''Windows Address Book'' was a component of

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

that lets users keep a single list of contacts that can be shared by multiple programs. It is most commonly used by

Outlook Express Outlook Express, formerly known as Microsoft Internet Mail and News, is a discontinued email and news client included with Internet Explorer versions 3.0 to 6.0. As such, it was bundled with several versions of Microsoft Windows, from Windows ...

. It was introduced with

Internet Explorer 3 Microsoft Internet Explorer 3 (IE3) is the third version of the Internet Explorer graphical web browser which was announced in March 1996, and was released on August 13, 1996 by Microsoft for Microsoft Windows and on January 8, 1997 for Apple Ma ...

in 1996 and improved in subsequent versions. The ''Windows Address Book'' API can query

LDAP The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP ) is an open, vendor-neutral, industry standard application protocol for accessing and maintaining distributed Directory service, directory information services over an Internet Protocol (IP) networ ...

servers or read/write data to a local file. In

Windows Vista Windows Vista is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was the direct successor to Windows XP, released five years earlier, which was then the longest time span between successive releases of Microsoft W ...

, ''Windows Address Book'' was replaced with

Windows Contacts Windows Contacts was a contact manager that was included in Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8. It replaced but retains most of the functionality of Windows Address Book and worked with Windows Live Mail and the Vista version of Windows Ma ...

Overview

The Windows Address Book was an application that has a local database and user interface for finding and editing information about people, making it possible to query network directory servers using

Lightweight Directory Access Protocol The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP ) is an open, vendor-neutral, industry standard application protocol for accessing and maintaining distributed directory information services over an Internet Protocol (IP) network. Directory serv ...

. Other applications can also use the WAB.

Microsoft Office Outlook Microsoft Outlook is a personal information manager software system from Microsoft, available as a part of the Microsoft 365 software suites. Primarily popular as an email client for businesses, Outlook also includes functions such as Calendari ...

uses its own store for email messages. However, it can import contacts from the format. Microsoft Exchange / Windows Messaging uses file for Personal Address Book.

Features

* Can store comprehensive contact information in tabs including personal and business information. * Integrates with Outlook Express. * Programmable API to work with other applications. Applications can also extend functionality such as adding more tabs and fields to store additional custom information or customizing the toolbar. * Can store contacts inside contact groups and folders. * Can selectively send email to contacts only in

plain text In computing, plain text is a loose term for data (e.g. file contents) that represent only characters of readable material but not its graphical representation nor other objects ( floating-point numbers, images, etc.). It may also include a lim ...

for additional security. * Can export and import cards to and from

vCard vCard, also known as VCF ("Virtual Contact File"), is a file format standard for electronic business cards. vCards can be attached to e-mail messages, sent via Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), on the World Wide Web, instant messaging, N ...

2.1 and CSV formats. Can also import from LDIF and other formats. * Search for entries in the contact database, arrange contacts by first name or last name. * Automatically add contacts from received email. * Prints contact lists as '' memo'', ''

business card Business cards are card stock, cards bearing business information about a company or individual. They are shared during formal introductions as a convenience and a memory aid. A business card typically includes the giver's name, types of co ...

'' or ''phone list'' styles.

Security risk

In May 2000 the ILOVEYOU virus showed how the Windows Address Book could be part of an exploit to spread malicious software by accessing and sending email to a user's contacts. This approach has since been adopted by many commercial spammers.

Outlook integration

One of the undocumented features of the Windows Address Book is integration with

. A registry value has to be set at the following registry key location: Note: Users should back up the registry before making changes. :HKCU\Software\Microsoft\WAB\WAB4 A value named "UseOutlook" (if not present already) can be created with its value set to 1. After setting this value, Outlook Contacts are shared with the Windows Address Book. This feature works only up to Windows XP and Outlook 2003.

introduced with

does not support sharing contacts with Outlook. The above method works with any version of Outlook up to Outlook 2003, despite newer versions not including it as a configurable option in the user interface.

References

External links

More information on WABMSDN API Reference
Information about the WAB

API An application programming interface (API) is a connection between computers or between computer programs. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how to build ...

. {{Windows Components

Address Book An address book or a name and address book is a book, or a database used for storing entries, called contacts. Each contact entry usually consists of a few standard fields (for example: first name, last name, company name, address, telephone numb ...