How do exchange / outlook 2003 address books work?

[Red Squirrel]

Ok this is something I never really understood about Outlook. How exactly do address books work? Where are they stored when in an exchange environment, and how are they backed up? I've always figured it was a wab or pab file or something but never managed to find where it's put.

Then there's the contact list, that's stored on exchange right? And is there a way to make an address book out of those? Ex when you go new email, then the contacts should show up as a drop down. I've seen it where the a user will have a "personal address book" show up there, but they also have contacts elsewhere in their outlook (when going to contacts view instead of mail view) and they are two separate things. How exactly is this setup and why aren't contacts just the same as the address book? I've never used an address book in Outlook as I use thunderbird at home, and at work I just use the GAL, but there will always be the occasional user that also has an address book with personal contacts in there. Seems to break when the account added to a new PC.

Seems like something simple but I just can't seem to find much info. I even found a site stating that you can't make an address book in Outlook, but if users can figure out how to do it, it can't be all that complicated.

 

[Athena]

1. Your contacts reside in your mailbox as just another folder (together with mail, calendar, tasks, and notes). If you are not working against an Exchange Server, they are in your Personal Store Table
2. Any contacts folder can be used as an address book by the system (just right-click on the folder in the folder list, select Properties, then go to the Outlook Address Book tab). That will create a special view of the contacts folder that the system sees uses as an addressbok. If you set Outlook up without an Exchange Server involved, the default contact folder will be automatically configured as an address book.
3. The Personal Address Book was an separate file that pre-dated Outlook. It was used with the original Exchange client. There's really no use for the PAB anymore.
4. The Global Address List is stored and maintained on the Exchange Server.

Note: The Windows Address Book is used by Outlook Express/Windows Mail and has nothing to do with Outlook or Exchange.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Thanks that got sorted out, I ended up following a tutorial that showed how to mirror the contacts as an address book, and this is what the user actually had.