Importing .PRF Files Into Outlook 2007 in Vista

If you have a hosted Exchange account, you’ve probably dealt with the PRF file: it’s an automated setup file that you just double-click and it configures Outlook for you. Totally slick. But in Outlook 2007, Microsoft broke changed something and you can no longer easily import the PRF settings. There’s a way to do it under Windows Vista, but it’s slightly more involved. The instructions below are adapted from my hosted Exchange provider 4Smartphone.

  1. Download the PRF file from your hosted Exchange provider and put it on your desktop.
  2. Click Start, and then click Run. On Vista just type Run and his Enter. This will open Run command box.
  3. In Open field, type the following and don’t forget the quotes. You may want to copy/paste this into the RUN box and just change the variables: outlook.exe /importprf “C:\Users\USERNAME\Desktop\FILENAME.prf”
  4. Let Outlook 2007 do it’s thing – you’ll have to enter your username and password as part of the setup process.

And that’s it!