Backup Windows Live Mail in Window 7 using a .bat file

The location of all Windows Live Mail Data, including mail accounts and settings
( sans Contacts ... ) on my PC, is in:
C:\users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail\

or in DOS it looks like:
C:\users\username\appdata\local\micros~1\wif77b~1\

NOTE: You must use DOS names for a .bat to work.

Of course your username will be different so check that by opening a CMD prompt
cd.. ( up one level )
dir /x ( to see the DOS name for your username )

Also double check the DOS name for the folder called Windows Live Mail.
It's so cryptic on my PC that I suspect it might not be the same on all Win7 machines.


So here's what's in my .bat file:

xcopy /s /d /y /h C:\users\"user name goes here"\mydocu~1\appdata\local\micros~1\wif77b~1\*.* D:\wlmback\wlm
pause

Note that where it says "username goes here"you need to determine your usernbame in DOS
and insert it in that place, not using the " ".


My proof that restoring this data works was to:
1) run my .bat
2) open C:\users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail\
and delete all contents of that folder
3) Reboot
4) Open Windows Live Mail ( the program ) to verify that it runs.
Yes it's good and all of my data was gone.
5) Close Windows Live Mail
6) Restore the data from my backup location to
C:\users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail\
7) Open Windows Live Mail and wooo hooo! There it all is.

 

 

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