Hi randolindso,

Any WAB file can be renamed, deleted or moved. This does NOT apply to
wab.exe. Outlook Express will automatically create a new (user.wab) file for
itself. Each Windows user is given such a file. You can freely experiment
with renaming, deleting or moving a (*.wab) file. The path to the file is
given in the Windows Address Book under Help About.

Compare this address book file path for both your wife and yourself. It
should not be the same. The (backup) files with the tilde are not
critical -- they can be left as is until they are possibly needed to gain
lost addresses.

In Windows there is actually only one WAB file, but different views of the
file are presented for each (*.wab) file. Sometimes Outlook will take over
the address book file, but this is not an option (without a Registry edit)
with the latest versions of Outlook and OE.

--
Tim K.
aka Kuay Tim
MS-MVP - Outlook Express
Lynnwood, WA
*
"randolindso" wrote in message
...
I've set up separate user accounts in xp for me, administrator account, and
my wife, a limited account, and configured OE for each with its own
identity.
Our mail is downloaded from g-mail. To get by until I can resolve this I've
set up Outlook 2003 for both of us the same way and it works great, we just
prefer Outlook Express. I had my old pc configured the same for OE and it
worked great, but the darn thing died so I bought this one. I've been
online
and on the phone with the manufacturer's reps and they can't fix it, they've
even replaced the machine and I still have the same problem. The OS was
pre-installed, but I've re-installed it from a recovery partition too. I'm
looking at the link bruce sent me and I don't quite understand everything
there is to know about .wab files. But what I'm seeing on my pc is
duplicate
..wab files for both users, even with the separate identities and separate
user accounts. Can I just change the name of the .wab files in my wife's
account from "administrator.wab and administrator.wab~" (which is the same
as
the files for my administrator account) to "wife.wab and wife.wab~"? I
presume it's not that easy but I must ask.

Hi randolindso,

It isn't clear if another Window's user is being used, or maybe one
Window's
user and two OE identities, or some other set-up. Bruce may have a better
handle on the issue.

The data for a second Window's user would be in its own folder with a WAB
file bearing that user's name. If the default address book (*.wab file) is
deleted, renamed or moved a new empty one will be created when OE starts.

The WAB file with the tilde (~) is an automatic backup. The file (with the
tilde) can be opened if the extension is changed to (wab).


--
Tim K.
aka Kuay Tim
MS-MVP - Outlook Express
Lynnwood, WA
*
"randolindso" wrote in message
...
I've read through countless forum discussions, websites, and M'soft
bulletins
and still cannot make the Address Book work for other users on my
computer.
I'm running xp media center (xp pro sp2), ie 6, with me on an
administrator
account and my wife on a limited account. We like to use oe6 for e-mail
but
when trying to set up her address book for it I get the error msg. about
address book corrupted, etc. which was supposedly caused by kb911567.
I've
tried setting her up as an administrative acct. and the address book opens
but it's the address book from my admin. acct., not a new address book
specifically for her. When I open her address book in windows explorer,
it
shows two .wab files- administrator.wab and administrator.wab~, same as my
address book. I suspect my problem has something to do with this since I
presume her .wab files should be specific to her. I've tried the
kb918651,
kb918766 fix to no avail. I've modified the registry to show ie and oe
uninstalled so I could re-install them. That did not work. I think that
if
I
could modifiy her .wab files I could get her address book going but I'm
not
quite sure what to do. Any help would be appreciated as I've been racking
my
brain on this for about 2 weeks.