On the Move

Gregg Keizer

If you plan to switch to a new PC, you'll need to know how to move your America Online Instant Messenger Buddy List and preferences from one machine to another. Otherwise you'll have to recreate your Buddy List from scratch. Fortunately, transplanting the information into your new PC is easy if you use AIM 3.x. You can even load Buddy Lists saved from AIM 3.5 into AIM 3.0 without any problems.

Save your buddies. If you use AIM 3.0, choose File, Save Buddy List; if you use AIM 3.5, choose My AIM, Save Buddy List. The Save Buddy List dialog lets you export all your Buddy List preferences, from privacy settings to sounds. If you want everything saved, check all the boxes and click the Save button. Specify a file name and destination--a floppy disk is fine, since the file AIM creates is small--and remember where you put the file (it'll have a.blt extension).

After you've installed AIM on the new computer, copy the.blt file you saved earlier to this machine, then (if you have AIM 3.0) choose File, Load Buddy List or (if you use AIM 3.5), click MyAIM, Load Buddy List. Find and double-click your.blt file, mark all the checkboxes and click Load. If you already have a new Buddy List going, check the "Merge with my existing Buddy List" checkbox before you click Load.