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Working with PST Capture

Alexander Zammit

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Software Development Consultant. Involved in the development of various Enterprise software solutions. Today focused on Blockchain and DLT technologies.

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We introduced the PST import tool Microsoft made available last January in Installing PST Capture. In the first part we looked at the installation requirements and walked through the installation of the Central Service and the Agent components. Today we take a look at the configuration options and walk through an import.

Importing PSTs

Now that we know where the PSTs are, we can start with the Import.

  1. Select the PSTs to import.

  1. From New Import List select between Cloud Import List and OnPrem Import List. Here I am performing the latter.

New Import

  1. This opens a new console page. From here the selected PSTs must be assigned a destination mailbox.

Import All Now

  1. Clicking on 'Set mailbox...' we get a list of mailboxes to choose from.

Select Destination Mailbox

  1. Once the mailboxes are assigned we click Import All Now to start the process. From the console lower pane the Import status can be monitored.

Import Progress

  1. Once the PST status goes to 'Complete' we can open Outlook and take a look at the result.

Import Results

Here we can see a new folder tree named ExchangeInbox under which we have all the folders that were created by the import process.

 

Final Tips

Before PST Capture, Microsoft PST tools were mostly useful in performing brick level backups and in migration scenarios. PST Capture is the first tool Microsoft is making available to combat the proliferation of PSTs.

This is a simple, decent, entry level tool, a good starting point for an Organization that wants to start dealing with PSTs. I believe smaller organizations are likely to find PST Capture to be sufficient for their needs. More complex environments may need more control over the process.

An important point to appreciate is that PST Capture won't stop users from creating new PSTs. The continuous creation of new PSTs is a good sign that the underlying needs are not being addressed. This is why I consider the PST Capture Discovery to be the most useful feature as it allows us to monitor the system.

Finally I advise against suppressing PSTs aggressively. There exist other ways for users to take emails out of the store without using PSTs. For example they could simply drag and drop emails to their HDD which would makes things worst.

References

Installing PST Capture

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