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Creating Shortcuts To Your Outlook Express Identities

If you are using Identities in Outlook Express 5 to 6, you will know that you must log on and choose your Identity, whenever you wish to check your email.  In this article, I will show you two ways you can create individual shortcuts to each or any identity so that Outlook Express will automatically open to that Identity without any prompts when you click your special identity icon.

The first thing you need to do is enter the registry to copy the global unique identifier (guid) - that long 32 alphanumeric number - representing the Identity you want a shortcut to.

• Click Start>Run, type regedit and go to the Identities key here:
  HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities
• Now click the plus sign next to "Identities" to see a list of the guids, each one represented by a separate subkey and each one representing a specific Outlook Express Identity.
• To see which guid belongs to which user, highlight it, and look in the right hand pane to see what is entered for the value User Name.
• To copy the guid, double click "User Id" in the right hand pane and then copy it from there. Once copied, save it, for you will have to use it for the next step which will be the creation of a reg file. You will also need to remember the User Name.

The best way to show you how to do this is by using an example.
In this demo example we will use {81757361-A319-13E6-BA23-EE0CAB62F66E} as the guid and the name Janice as the User Name associated with it.  Make sure to replace both with your own when making the files.

• Open up a new notepad document and enter the following lines substituting the guid and and user name "Janice", with your own guid and user name:
  
  REGEDIT4
  
  [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities]
  "Last Username"=Janice
  "Last User ID"="{81757361-A319-13E6-BA23-EE0CAB62F66E}
  "Default User ID"="{81757361-A319-13E6-BA23-EE0CAB62F66E}"
  "Start As"="{81757361-A319-13E6-BA23-EE0CAB62F66E}"

• Save the file as your identity name .reg, ie janice.reg.

• Place it in your Windows folders.
• Next you need to make a bat file to call it and to open your OE Identity when it's executed.
• Open up another notepad document and enter these commands:

regedit.exe /s "c:\windows\janice.reg"
"C:\Program Files\Outlook Express\msimn.exe"

The above assumes you have Outlook Express installed in its default location.  If not, change the path to match your path to msimn.exe

• Save the file as your username.bat, ie Janice.bat
• Double clicking it should now open up OE to your identity

However there will be dos box flash so you might want to make a shortcut to the bat file and run it minimized. In this way, OE will open up with no dos window visible. To do that:

• Move the bat file in your Windows folder and right drag it to your desktop to make a shortcut to it.
• Then go to the Properties of the shortcut and choose Run Minimized.
• Name the shortcut whatever you want and change the icon to something more friendly looking, if you prefer.

You are now done. Test it out by double clicking the icon. It should open Outlook Express to your Identity, without that dos window opening up. This will now be the icon you click anytime you want to log on to your that Identity. Repeat the above process for any Identity you would like a separate auto logon shortcut for.

An alternative to the bat-reg file method is a simpler vbs method.
If you want to use this method, make sure you have WSH installed. Go to Add-Remove Programs in the Control Panel, click the Windows Setup tab, and see if there is a checkmark next to Windows Scripting Host, under Accessories. If not, check it to install, or better yet, download the latest version (5.6) from Microsoft, rather than installing the older version supplied with Windows setup. You can get the latest by clicking here.

Once you know WSH is installed, open notepad and enter these commands, again, substituting with your own user name and guid:

Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("Wscript.Shell")
WshShell.RegWrite "HKCU\Identities\Last Username", Janice
WshShell.RegWrite "HKCU\Identities\Last User ID", "{E599DC41-CFE3-11D6-BA26-00010272E0B2}"
WshShell.RegWrite "HKCU\Identities\Default User ID", "{E599DC41-CFE3-11D6-BA26-00010272E0B2}"
WshShell.RegWrite "HKCU\Identities\Start As", "{E599DC41-CFE3-11D6-BA26-00010272E0B2}"
WSHShell.Run "Msimn.exe"

These lines MUST be entered on one line and not wrap.  If your monitor does not display them this way, this picture shows how they must look:

Save the file with a .vbs extension, i.e.; Janice.vbs, and you are done.  Double clicking the file will now automatically log you into your identity.

Vic Ferri owns the very popular WinTips and Tricks and Registry Answers. Subscribe to either and receive free Windows and Registry Tips. He is also in charge of the Printing Tips pages at Linda's Computer Stop. Vic has also created a program which allows you to Lock & Hide desktop folders in Windows 9X/ME. Read more and get the free demo here. And, he now offers a service to convert PowerPoint presentations to .exe files which can be viewed on computers which do not have PowerPoint installed.