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Windows Contacts

New applications should not use this set of interfaces. These interfaces exist for backward compatibility with legacy applications. These interfaces will be unavailable in the future.

Introduction

Windows Vista provides a new mechanism and user interface for storing and retrieving information about people (contacts) who are important to the users of Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Windows Mail (formerly Outlook Express).

Windows Contacts replaces Windows Address Book (WAB) as an API for extending the contacts functionality.

Documentation in the Windows Vista Software Development Kit (SDK) is provided for programmers interested in using this new API.

Developer Audience

The C++ class-based interface is designed for C/C++ programmers. Familiarity with Component Object Model (COM) is required, and familiarity with the Windows graphical user interface and message-driven architecture may be helpful.

Windows Contacts Documentation

This documentation is organized as shown below:

Overviews

About Windows Contacts introduces Windows Contacts.

Windows Contacts Schema describes the built-in schema to express and organize the properties that form contacts.

Programming Windows Contacts shows how you can extend applications, such as Windows Mail, using the Windows Contacts API.

Reference

Windows Contacts Reference provides information about the Windows Contacts API, using the C++ programming language and COM.

Related Topics

Windows Mail is an online communication tool supplied as part of Windows Vista. It is an important host application for Windows Contacts. For more information, see Windows Mail.

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Type mistake?
At the beginning we have a sentence: "New applications should not use this set of interfaces."
These interfaces are out? I do not think so according to its description.
History
Good question!
Apparently, Windows Mail has been replaced by Windows Live Mail - see http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/looking-for-windows-mail. So presumably, Windows Contacts has been replaced by Windows Live Messenger Connect? (see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff749458.aspx) Although I had to do a lot of looking to find even that! And the paradigm is significantly different between the two technologies. Apparently, storing information on your hard drive is "out," and sharing everything with your friends is "in"!

Microsoft, if you don't want people to use Windows Contacts and the API's how about a conversion guide to help us make the switch? Or at least a short comment pointing the way to the new?
History
Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 does not use Windows Contacts
This article begins with this statement:
Windows Vista provides a new mechanism and user interface for storing and retrieving information about people (contacts) who are important to the users of Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Windows Mail (formerly Outlook Express).

However, the release version of Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 is unable to directly store or retrieve information from Windows Contacts.

BUT OFFICE OUTLOOK 2003 does...

History
Kodak ofotonow needs WAB
for some strange reason the ofotoNow needs the windows contact file ending in WAB. If I new the format I'd put one out there. I'm lost.
History