Summary: The Outlook Master Category List is a way to tag messages, contacts, appointments and more. Copying it to another machine requires a little trickery.
How can I move my Outlook Master Category List to another machine?
Outlook categories are a fairly powerful way to categorize and organize email, appointments, tasks ... just about any object that Outlook is capable of tracking. Categories are arbitrary text, but you can create a "Master List" of categories to choose from to ensure consistency and avoid a bit of possibly error prone typing.
Unfortunately, while you can edit your master category list to your heart's content, Outlook doesn't yet provide a way to export or import one. It's also not obvious where the list is kept.
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It's probably not surprising that the list is kept in the registry. It's stored as a REG_BINARY entry as a Unicode string.
It's a slightly different location for each version of Outlook.
The best way to manage your master category list in that case is to:
- Create the master category list you want in Outlook.
- Use the registry editor to save the category list registry entry to disk as a .reg file.
- "Execute" that .reg file to install that master category list on other computers running outlook that should have the same list. Note that on these computers any prior master category list will be replaced with this new one.
It's really not too bad. Here are the Microsoft Support articles that describe the process for each version of Outlook:
Why is there no user interface? My guess is that it comes down to the old feature versus schedule tradeoff. The demand for a user interface for this didn't warrant the additional time and expense to design, develop, and test it. But that's just speculation on my part.
Article C1835 - August 25, 2003
Not that I'm aware of. Not easily anyway. I'd look into writing a macro that used the Outlook object model and see if it's exposed therein, but that's going to require some macro programming, so it's certainly not for everyone.
Posted by: Leo at May 27, 2005 7:26 PMI am looking for an enterprise wide solution -- making all master category lists the same through active directory is exactly what I would like to do. Any ideas or thoughts? Where is the key in the regestry?
Thanks for any help.
Posted by: kev at March 24, 2006 11:50 AMEnter the Categories into your Master Categories List.
Posted by: Dan at April 21, 2006 1:06 PMUse Desktop Standard's PolicyMaker Registry Extension (it's free) to roll out the “[HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-1543536400-931875892-317593308-1926\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Categories]
"MasterList"=…” registry key to everyone.
There's an addin available that allows to import and export Outlook categories, for Outlook 2007 even colors are supported. You can also print your categories. Please look for 'Category Manager' on www.VBOffice.net
Posted by: Michael at November 6, 2007 9:12 AMWORKED LIKE A CHARM. OLK 2003 solution is available at the 2002 link above. Thank you!
Posted by: Justin at January 31, 2008 12:05 PMYou can save your custom Outlook categories by exporting a registry key.
Outlook 2000
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Outlook\Categories
Outlook 2002
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Outlook\Categories
Outlook 2003
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Categories
Right click on the Categories folder and choose Export.
To restore it double click the *.reg.
Note that the key does not exist until you create a custom category.
Posted by: Sam at March 31, 2008 12:05 PMHi. I am not sure that the above article & postings cover my problem. I have had Outlook 2003 transfered to a new laptop from my old PC's hardrive. All my contacts are there and each contact has it's category(s) attached in the little box at the bottom. But the actual category pop-up menu does not contain those categories. If I have missed the point, could someone point me to the right bit, or if it has not been explained, could some kind soul explain how to get the old master categories across to my laptop. Grateful thanks in advance.
Posted by: CharlieP at July 23, 2008 4:36 AMOutlook 2007
Posted by: Guillermo at October 29, 2008 12:47 PMHKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\Categories
@CharlieP, as you've seen your master category list is lost. With Category Manager you can get it back easily. The tool can read the categories assigned to all of your items, and add them back to the master category list.
Posted by: Michael at February 12, 2009 9:18 AM@Guillermo, for Outlook 2007 the categories are stored in the PST file itself. You won't find them in the registry anymore.
Subject: Transferring my Categories list on Outlook 2007 to our association's new shared Outlook Contacts on MS Exchange.
How does one proceed if there is no more registry key?
Posted by: Grains of Peace at May 31, 2009 4:29 PMThe 'Category Manager' on www.VBOffice.net is from 2006 and costs way too much for a small association with 6 member PCs. And what we need for keepong a Master Category list seems to be the Enterprise Manager costing even more. The trial version leads to a licence fee that has to be approved but makes no mention that it concerns a trial version.
Any other solution?
Many thanks!