Outlook Nicknames - What are they and how to backup/restore
When you send an email and start to type in the email address of the recipient(s), programs like Outlook will pop down a suggestion box of addressees who you have emailed in the past. These are called Nicknames (sometimes AutoNameCheck).
The first question people ask is, “I just got a new computer, where are all of those old addresses?”. Knowing Microsoft, you don’t expect them to be easy to find, do you?
Look in:
C:\Documents and Settings\%ProfileName%\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook
for a file called “Outlook.NK2″. If your Outlook profile is named something else, replace “Outlook” with that name. The NK2 extension is the giveaway.
Simply close Outlook and copy that file from the old PC to the New or copy it to a backup device for backup safekeeping.
The second question I get is, “I have names that pop up that are bad addresses or I never use them. How do I get rid of them?”. For some reason, that isn’t obvious to most people. When the window pops up, arrow down to the one you want to delete and press the delete key on your keyboard. That easy.
Outlook Nicknames are like favorites. Make sure to back them up with your normal backup procedure (you do have one, yes?) and be sure to carry them over to your new PC.
