When importing I get a file permission error. This is all bound up in the Vista User Access Control software, which reads like a royal pain in the butt. Did some research to see how to switch it off and there are three ways, of which I tried two, but I was still getting the file permissions problem. UAC, when switched on, allows the user to control what is run rather than Windows. I suppose the idea is that when you have accidentally downloaded a virus with UAC switched on it will ask you whether you want it to run.

A lot of the advice I read about UAC stressed how useful it is to the user as YOU control what is run, therefore by implication, it is your problem if you allow the wrong application to run. How convenient for Microsoft, they no longer have responsibility. If you have UAC switched on and run the wrong app then it is your fault. And if you have UAC switched off then it is also your fault as YOU have removed a security feature, that being YOU deciding what to run.

So what are they saying here? If UAC is switched off and Vista is allowed to run stuff then because it can’t tell the difference between good and bad it runs everything come what may. Hmmmm…sounds like Vista’s got a whopping great whole in it to me.

In the meantime I get the chance to investigate every nook and cranny of Vista whilst trying to import an Outlook .pst file.

Quote of the day

‘I am not young enough to know everything’ Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

Outlook’s Contacts are still mangled in that what I see in the Contacts folder is not what is displayed when clicking on the To field when writing an email.

I did a search for .pst files and found several and two were being used. They both had the same time-stamp. That didn’t make sense. All of the .pst files, apart from one which was in the correct folder, I renamed, closed Outlook and restarted. The effect? Squat.

Copied the .pst file somewhere safe and uninstalled Outlook. Using Windows Explorer I checked to see what was left. The Outlook folder was still there. Reinstalled Outlook. The effect? Squat. The Contacts problem is still there.

There is obviously a corrupt registry setting pointing at two Contacts folders and this was caused when I had to do a messy reinstall of XP about 6 months ago. After that install a new user was created and I have a feeling this has got something to do with it. The old user still exists in Documents & Settings but is not useable in XP.

There is one test I can try, but I’m not sure what it’ll prove. If I write the .pst file to a CD and load it onto the Veeesta PC and point Outlook at that .pst file then I have a feeling that the Contacts problem is not going to surface as there is only one user name on that PC. Suppose it will prove that it’s a user name problem.