How to Restore Outlook Express

This article explains how to Restore Outlook Express data, in case your computer
crashed/you moving everything to another computer etc.



1. If you computer is crashed.
Connect your hard drive to another computer and get the outlook data files.
Outlook Express data files have extension ".DBX" . Do a search for "*.dbx" or look
in the folder C:\Documents and Settings\[USER]\local settings\Applicaton Data\[Identities]\{xxxx..}\Microsoft\Outlook

If you have only one user in the system, the path may not have "[Identities]\{xxx..}" portion.
Copy all the .DBX files to an external media.

2. If your computer is not crashed but you are moving to a new one or something.
Find out the .DBX folder by the method described below.

Outlook Express ( for convenice using OE here upon ) stores data in files with
extension ".dbx". All that you need to do is to grab all the files from the crashed/old
computer and post it in the new computer. OE stores the file in the following folder.

Tools Menu/Options/Maintainace / click on Store Folder





You got to make sure that "View Hidden Files " is set to folder option, in order to see this folder. In case you cannot go
to this path via explorer, copy this path, click windows Start button click on Run and paste
it and enter, the folder will open.

OE will have ".DBX" file for each of your folder. Inbox.dbx for your inbox etc.

Step1:
Locate and copy the OE folder contents as described above from the old computer to USB
flash drive or write to a DVD
Step2 : Open up OE in the new computer , locate the OE folder for the new computer.

Step3 : Close OE. Copy the files on Step1 to the folder.
Step4 : Open up OE again and you will have your data. This process will not set the email address mail server details.

How to restore outlook Address Book

Please note the above procedure will not restore Address Book. To restore address book you need to copy the address book file. OE stores address book as a single file with extension .WAB.
If you loging to windows as " Joe" the address book will be "Joe.WAB"

Outlook stores address book in a different location than mail data. Usually the location is
C:\documents and settings\[USER]\Application Data\Microsoft\Address Book ( Or you can
do a wild card search on your hard drive for "*.WAB" )
Copy the ".WAB" files from this folder and paste in on the new computer same location.

Good luck

Computer Repair in Las Vegas
Highland Computer Solutions, Las Vegas
we take no responsibility for losing data or any other damages of any sort by following
the procedures mentioned on this blog. Use it at your own risk.

Protect from Viruses.

How to Fight Viruses & Malwares
( Highland Computer Solutions )

Prevention & Protection:
The traditional methods are:
Install an antivirus package.
Enable browser security tools
Be sure to enable windows firewall
Be sure to enable Windows Defender ( which is free )


Always get a second opinion:
Use free scanners available on top of your favorite antivirus. (See the section "living without antivirus" )




A Different Approach:


A different approach is to use software packages which allows you to work in virtual mode. The idea is that you are not working on your real operating system but a copy of your system ( a sandbox ). At the end you choose to commit whatever changes you want to save to hard disk. (i.e. if you are editing a word document you choose to save it, but don’t permit any changes that you have not done on any other area. )


http://www.shadowdefender.com/
http://www.returnil.com/




Living Without Anti Virus:

People don’t like Anti Virus software packages for many reasons. Many of them are resource hogs, obtrusive and expensive. Whatever the reason might be, can you make it without any protection? If so how? Following are a few guidelines.

1. Always use browser provided security features like popup blocker, spam filter etc.
2. Use Windows Defender. (On XP you have to download and install it.)
3. Use online free virus scanners. Some scanners allow you to scan and remove viruses, where as others just let you know that you have infections. Following online engines allow you to remove the viruses.

A) http://www.bitdefender.com/scanner/online/free.html
B) http://onecare.live.com/site/en-za/default.htm?mkt=en-za
C) http://www.eset.com/onlinescan/

Following scanners allow you to detect them but don’t remove them. (Why use them? You can find out that if you are infected )

A) http://housecall.trendmicro.com/
B) http://home.mcafee.com/Downloads/FreeScan.aspx


4. Enable Boot Sector protect in BIOS so that boot sector of your hard drive is always protected.
5. Make another User login in your system with very limited permissions. When you are treading on dangerous grounds login to this user id and do it.
6. To remove spyware use

http://www.malwarebytes.org/
http://www.lavasoft.com/

What do I do if I'm Infected:

So your computer is infected. What to do if you do not have any antivirus protection. Depends on how bad is your system.

If you can load the operating system:

Use the free scanners explained in " Living Without Anti Virus" . You may want to try all of them one by one and see if any viruses are detected and choose the option to remove them after scan.

If you cannot boot to operating system or the system is not stable:

If this is the case, then you got to download a rescue CD to another computer and burn it to a CD. You have to boot your infected computer with this CD and then scan your hard drive.

Following are the tools.
Bit Defender Rescue CD.
http://download.bitdefender.com/rescue_cd/BitDefenderRescueCD_v2.0.0_3_08_2009.iso
Kaspersky rescue CD.
http://devbuilds.kaspersky-labs.com/devbuilds/RescueDisk/

Happy virus cleaning.


Highland Computer Solutions.
Las Vegas.