Outlook Express and Shared Drives

Outlook Express won’t allow storage folder to use a shared drive.

We added a Synology DS107+ NAS device to the network recently and wanted to use it for Outlook Express data files. But, if you try to set the storage folder to a network drive mapped to a Synology folder the OK button is greyed out.

Solution

The answer is a registry edit, courtesy of infopackets.com. See here for original article.

” [In Outlook Express for Windows XP], you’ll find your mail folder at C:\Windows\Application Data\Identities\{CLSID}\Microsoft\Outlook Express (the {CLSID} is a long serial number Windows assigns to each Outlook Express 5 Identity that you establish). Use Windows Explorer to navigate to this folder [hint: click start -> run, and type in “explorer”]. If you have just one mail identity, then in Explorer’s left pane, right-click the Outlook Express folder, and select Copy. If you have more than one identity, right click on the Identities folder and select Copy. Finally, navigate to the folder on the shared drive or Zip disk that you want to use, then in the right pane, right-click and select Paste.

After you copy the Outlook Express mail folder to its new location, Outlook Express needs to know where to look for it. Click start -> run -> then type in “regedit”, and click OK.

Finally, click on the little plus signs in the left pane until you’ve reached HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities\{CLSID}\Software\Microsoft\Outlook Express\5.0. Double-click the item labeled “Store Root” in the right pane and in the dialog box that opens, type the full path to your new mail folder location (E:\Mobile Mail, for instance [if the E drive was your networked, mapped, or removable storage drive]). When you close the Registry Editor, the registry will record the change immediately. Open Outlook Express to ensure it can find your relocated mail folder. You’ll need to make this change on any machine that you’ll use to access your mail. “