Password not in use

[Ramesh]

Hi,

I use O2K. Outlook opens without any password being prompted on my desktop.
The same Outlook.pst when copied to my laptop does not open unless the
password is provided.

I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling MSO2K on my desktop but all the
settings seem to remain intact during reinstall. Can I get some inputs to
sort this issue so that I am prompted for a password when I start Outlook on
my desktop (like it happens on my laptop)?

Thanks very much.
Ramesh

 

[VanguardLH]

Hi,

I use O2K. Outlook opens without any password being prompted on my desktop.
The same Outlook.pst when copied to my laptop does not open unless the
password is provided.

I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling MSO2K on my desktop but all the
settings seem to remain intact during reinstall. Can I get some inputs to
sort this issue so that I am prompted for a password when I start Outlook on
my desktop (like it happens on my laptop)?

Thanks very much.
Ramesh

And you expect us to guess WHICH version of Windows that you use on
these hosts? Could one be Windows Vista and the other not? If Vista,
the following also applies to Outlook 2000.

Outlook 2002 will NOT remember passwords when ran under Windows Vista.
Outlook 2002 was coded to use pstore (protected storage system) in the
registry to cache the login credentials for the e-mail accounts defined
in Outlook; see http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb432403.aspx.
pstore is no longer available under Windows Vista. The registry keys
are still there but are read-only so Outlook cannot record your login
credentials into those registry keys but cannot update them. Vista
dropped pstore and went to DPAPI. For information on DPAPI, read
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms995355.aspx. DPAPI has been
around since 2001 starting in Windows 2000. The result is that you will
need to supply your login credentials for each e-mail account that you
have defined in Outlook for the first mail poll performed by Outlook.
After the first mail poll, the login credentials are reused so you don't
need to supply them again. However, if you exit and reload Outlook then
you need to supply the login credentials for only the first mail poll.

Outlook 2003/2007 are coded to use either pstore or the newer DPAPI
which means they will run under Vista and pre-Vista versions of Windows.
Mainstream support for Outlook 2002/XP has ended. There will be no
further feature changes, bug fixes, or enhancements to it. That means
it will remain incompatible for use under Windows Vista. Your
Microsoft-based solutions are: suffer with the problem when using
Outlook 2002 on Windows Vista, upgrade to Outlook 2003 or 2007, or use a
different e-mail program that runs properly on Windows Vista.

Read:
http://www.msoutlook.info/question/28
http://www.outlook-tips.net/howto/vista.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Securi...w_to_Windows_Vista#Other_features_and_changes
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb756884.aspx

The PStore keys in the registry are read-only in Windows Vista.
Removing the read-only attribute won't fix the problem. The PStore
interface used by Outlook is not available in Windows Vista. You cannot
manually edit the registry to retrieve or enter the passwords. PStore
isn't just a location in the registry with plain text data. It is a
method of encrypting the passwords using TripleDES that are cached in
the registry in a binary construct. Once a user is logged, the
CryptoAPI can be used to decrypt that Windows account's cached passwords
from the PStore in the registry. While Windows Vista no longer provides
support for PStore, it is possible to continue supporting PStore using
a program. Alas, there will be nothing forthcoming as a hotfix or
add-on from Microsoft to support PStore in Outlook 2002 because that
product is no longer supported.

A possible solution is to use a program (as a macro that runs inside of
Outlook) that manages the encrypted password for you in the protected
registry cache. If you don't want to write the macro or cannot find a
free one already written for you, there is OLAutoPW at
http://www.mgsware.de/index.php/OLAutoPW/138/0/#403. I've never used it
(because I don't use Windows Vista). Cost is 10 euro (~$16). It may
also be possible to use AutoIt, AutoHotkeys, or other keyboard macro
programs that can trigger on specific dialog windows to answer the
password prompt for you but then you need to leave them running all the
time and write up the macro that they run along with identifying the
trigger(s) on when and in which window to run their macro.

 

[Ramesh]

Thanks Vanguard for your response. Very sorry i didnt realise the OS could
also make some difference to the solution.

I use WinXP on both the systems. And I was not referring to the password
for the mail accounts. Rather the password that is set for pst file itself.
When I first installed MSO on my desktop, I did have the password working.
I dont know what happened down the line, the system has stopped prompting
for the password when I start Outlook. This is the password which is
prompted when I start Outlook, not when it accesses the mailboxes.

I hope I have described the problem more clearly.

Thanks
Ramesh

 

[Peter Foldes]

Ramesh

Read the following also

http://www.outlook-tips.net/howto/vista.htm

 

[Ramesh]

Thanks Peter. But your link only points to an article for use with Vista,
where I use WinXP Pro on both my PCs. Was there anything that I missed in
that, which was relevant to my issue?

To restate my problem, I need to Outlook to prompt for password before
opening the Outlook.pst file. (so that no one else can use my pst file). I
would be grateful if someone could guide on how to do a clean uninstall of
MSO on my system such that all settings of Outlook would also get removed,
so that I may try a fresh install of MSO (hoping atleast that could solve my
problem). As of now, when I uninstall and reinstall MSO, I find that all my
MSO settings like storage folder, account settings, etc. still intact.

Thanks again
Ramesh

Ramesh

Read the following also

http://www.outlook-tips.net/howto/vista.htm

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

To restate my problem, I need to Outlook to prompt for password before
opening the Outlook.pst file. (so that no one else can use my pst file).

Have you tried resetting the password to a new value? Does Outlook prompt
after a reboot?

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

Maybe the OS is remembering the password... if you aren't using it, remove
it (set the password field to a blank)

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]



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[DL]

Uninstalling Outlook will not alter anything.
In Outlook 2k rt click on the Personal Folders File, select the password
option, re enter your password.
Close OL, wait a while, reopen does it help?

 

[VanguardLH]

Hi,

I use O2K. Outlook opens without any password being prompted on my desktop.
The same Outlook.pst when copied to my laptop does not open unless the
password is provided.

I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling MSO2K on my desktop but all the
settings seem to remain intact during reinstall. Can I get some inputs to
sort this issue so that I am prompted for a password when I start Outlook on
my desktop (like it happens on my laptop)?

Thanks very much.
Ramesh

What happens when you change the password to something else on the PST
file (and then change it back to what you want)?

You sure it is a password in the PST file for which you are getting
prompted? Are you maybe being prompted for which mail profile to use?
If the prompt is to select a profile, use the Mail applet in Control
Panel to make sure that a default profile is selected.