Command Line way to Compact pst file?

[bb_aes]

Is there a way to compact the pst file via the command line? Or is there a
routine I can call from a DOS prompt to compact the Outlook pst file? I have
a general batch file that does all my cleanup that I regularly run and to
compact the OL file with a command in this batch file would be great.

 

[DaShard]

Why would you want to do this?

You can try an Export to a .pst file - I believe you get asked to compress
at the end of that routine - then point outlook to the newly exported file or
rename it or whatever....or

Archive more frequently or,

start a second archive file...

Anyways, let me know why you'd want to do this and I can be more
specific..geez, I can probably even answer your question properly!
--
____________________________
What could possibly go wrong?

Michaele BA MCSE
Systems Admin.
North Coast Computer Services.com
Onsite Computer Services

 

[DaShard]

here's a comprehensive list of Outlook Switches.

http://www.outlook-tips.net/archives/2003/20031009.htm

I don't see a compress switch but I didn't scour them all...
--
____________________________
What could possibly go wrong?

Michaele BA MCSE
Systems Admin.
North Coast Computer Services.com
Onsite Computer Services

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

Outlook will compact the pst automatically when the white space reaches 20%
so there is little need to do it using a batch file. You can force a compact
at any time if you want, but it's not really necessary.

Don't export the pst to do this - exporting is needless in most situations
and creates problems with autoarchiving.

 

[DaShard]

Is the PFBackup.exe not just an export ?

--
____________________________
What could possibly go wrong?

Michaele BA MCSE
Systems Admin.
North Coast Computer Services.com

 

[bb_aes]

Thanks for the help Diane and DaShard. DaShard seemed to think I wanted to
compress the file, but all I want to do is to compact it via OL. I did look
at the command line switches (this is how I thought it might be done) you
sent for my OL2002, but compact pst was not listed. As for both your
questions as to why I want to do this, I have a batch file that I run every
few weeks. It deletes temp files, runs MS Clean Manager, does a registry
clean, chkdsk, then backup, and finally a defrag of all my drives. It can
take hours to do, so I can start this when I'm going to not use the machine
for awhile and it automatically does all this housekeeping for me. So it
would be the ideal place and time to have OL do its compact on my pst. Why
should I wait until it is 20% "white space" and then have to wait for it to
do the compact or why should I have to enter a separate command (can be done
via Mail in Control Panel) to do it now and then when I already have my
maintenance batch file set up to do things such as this? So now that you
know the reason why, is there any entry I can make in my batch file to have
OL2002 compact the pst file? Thank you.

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

I don't use it (I prefer to use a batch file to make copies before outlook
loads) but I believe it copies the pst. To verify: Check the modified dates
on messages in the backup file - if they are all the same date/time then it
exports - if they are close to the arrival date or when you actually read or
last used the message, it makes a copy.