Contacts syncing

Apple iPhone - Contacts syncing

iTunes will sync with Windows Address Book -- but WAB isn't used anymore with Windows Live Mail (desktop), there's a different contacts arrangement there. Any ideas on what I could do so I could have a contacts list on my pc that would sync with iP* contacts?

I do *not* want to have to go to the cloud for this!

I'd hoped that v10 would have updated this as well, since WAB & Outlook Express hasn't been supported for a while now, but no go. I'm not even using WAB anymore as I've moved on from OE.

I also don't want to have to get something like Outlook just for this.
Apple obviously knows about MS contact programs -- why haven't they realized that lots of us are now using WLM with its contacts list rather than OE/WAB?

It is an annoyance to have to enter everything on my phone as well as in my WLM contacts. I'd hoped to be able to use just a subset/category (group) as you can with the WAB. I guess I'll have to resurrect the WAB & see how it works "on its own". iTunes sync *seems* to be updating the WAB with what I've entered on the phone. But that would still leave me doing double entry -- WAB/phone as well as WLM contacts for anything new -- although at least the amount of info I want to carry around is somewhat limited.

iphone sync
The best way for keeping your contact safe is Syncing with gmail.

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Back up and keep the file in a thumb drive

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It would be the best but the only problem is that it would not sync 2 mobile fields which I have on google.