Tag Archives: Windows Vista

Transfer Outlook data and AutoComplete files between Windows Profiles

Recently, we did a new server install for a customer. When I joined the computers to the new domain I had to make new user accounts. I normally run Windows Easy Transfer on the old profile and then transfer the information to the new one. Windows Easy Transfer will generally grab the email profile. However, the one laptop we joined to the domain had Windows Vista for its operating system. Windows Vista has a built in Windows Easy Transfer tool but we found it to be rather “clunky”. Our customer was using Office 365 exchange for their email so we could have left it redownload all the emails, but it would have taken to long and would have been inefficient. Here is how I transferred the profile and AutoComplete file to the new Windows profile.

They were running Microsoft Office 2007 so I went into the location where the data file was stored. The path for the data file in Windows Vista is  C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook . I copied the “Outlook.ost” to a flash drive.

I then took the computer off the domain and joined it to the new one. When I opened Microsoft Outlook it went through the “setup email account” wizard. I entered the

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How to switch the keyboard layout globally in Windows Vista

The other day I ran into this issue with one of our customers who wanted to use the Dvorak keyboard as their default keyboard. This user was running Windows Vista and every time I would select the Dvorak keyboard to type, it would type using the Dvorak keyboard until I switched windows, it would then use the standard US keyboard. I searched high and low to find an answer online but didn’t find any that directly answered my question. I finally found the setting that allows you to make a secondary keyboard (like the Dvorak keyboard) your default keyboard for all program windows. The dumb part was it was in front of my eyes the whole time. Here are the steps to configure your keyboard on a Windows Vista computer:

Step One: Go to your Start Menu > Control Panel > Ease of Access Center

Ease of Access Center

Step Two: Once Ease of Access Center is selected click on ‘Make the keyboard easier to use’.

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