lock / read-only .pst file

[Evan]

My company uses a backup tool for the .pst files on computers. unfortunately
they get too big and we create seperate ones so that the backups don't take
as long, then we stop updating the old version. The problem is that end-users
keep changing the active .pst file, and so when new messages go into the old
one, we don't have backups of the messages, and the new .pst file stays
empty. I was wondering if there is a way to lock or make the .pst file
read-only, so they they are forced to use the new .pst file, and our backups
do not have to be updated for the old files. We want the users to be able to
view all of the messages from the old .pst files, but not add anything new to
them.

 

[Jocelyn Fiorello [MVP - Outlook]]

There is no way to do that from within Outlook, because Outlook always needs
read/write access to a .PST file in order to read from it. There might be a
3rd party tool out there that better suits your needs -- see if
http://www.slipstick.com/addins/housekeeping.asp has anything of interest
listed.

BTW, you don't say whether or not you are in an Exchange environment and the
users have .PST files to keep their Exchange mailbox size down -- is that the
case by any chance?


--
Jocelyn Fiorello
MVP - Outlook

*** Messages sent to my e-mail address will NOT be answered -- please reply
only to the newsgroup to preserve the message thread. ***

 

[Evan]

sThank you for the response. I know that Outlook needs read-write access to
the .pst file, but I just want to restrict users from having that access,
they should be able to read the file, but not copy any new emails to that old
..pst.

I beleive we are using Hosted Exchange Lite, and I assume that the .pst
files are indeed to keep the sizes down on the side of the hosting company,
as it is cheaper for us to do local backups, as well ovoiding hassles of
going to our hosting company for those emails.

I did not find anything on slipstick, unfortunately. Does Outlook 2007 offer
this feature?

Thanks again.

 

[Evan]

I beleive that I may have found a soloution to this problem. There is a very
interesting article here...
http://www.windowsitpro.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=40961&DisplayTab=Article

 

[Jocelyn Fiorello [MVP - Outlook]]

Great. If it works for you, please reply back with details on how you set it
up, so that others can benefit from it too

--
Jocelyn Fiorello
MVP - Outlook

*** Messages sent to my e-mail address will NOT be answered -- please reply
only to the newsgroup to preserve the message thread. ***