Beginners: How to export and import Favorites in Internet Explorer

IE9 Favorites

When web browsing the internet, we all have the tendency to collect many links from web pages that are relevant and over the years they may become thousands. These links are called favorites, also known as bookmarks, and if you are an Internet Explorer user with hundreds of favorites and you use more than one computer, one of the simplest ways to have access to those bookmarks from multiple computers is by having the ability to export and import.

Follow these steps on Windows to export favorites in Internet Explorer 9:

1.  Open IE9, by default IE9 doesn’t display the Menu Bar, so press the ALT key in your keyboard to bring the Menu Bar.

2.  Then click File and select Import and export.

Internet Explorer - Export/Import favorites

3.  In the Import/Export Settings wizard, select Export to a file and click Next.

Internet Explorer - Export/Import to file

4.  Internet Explorer let you Import/Export Favorites, Feeds and Cookies. Choose what you want to export — for this article I am going to select only Favorites — and click Next.

Internet Explorer - Export/Import Favorites, Feeds, Cookies options

5.  Select which folders you want to export your favorites from and click Next.

Internet Explorer - Export/Import choose a folder

6.  Choose the location where to export your favorites, click Export and Finish to complete.

Internet Explorer - Export/Import choose the path to store favorites

To import favorites back to Internet Explorer 9, do the following:

1.  Open IE9, by default IE9 doesn’t display the Menu Bar, so press the ALT key in your keyboard to bring the Menu Bar.

2.  Then click File and select Import and export.

3.  In the Import/Export Settings wizard, select Import to a file and click Next.

4.  Internet Explorer let you Import/Export FavoritesFeeds and Cookies. Choose what you want to import — for this article I am going to select only Favorites — and click Next.

5.  Select which folders where your favorites are stored and click Next.

6.  Choose the location where to export your favorites, click Import and Finish to complete.

Note 1: The Internet Explorer import process is pretty similar to export process, so see the image above for references. 

Note 2: You can use this same method to export/import favorites in Internet Explorer 9, IE8 and in IE7 as well.

About the author

Mauro Huculak is a Windows How-To Expert who started Pureinfotech in 2010 as an independent online publication. He has also been a Windows Central contributor for nearly a decade. Mauro has over 14 years of experience writing comprehensive guides and creating professional videos about Windows and software, including Android and Linux. Before becoming a technology writer, he was an IT administrator for seven years. In total, Mauro has over 20 years of combined experience in technology. Throughout his career, he achieved different professional certifications from Microsoft (MSCA), Cisco (CCNP), VMware (VCP), and CompTIA (A+ and Network+), and he has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years. You can follow him on X (Twitter), YouTube, LinkedIn and About.me.