Microsoft Outlook has many powerful features that have led to its becoming one of the most popular email clients being used currently. However, the file storage format that it uses – Personal Storage Files or PST files – have some limitations. Knowing these limitations will help users find ways of getting around them and using Outlook more efficiently.
There is no doubt that many Microsoft Outlook users are looking at ways to get the maximum out of their favorite email client. They look at ways in which they can get around the file size limits certain Outlook versions have. They also wish there was a better way to optimize the performance of Outlook than having to prune precious email messages and attachments from the Inbox. They wish to know the simplest ways of accessing old email messages when they need them quickly. Most of all, they would like to know how to repair PST files so as to recover email messages that have been lost either due to accidental deletion or due to corruption in the PST files.
With an increasing number of organizations and employees becoming dependent on information technology for day-to-day communication, especially through email, email clients are becoming equipped with more powerful features day by day. This has helped email become a business critical application with a company corresponding with clients and potential customers, employees, colleagues, vendors and suppliers, through email. For quite some time now, IT departments have handled all the email requirements well.
Most organizations presently use well-hardened back-end email servers; these servers are run on dedicated systems and sophisticated methods are used to protect the messages. These systems also feature powerful offsite or remote backup capabilities to provide for every eventuality such as when one needs to repair PST files that have become corrupted or damaged.
Despite all this progress, one of the major stumbling blocks for Outlook users has been the ability to effectively store old email messages, calendar items, journal entries and other such Outlook items so that they can still be easily accessible. Microsoft Outlook does make this task a little simple by allowing for the archiving facility. Microsoft Outlook stores calendar items, journal entries, tasks and email messages in Personal Storage files or PST files on local Windows workstations. However, users are responsible for proper archiving of the Outlook items – this would involve specifying the folder and sub-folders to be archived, archiving periods and so on. Further, users very often forget to take backups of the PST file containing the archives and in case of any corruption or damage to this file, it may not be possible to repair PST file to recover all the data.