Exchange Messaging Outlook Volume 15, Number 3

PSTs and their role in the “new” ABCs – Archiving, Backup, and Compliance

Michael B. Smith, author of Monitoring Exchange Server 2007 with System Center Operations Manager (Sybex; March 2009)

Personal STorage files (PSTs) are created by Outlook when it generates archive files, when using legacy protocols (IMAP or POP), and whenever a user wants one (unless prohibited by an administrator). They sound like a good thing – they allow you to reduce the amount of information stored in your Exchange server (you DO have an Exchange server, don’t you?), they allow users to have more control over their own data, and they allow users to handle their own document retention.

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Import and Export *.pst files?

There are often disagreements over using import and export to move or backup data. Microsoft has long recommended it when upgrading Outlook while Outlook MVPs and other experts recommend never using Import and Export, except when you are transferring data between Outlook and another program.

In most cases, when you are moving to a new computer or upgrading to a new version of Outlook, you should open the existing *.pst file in the new installation. When you do this, you’ll have all of your Outlook data, including email, calendar, contacts and tasks, along with any custom views, published forms, and rules that are stored in the *.pst file. Exporting does not include custom views, published forms, rules and also breaks links between contacts and other Outlook data and resets the last modified date, rendering AutoArchive useless.

However, there are times when Import is acceptable, such as when you are upgrading from Outlook 2002 or older to Outlook 2003 or newer, you should make a new Unicode format pst file and export or move your existing data to the new *.pst. (See Convert an old PST to a Unicode PST for methods to transfer Outlook data to a Unicode *.pst.)

When you want to move just the calendar or contacts for backup, to use on another computer, or share them with another Outlook user, exporting the items to a *.pst is perfectly fine. It makes no sense to export in CSV or Excel format as you lose some data (including recurrences on appointments) when exporting to a *.pst is easy and will preserve recurrences.

Disable the Junk Email Filter

Outlook has a “No automatic filtering” setting but the blocked senders list is applied to incoming email. Some users complain that the filter continues to work after setting it to no automatic filtering and with the blocked list empty. Other users prefer to use a different spam filter.

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Daylight Saving Time Reminder

Surprisingly, we saw few questions this week regarding wrong appointment times; in the past we had many questions right after DST began. Maybe this is a good sign that everyone has the DST updates installed and the correct time zone and DST settings on their computer.

If your appointments are off an hour, see http://support.microsoft.com/gp/cp_dst and verify that Window’s time zone updates are installed. If the appointments are wrong only during March, the time zone updates were not installed on one of the computers involved. Vista, Windows7, and Windows2008 include the US DST update for 2007.

If you need to move appointments created in another time zone (either because the computer was on the wrong time zone or because you moved to a new time zone), use the Microsoft Office Outlook Tool: Time Zone Data Update Tool for Microsoft Office Outlook

When all else fails, you can use Import and Export to fix the times. Set the time zone so the appointments are correct, export them to Excel or CSV format. Delete everything in the calendar folder then set the time zone so its correct and import. This will convert recurring events to individual events and affect meeting requests so we recommend this method only when the time zone tool fails and you have too many appointments to change by hand.

Hotmail/MSN Messages are blank in Outlook

We started seeing a lot of complaint from Hotmail Connector users who are receiving empty messages in Outlook while the messages are fine online: “many e-mails appear to be downloaded, i.e. show a time but there is no header, or body of message that can be viewed. The messages are on the server. I can view them with Live Mail or going online via Hotmail. They seem to be corrupted only via Outlook.”

This problem is often caused by antivirus scanners scanning email as its downloaded. We recommend users uninstall the Outlook integration features to prevent problems such as this. As long as the antivirus is running in an "autoprotect" mode, it will detect the same viruses when you attempt to read the message or open the attachment.

 If you are unable to uninstall the Outlook integration, you can also fix this problem by upgrading to the new Outlook Hotmail Connector.

For Outlook 2003, 2007, 2010: Outlook Hotmail Connector 14 Beta 32-bit:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=3d003da0-f684-4f4d-a9c8-8d15b84f60d1 

Outlook Hotmail Connector 14 Beta 64-bit (Outlook 2010 only):
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=16bab660-54d8-4129-91c3-d86ff0d996e9