backward compatibility of Microsoft Outlook 2007 PST files?

[Ken Wood]

Here's the situation. Right now my wife has her computer and I have my
computer and never the two shall meet except on our area network here in
the house. We are both running Microsoft Office XP (2002). We share
common Tasks, Calendar, and Contacts in Microsoft Outlook by sharing one
PST file on the network. We have different e-mail subfolders. I know
there is software that will share these folders, but the system works okay
for us. The only drawback is that we cannot both be running Outlook in the
same time.

Here's my question. My wife and I were recently looking at Microsoft
Office 2007 at a local computer store. I want to upgrade; she says no
freakin' way. She says that the changes to radical and she doesn't have
time to learn new software. I can see her point. If I upgrade to
Microsoft Office 2007 and she doesn't, will my use of our shared PST file
corrupt it, or do something else to it, so that she won't be able to use it
with Microsoft Outlook XP (2002)?

 

[Gordon]

Ken Wood wrote:

If I upgrade to Microsoft Office 2007 and she doesn't, will my use of our
shared PST file corrupt it

You're EXTREMELY lucky that it hasn't corrupted already. MS do not support
the use of pst files over a network.....

 

[Brian Tillman]

Here's my question. My wife and I were recently looking at Microsoft
Office 2007 at a local computer store. I want to upgrade; she says no
freakin' way. She says that the changes to radical and she doesn't
have time to learn new software. I can see her point. If I upgrade
to Microsoft Office 2007 and she doesn't, will my use of our shared
PST file corrupt it, or do something else to it, so that she won't be
able to use it with Microsoft Outlook XP (2002)?

Outlook 2007 can use Outlook 2002 PSTs.

 

[Patrick Schmid [MVP]]

You can't have two versions of Outlook on a computer in the first place.
So there is no way you can do the shared PST in your scenario on one
computer.

Patrick Schmid [OneNote MVP]
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[Brian Tillman]

You can't have two versions of Outlook on a computer in the first
place. So there is no way you can do the shared PST in your scenario

Right now my wife has her computer and I have my
computer and never the two shall meet except on our area network here in
the house. We are both running Microsoft Office XP (2002). We share
common Tasks, Calendar, and Contacts in Microsoft Outlook by sharing one
PST file on the network.

That's two separate computers, the way I read it.

 

[Patrick Schmid [MVP]]

You are right, I didn't read the part about the network.
Sharing a PST over a network in this way is really a bad idea though.

Patrick Schmid [OneNote MVP]
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[Fuzzy Logic]

You are right, I didn't read the part about the network.
Sharing a PST over a network in this way is really a bad idea though.

Patrick Schmid [OneNote MVP]
--------------
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PST files on a LAN=BAD IDEA

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/297019/

 

[Ken Wood]

Yes, it is two computers; each running their own one separate version of
Outlook. We don't have two Outlooks on the same computer.

Thanks for the input about using one PST file over a network being a Bad
Idea. No problems yet and we've done it for over a year. We can't or
don't access the same PST file at the same time. The Outlook program won't
let us. Sounds like we should stop doing this. What, specifically would or
could go wrong? Just some sort of general data corruption?

Thank God for data backup. We use Outlook backup, and back up each
computer to a third hard drive, tape, and My Documents to a rewritable DVD
drive daily (includes the Outlook.PST and archive.PST)

Still, though, would a 2002 (XP) PST file be forward and backward
compatable with a 2007 PST file?

 

[Fuzzy Logic]

Yes, it is two computers; each running their own one separate version of
Outlook. We don't have two Outlooks on the same computer.

Thanks for the input about using one PST file over a network being a Bad
Idea. No problems yet and we've done it for over a year. We can't or
don't access the same PST file at the same time. The Outlook program
won't let us. Sounds like we should stop doing this. What, specifically
would or could go wrong? Just some sort of general data corruption?

If the PST file becomes corrupt you may not be able to access some or all of the information in it.

 

[Patrick Schmid [MVP]]

Still, though, would a 2002 (XP) PST file be forward and backward

compatable with a 2007 PST file?

As long as it stays a 2002 PST file, yes. If you create a new PST file
in 2007, 2002 won't be able to open it.

Patrick Schmid [OneNote MVP]
--------------
http://pschmid.net
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