Thanks, that's very helpful. However, since I have multiple symptoms, and not
being an IT professional, I was unsure of the precedence of the symptoms and
did not wish to over complicate the post by rambling on.

"Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]" wrote:

You might want to consider creating an accurate and complete description of
your problem when you post in an end-user volunteer newsgroup. It's a common
courtesy we usually afford one another so we don't waste each other's time.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
"beejayel" wrote in message
...
Thanks Russ, I have "lost" everything as the Vista crash happened 2 weeks
aftrer my external drive failed and I have not gotten round to backing up
the
data. "Contacts" seemed to be a very active group and I need that data
back
more than other stuff.
Brian

"Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]" wrote:

Not sure what this has to do with Contacts. The relevant groups contain
many
posts that document Outlook 2002's incompatibility with Vista. Give them
a
look.

--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
"beejayel" wrote in message
...
I am running Windows Vista Premium Home Edition (64 bit) and recently
had
to
re-install both it and Office XP. Windows has created a folder
windows.old.
Since then, on starting Outlook, I get a failure message saying "failed
due
to a registry error" or simply "the operation failed" and I am unable
to
enter the POP3 settings to create an account or even to retrieve my
emails,
contacts and calendar. Can anyone help?