I must be missing the point. What kind of program would encrypt the path to
the message store? There is information in the registry about your identity,
including Rules, Blocked Senders, Signatures, etc., but your dbx files will
never be in the registry.

1.. Close OE and then In Regedit, navigate to this key:

|--HKEY_CURRENT_USER
|-----Identities
|--------{GUID}
|-----------Software
|--------------Microsoft
|-----------------Outlook Express
|--------------------5.0

where GUID is the Global Unique IDentifier for your Identity.

2.. Under that key, you will find OE information that /is/ in the
registry.
--
Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
Imperial Beach, CA


"JoeSpareBedroom" wrote in message
...
I know! But, what about the registry? Is it possible some programs encrypt
their plain-text entries, so a simple path name becomes unrecognizable?


"Bruce Hagen" wrote in message
...
The files will always be in Windows Explorer, somewhere. If you can't
find them in the usual manner, then you would want to do an Advanced
search and include Hidden Files and Folders. You would search for:

*.dbx

I have never used MS Outlook, but I would assume in your friends case, he
would want to search for:

*.pst

--
Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
Imperial Beach, CA


"JoeSpareBedroom" wrote in message
...
Bruce:
I know how to find the path using the options dialog. I'm wondering what
would happen if, for some reason, I *had* to use a back door method
(other than Explorer) to locate the message store for OE. It's just a
matter of curiosity, really. Apparently, it's not in the registry. It
has to be filed somewhere. Where?

I mentioned Outlook because the other user's problem got me thinking
about this whole thing.


"Bruce Hagen" wrote in message
...
You /are/ asking about the OE message store and not MS Outlook? Even if
you moved it, Tools | Option | Maintenance | Store Folder will reveal
the path. (They are not in the registry). The files may be marked as
hidden though.

Tools | Options | Maintenance | Store Folder will reveal the location
of your Outlook Express files. Write the location down and navigate to
it in Windows Explorer or, copy and paste it into Start | Run.

In WinXP, Win2K & Win2K3, the OE user files (DBX and WAB) are by
default marked as hidden. To view these files in Windows Explorer, you
must enable Show Hidden Files and Folders under Start | Control Panel |
Folder Options Icon | View, or in Windows Explorer | Tools | Folder
Options | View.
--
Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
Imperial Beach, CA


"JoeSpareBedroom" wrote in message
...
At my home office, a user's computer began making odd noises which
turned out to be the hard disk in the throes of death. Our tech
consultant managed to salvage quite a bit, but they can't find his pst
files from Outlook (not OE). They're not in the usual place, and it's
suspected they might be on the office server. I don't know what
they've done so far to check this theory, but never mind that.

A couple of years ago, I relocated my OE message store to
c:\oe\messages, which makes it much easier for me to find the files
and do backups. Less cryptic path than the default. Pondering the
other user's predicament, I wondered what would happen if I needed to
find my message store, but I couldn't use Tools, Options, Maintenance
for some reason. Obviously, I could search the disk for all
occurrences of inbox.dbx, and one of the search results would be
correct. But, I wondered about searching the registry. I tried that,
using the exact path to my message store folder, and got no results at
all.

Why? Where does OE store that config info, if not in the registry?