When Windows XP installs it also installs Outlook Express, which is pre-set as your default mail client. Many XP users no longer use Outlook Express, and have downloaded and started using Windows Live Mail instead. Fair play to them. Some of us, including myself, have opted to continue to use OE nevertheless. Personally I like it and still prefer it to Windows Live Mail.

By default OE stores its respective files and folders in a very inaccessible and difficult to remember location: -

C:\Documents and Settings\{username}\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\{Long hex-code sequence}\Microsoft\Outlook Express

• It’s a hidden file.
• It’s a heck of a long path to remember.
• It’s a pain-in-the-ass to get hold of fast when you need to do so.

- But there is a remedy: Store the OE files and folders somewhere else.

There’s a setting in OE options that allows you to do just that.

First though, we need to have a new location for the files to go before we attempt to move them. Since we’re moving them because we don’t want to have to remember a long and complicated URL to a hidden folder buried under a mytiad of others; we’ll keep things nice and simple:

Open ‘My Computer’ and go to C: drive. On C: drive create a folder called ‘OE Store’. That’s that particular piece of the operation sorted out.

Open Outlook Express and click on ‘Tools’. Click ‘Options’ and click the maintenance tab. Click the ‘Store Folder’ button and then the ‘Change’ button. Browse to C: drive and single-click on the folder you’ve just created: ‘OE Store’. Click ‘OK’. Click ‘OK’ again.

A dialogue box will appear informing you that nothing will be changed until you shut down and restart Outlook Express. Do just that. When Outlook Express restarts, Windows will start copying the OE files and folders to the new location, which takes seconds unless you have a massive amount of mail stored.

In future; when you need to get to your OE files; rather than having to remember a long and complicated path to a hidden folder, you just look in C:\OE Store instead.

Target Neutralised.