I followed the instructions as best i could but it's not working.

The website says "This can only be set in the 'early' configuration files - see below." which i took to mean the c:\program files\spambayes outlook addin\default_bayes_customize.ini

Right directory (either that one, or the 'standard' location), but wrong name - the file needs to be called "default_configuration.ini" (there won't be one there, you'll have to create it - Notepad would do).

so i uninstalled the plugin, rebooted and reinstalled it.

That doesn't hurt, but just restarting Outlook should be enough.

then, before i started outlook i added

[General] data_directory: C:\New Folder

to the bottom of the .ini file

That looks fine. You're not the first person to have troubles with this (and IIRC, the last person had the name of the file wrong, too). Assuming that this option doesn't get exposed via the GUI in the next release, can you suggest how the doc could be reworded to make it easier to understand? =Tony Meyer