OL2000: How to Turn Off Detection of Duplicate Contacts

ID: Q220837

The information in this article applies to:
  • Microsoft Outlook 2000
IMPORTANT: This article contains information about editing the registry. Before you edit the registry, make sure you understand how to restore it if a problem occurs. For information about how to do this, view the "Restoring the Registry" Help topic in Regedit.exe or the "Restoring a Registry Key" Help topic in Regedt32.exe.

SUMMARY

This article describes how to turn off detection of duplicate contacts to allow faster and unattended moving or copying of addresses into the Contacts folder.


MORE INFORMATION

Duplicate detection is a new feature of Outlook 2000. This feature addresses the problem of having duplicate entries in a Contact folder. At the time of adding a contact, Outlook checks to see if it is a potential duplicate. If so, you are prompted for a resolution. There are three possible actions that can be taken when prompted. You can update the original contact, add the contact as a duplicate, or do not add the contact.

Duplicate Detection Turned On

Duplicate detection is turned on in the following situations:
  • When saving a new contact that was manually entered.


  • When saving a contact originating from an attachment (vCard) or recipient (Add to Contacts).


  • When copying or moving contacts from one folder to another.


Duplicate Detection Turned Off

Duplicate detection is turned off in the following situations:
  • Address Importing: When you use the Import Wizard to import contacts from other files or programs.


  • H/PC Synchronization: When synchronizing items between your desktop computer and your Handheld PC.


  • When you use the Internet Mail Only version, and set the automatically put people I reply to in Contacts option. To set this option, follow these steps:


    1. On the Tools menu, click Options.


    2. On the Preferences tab, click E-mail options.


    3. Click to select Automatically put people I reply to in.


    4. Click OK twice to close.


    The duplicate detection window will also appear if you are adding a person with a security certificate.

Manually Turning Off Duplicate Detection

Turning off duplicate detection can improve performance if you have a large number of contacts to import. This will speed up unattended moving or copying of addresses into the Contacts folder. You may want to turn the feature back on after the import is done.

WARNING: Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that problems resulting from the incorrect use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

For information about how to edit the registry, view the "Changing Keys and Values" Help topic in Registry Editor (Regedit.exe) or the "Add and Delete Information in the Registry" and "Edit Registry Data" Help topics in Regedt32.exe. Note that you should back up the registry before you edit it. If you are running Windows NT, you should also update your Emergency Repair Disk (ERD).

The duplicate detection feature can be turned off manually by editing a key in the registry. To edit the registry to turn off duplicate detection, follow these steps:
  1. Close any open programs and files.


  2. Click Start, and then click Run.


  3. Type regedit and then click OK.


  4. Navigate to the following registry key:


    5. \HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Outlook\Contact
  5. With the Contact folder selected, on the Edit menu, point to New and click DWORD Value.


  6. Type ConfirmDuplicates, and press ENTER.


  7. Double-click to open the new DWORD Value and in the Edit DWORD Value window type "0" (without quotation marks) to turn off, and "1" (without quotation marks) to turn on duplicate detection.


  8. Exit the registry editor.


    9. NOTE: To turn duplcate detection back on use the steps above and in step 7, type 1, to turn on duplicate detection.


REFERENCES

For more information about Duplicate Handling, click Microsoft Outlook Help on the Help menu, type Duplicate Detection in the Office Assistant or the Answer Wizard, and then click Search to view the topics returned.

Additional query words: OL2K

Keywords : kbdta
Version : WINDOWS:2000
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbhowto kbprb


Last Reviewed: October 27, 1999
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