PST Collection Tool

PST Collection Tool from Microsoft is the successor to the PST Capture tool. In addition to helping administrators collect PST files in their network, it can also lock down their usage.

The PST Collection tool will search your organization's network for PST files. After you find PST files, the PST Collection tool can copy them to a central location, ostensibly for import into Office 365 Exchange online. It can import the PSTs into users' regular or archive mailbox or a single Office 365 mailbox.

When it’s done importing, you can use it to delete the PST files from their original location on your network. You can also prevent users from creating new PST files and changing the existing PST files that you find on your network. These "block" capabilities let you find, collect, and import a known set of PST files to Office 365 and prevent the future proliferation of PST files in your organization.

Use the PST Collection tool to:

Find PST files on your network Specify a location, such as an organizational unit that contain Active Directory objects for client and server computers or search specific machines or network file shares. This installs a Collection Agent on the target computers which searches the computer for PST files and then sends information back to the PST Collection tool about any PST file it finds and creates log files containing information about the PST files.

Prevent users from creating new PST files and editing existing PST files Administrators have the option to use the utility to create a Group Policy Object (GPO) that prevents users from creating or changing PST files, which is then applied to every user in your domain. This helps administrators "lock down" the PST files that were found and prevents users from creating new PST files or changing existing PST files.

Copy PST files to a collection location Collect the PST files in a central location then import them to Office 365 Exchange mailboxes using the Office 365 Import service.

Import PST files to Office 365 After copying the PST files to a central location, import them into Exchange Online mailboxes.

Delete PST files After importing the PST files into user's mailboxes, use the PST Collection tool to delete the PST files from the locations where they were originally found.