How your Contacts are stored in Outlook Express
WindowsXP Users
On WindowsXP, OE user files, including *.wab and *.dbx files, are by default marked as
hidden. To view these files in Explorer, you must enable Show Hidden Files and
Folders under Start | Control Panel | Folder Options | View.
|
Many people use Outlook Express, but run into problems when they want to change
computers or move their address books. They have no idea where to find the address book
and often have no idea what the address file name is.
By default OE stores all your Contacts in a single Windows Address
Book (WAB) file of type *.wab. The location of this file
depends on which version of Windows you are running, whether Windows User Profiles are
being used, as well as the upgrade path you have taken.
The most common location for the *.wab files is: C:\WINDOWS\Application
Data\Microsoft\Address Book\<username>.wab To determine the location of
your OE WAB file, open the Address Book in OE and click Help| About Address Book.
(If there is no path shown, that means you have set OE to share the Contacts folder in
Outlook and so no *.wab file is used). If you open the *.wab's folder in Windows
Explorer, you will see not only the <username>.wab
file but also an automatic backup copy named <username>.wa~.
To find all WAB files and backups on your computer, just do a Windows search for "*.wa?". To open a backup copy, simply rename the file
and change the extension to wab.
You can have many *.wab files such as Personal.wab, sales.wab, e-list.wab, and
<username>.wab. Double clicking any *.wab file will launch the Windows Address Book
program using the address data in the associated wab file. The Address Book in Outlook
Express uses the <username>.wab by default and can only be changed by
modifying the registry file (easy but dangerous if you make a mistake). There is an easy
way to work around this which we will address in another article.
The Windows Address Book is actually a separate program that is used by OE. Few users
discover that this program, usually found at C:\Program
Files\Outlook Express\wab.exe, can be used outside of Outlook Express as a stand
alone program. One thing a user might consider is placing a short cut on his desktop to
the Address Book. This makes it possible to access your addresses without launching
Outlook Express. It also makes the many functions of the Address Book (such as snail mail
addresses) more accessible during the normal course of your work.
McBride's Computer Services Voice Mail 877-671-2321
