEY_Current_User\Identities folder. Double-click the User ID key in the right pane, and then click the Value data.
8. Press CTRL+C to copy that value to the Windows Clipboard. Click Cancel to close the Edit String dialog box, and then
close Registry Editor.
9. In Notepad, click your point in the Replace with box, and press CTRL+V to paste the text. Click Replace All to replace all
instances of the text strings.
10. Scroll through the entire list to make sure that all registry keys have the new text string, rather than the old string. On the
File menu, click Save, and then close Notepad.
11. Double-click the Block Senders.reg file, and then click Yes when you are prompted: "Are you sure you want to..." to
import the Block Senders list to the registry for the new computer.
12. Follow steps 2 through 11 above on the mail rules.reg file to update that file with the new Identity information.

APPLIES TO

z Microsoft Outlook Express 5.5

z Microsoft Outlook Express 5.01 Service Pack 2
z Microsoft Outlook Express 5.0
z Microsoft Outlook Express 5.01 Service Pack 1
z Microsoft Outlook Express 5.01

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