I recently bought a Verizon Motorola Q. It runs Microsoft Mobile 5.0 for smartphones. If you are looking in to buying one I can’t really recommend it. Its does all the wiz bang stuff like surf the Internet and such but I have already found several bugs and in my option it run sluggish. My problem is I need to backup my contacts list. I installed Active Sync (which is also a Microsoft product) that came with the phone. While installing it said that I need Outlook before I could access the contact list. Of course I don’t have Outlook installed because I check all my mail using webmail and I find it to be quite the hassle when it is installed. Is there any other software that I can use to backup my contact list? Preferably free.

Ok I run a smartphone/pocket pc whatever you want to call it.
I have a Qtek 9090 with the same Windows Os on it even tho it was built with the old one

So I have found two bits of software that should help you out..one is Jeyo Mobile companion.

Jeyo Homepage

this is what your looking I think...this allows you to back just your phone book-SMS-MMS and restore them of course.
I found this because like you I didnt want to use Outlook to control my contacts.
Jeyo has some good features like being able to send a recieve SMS on screen when the Phone is in its cradle-I found this very handy becasue my phone lives next to my monitor when I am at home.

Also this ROCKS and its from Microsoft!~! yes im staggered too!!

MS Remote Control

Basically when setup it simulates your phones screen on the monitor screen..instead of using the stylus you can use your mouse!! again REALLY handy if your phones in the cradle a lot!

Last but not least is Sprite backup.This is a god send to any users of the old Windows mobile edition because on my phone if the battery goes out I lose everything thats not in My Storage or on my SD card ;((
But Sprite has cool features like if your battery gets to 20% it auto backups up the whole phone..all programs..and the registry..and dumps it to the SD card ))
I let Sprite do its stuff 2 times a week in the background to make sure I never lose anything..

Sprite Homepage

Wow if I go look at the new version It now has extra features including a Clone function like my favourite app Ghost.. so that you could rebuild many phones with the same image.

Also look out for SBP

SBP Pocket Plus

This is a great app for changing the today screen and adding shortcuts to it..zip support extra functons for explorer.

Hope this helps..its taken me a long time to get all these great bits of software together - ive tried soo many apps..to try to make things easier on the smartphones.

Good Luck!!

Thanks Mark420 I will get on these right away.