How to Retain Your Email Settings Following a Factory Reset In Your Window Mobile Handset

When resorting to a factory reset to reinvigorate your Windows Mobile phone – for instance to get rid of a severe bug or remove some badly made software you’ve downloaded – it can be a galling procedure to pour over your handset re-entering your email settings if you’re using POP or IMAP.

Happily there is a simple way to create an XML file to store your settings and turn this into a CAB file which will apply your IMAP and/or POP3 settings for single or multiple email accounts.

This process will work on Windows Mobile 6, 6.1 and 6.5 devices.

Tools You Will Need

In order to build the CAB file, you’ll need to know the following:

• CHARACTERISTIC TYPE – give your email settings a name
• CHARACTERISTIC TYPE – this time visit www.guidgenerator.com to generate a GUID to enter in this field.
• SERVICENAME – The name you give to your email account in Pocket Outlook
• SERVICETYPE – This will be POP3 or IMAP4, depending on your email setup
• INSERVER – Your incoming mailserver name
• OUTSERVER – The name of your outgoing mailserver
• NAME – Your sender name
• AUTHNAME – Email account username
• AUTHSECRET – Email account password
• DOMAIN – The email domain – not usually required for webmail accounts
• REPLYADDR – The address you require emails to be replied to.

This information can be acquired from your existing email account setup or your email provider details.

To carry out this task, you’ll need the following free software:

A good text or XML editor – I would recommend Notepad++, the superb open source alternative to the aging Windows notepad text editor, which is available free from Sourceforge.net.

Microsoft Cabinet Software Development Kit – this tool, free from Microsoft, will create the CAB file that holds your email settings and can be run whenever you need to restore your details.

The Code

In order to begin, first of all download and install Notepad++.

Next it’s time to create your email setup. The code required should be copied from below, and pasted into a new text file in Notepad++.

<wap-provisioningdoc>
<characteristic type="EMAIL2">
<characteristic type="">
<parm name="SERVICENAME" value="Example IMAP"/>
<parm name="SERVICETYPE" value="IMAP4"/>
<parm name="INSERVER" value="imapmail.example.com"/>
<parm name="OUTSERVER" value="mailto.example.com"/>
<parm name="NAME" value="Your name" />
<parm name="AUTHNAME" value="yourmailloginname"/>
<parm name="AUTHSECRET" value="password"/>
<parm name="DOMAIN" value=""/>
<parm name="REPLYADDR" value="yourmailname@example.com"/>
<parm name="LINGER" value="15" />
<parm name="RETRIEVE" value="2048" />
<parm name="KEEPMAX" value="25" />
<parm name="DWNDAY" value="3" />
</characteristic>
</characteristic>
</wap-provisioningdoc>

You might also want to configure SMTP Authorization settings if your email host required it – insert these lines above the first </characteristic>.

<parm name="SMTPALTENABLED" value="1"/>
<parm name="SMTPALTAUTHNAME" value="yourmailnameauth"/>
<parm name="SMTPALTPASSWORD" value="smtpauthpassword"/>
<parm name="SMTPALTDOMAIN" value="smtpauthdomain"/>

Once you’ve copied this across, save it as “_setup.xml”.

Next, you’ll need to complete the blank fields, as explained above.

Once you’ve done this, take a look at the final 5 lines. Some of these can be altered, depending on your preference:

The setting “DWNDAY” value=”3″ sets Pocket Outlook to retrieve only messages that arrived in your inbox within the last 3 days.

“KEEPMAX” value=”25″ – this will retrieve up to 25 emails.

Finally, “RETRIEVE” value=”2048″ will retrieve only 2kb of each email message, with the rest of the message being downloaded when required. This allows headers, sender and subject details to be downloaded, although it is possible to set this value to “header only”.

As long as the fields are all complete as required, save the document and exit.

(Note that multiple email account details can be stored – simply remove the lines:

</characteristic>
</wap-provisioningdoc>

…then copy the previous code again, filling in the  secondary account details. As long as the file ends with the 2 lines you moved, all should work fine.

Creating the CAB File

Next, unzip the Microsoft Cabinet Software Development Kit. Cabsdk.exe is a self-extracting executable that needs to be unpacked somewhere memorable, such as C:\CABmaker.

Once completed, go to Start > Run and type CMD to open the Command Line.

Switch your prompt to the location of your _setup.xml file, and enter:

makecab /D COMPRESS=OFF _setup.xml mail.cab

This will create a file – mail.cab – in the same folder as _setup.xml – and that’s it!

Copy this to your Windows Mobile device memory card, or keep in a safe place on your PC.

Next time your Windows Mobile device has been reinstalled or had factory settings restored, simply run the mail.cab file on your handset to populate your email settings!

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