Alexandre Michel
asked on
Tool to migrate Outlook from one PC profile to another
Hi Experts
I am doing quite a lot of computer migrations and many of my clients have complicated lives with many Exchange & POP3 & IMAP accounts in the one Outlook profile. They could be standalone computers or domain-joined one.
The most time-consuming part of the migration is recreating the Outlook profile
Is there a "simple" way to quickly recreate these Outlook profiles? Can I copy a couple of registry keys and/or a couple of folders? Are they know tools to do that?
Alexandre
I am doing quite a lot of computer migrations and many of my clients have complicated lives with many Exchange & POP3 & IMAP accounts in the one Outlook profile. They could be standalone computers or domain-joined one.
The most time-consuming part of the migration is recreating the Outlook profile
Is there a "simple" way to quickly recreate these Outlook profiles? Can I copy a couple of registry keys and/or a couple of folders? Are they know tools to do that?
Alexandre
A utility like Windows Easy Transfer may do that easily
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I can't recommend a tool as I've never used them but depending on how complex the profiles get you might find some mileage with the Office automation tool which gives you a way to create a skeleton profile, edit and re-apply it:-
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc179062(v=office.14).aspx
the content of the prf are stored at
\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Softwar e\Microsof t\WindowsN T\CurrentV ersion\Win dows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles\Outlook
and can be exported/merged with powershell (or manually).
If you are planning for an entirely automated result you will probably need a combination of these and some strong scripting skills allied with this information:
http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/config/understanding-microsoft-outlook-profile-file-prf/
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc179062(v=office.14).aspx
the content of the prf are stored at
\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Softwar
and can be exported/merged with powershell (or manually).
If you are planning for an entirely automated result you will probably need a combination of these and some strong scripting skills allied with this information:
http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/config/understanding-microsoft-outlook-profile-file-prf/
ASKER
Kimputer,
Will this work when the old computer = Office 2010 and the new computer is Office 2013?
What about if new computer = Office 2016 (and the new Outlook is 2016 which requires Autodiscovery)?
regmigrant,
Thanks for the links. My situation is a lot of one-off PC migration; not a whole office. This tool seems great if you have to set up several new computers in an office... Or did I misunderstood how it is used?
Will this work when the old computer = Office 2010 and the new computer is Office 2013?
What about if new computer = Office 2016 (and the new Outlook is 2016 which requires Autodiscovery)?
regmigrant,
Thanks for the links. My situation is a lot of one-off PC migration; not a whole office. This tool seems great if you have to set up several new computers in an office... Or did I misunderstood how it is used?
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Thanks Kimputer. Great imputs!
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Kimputer
After closing the question ... I just realised this key does not appear in the Windows 10 laptop + Office 2016 (click to run) I am just working on.
I searched the whole registry for "Windows Messaging" but did not find anything that looked like Outlook email accounts info
Searched the whole registry for one of the email addresses on that PC to no avail...
Any idea if it is now different in Windows 10?
Is it
HKCU\software\microsoft\Of fice\16.0\ Outlook\Pr ofiles\Out look ???
After closing the question ... I just realised this key does not appear in the Windows 10 laptop + Office 2016 (click to run) I am just working on.
I searched the whole registry for "Windows Messaging" but did not find anything that looked like Outlook email accounts info
Searched the whole registry for one of the email addresses on that PC to no avail...
Any idea if it is now different in Windows 10?
Is it
HKCU\software\microsoft\Of
I do not always have all the info of the newest software, sadly. In this case, it's probably a change with the newest Outlook.
It's easy to check though. Make a new profile named "Abcdefg12345", and fill in a bogus POP3 account (manually, don't let it verify)
If the regkey now added a Test folder, it is indeed that key that you need to export.
The Windows Messaging key was used from about WinNT in the 90-ties all the way up to recently.
Alas, if the key doesn't appear there, now you have a unique name to find. Search for Abcdefg12345 and you'll definitely find out where the new regkey is.
It's easy to check though. Make a new profile named "Abcdefg12345", and fill in a bogus POP3 account (manually, don't let it verify)
If the regkey now added a Test folder, it is indeed that key that you need to export.
The Windows Messaging key was used from about WinNT in the 90-ties all the way up to recently.
Alas, if the key doesn't appear there, now you have a unique name to find. Search for Abcdefg12345 and you'll definitely find out where the new regkey is.