Viewing a .pst file without Outlook

JDMurrayJDMurray Admin Posts: 13,023 Admin
I have several archived Outlook .pst files and I need to view the emails they contain on a Windows machine without using Outlook. Nothing intelligible is visible in them using a hex editor. Anyone have an inexpensive solution?

Comments

  • nelnel Member Posts: 2,859 ■□□□□□□□□□
    Ive never came across any free one's when there was a requirement for one at work but i was recoomended mail navigator: http://www.mailnavigator.com/press_release.html from a friend. however its $30 and in the end we never purchased it so i cant say from my own experiance what the product is like.

    Is there any reason you cant just use outlook to open them?

    EDIT: just remembered we were also recommended this: http://www.recoverytoolbox.com/pst_viewer.html however its $50 :s.
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  • Daniel333Daniel333 Member Posts: 2,077 ■■■■■■□□□□
    I remember reading a while back there was a plug in or two to import PSTs into Thunderbird. I can't say I have done it...
    -Daniel
  • JDMurrayJDMurray Admin Posts: 13,023 Admin
    It turns out that many programs (including Thunderbird) use calls to Outlook for viewing .pst files.

    The Mozilla's Import .pst files page pointed me to a very nice program called PSTWalker that doesn't use Outlook, but it's $40US.

    And I'm just being lazy not wanting to "pollute" a Windows box with Outlook just to look at a few emails. I'm hoping there might be a quick and free solution to reading .pst files.
  • sprkymrksprkymrk Member Posts: 4,884 ■■■□□□□□□□
    JDMurray wrote:
    It turns out that many programs (including Thunderbird) use calls to Outlook for viewing .pst files.

    The Mozilla's Import .pst files page pointed me to a very nice program called PSTWalker that doesn't use Outlook, but it's $40US.

    And I'm just being lazy not wanting to "pollute" a Windows box with Outlook just to look at a few emails. I'm hoping there might be a quick and free solution to reading .pst files.

    Yep, send them to me. I'll open them in Outlook and screenshot it for you, no charge. :P

    Or I can email them back to you to read in whatever client you use. :)
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  • dynamikdynamik Banned Posts: 12,312 ■■■■■■■■■□
    That's too funny, I was actually going to say the same thing, Mark.

    Actually, just take a snapshot of a VM, download the Outlook 2007 trial, forward them to your gMail account or whatever, and then revert to your snapshot. It's a little more involved than a simple tool, but it'll get the job done and cost you $0.
  • KasorKasor Member Posts: 933 ■■■■□□□□□□
    My work forensic unit had the software, let me check with them on Friday and see what program they used.
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  • NobylspoonNobylspoon Member Posts: 620 ■■■□□□□□□□
    If you are running Vista you can import PST files into Windows Mail.
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  • kerbydoggkerbydogg Member Posts: 41 ■■□□□□□□□□
    What I would do for software that I don't want on my "clean" computer is I have several "junk" VMs to put whatever applications to try out. I have some VMs that are not even connected to the network. Don't ask me why, I'm just really paranoid. lol
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  • Md MaksudMd Maksud Registered Users Posts: 1 ■□□□□□□□□□
    Now a days we are using PSTviewer Pro for open .pst files. It's also excellent client.
  • paul78paul78 Member Posts: 3,016 ■■■■■■■■■■
    I use PSTWalker. It's decent for retrieving old mail but I found it quite slow on large archives (greater than 500 Mb).
  • demonfurbiedemonfurbie Member Posts: 1,819
    Personal Message Store Export Utility

    ive never really tried it or used outlook but it may work for ya
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  • someslackersomeslacker Member Posts: 37 ■■□□□□□□□□
    We use the commercial version to convert OSTs to PSTs, but when I need to peek into a PST to find information I use their free viewer.

    PST Viewer - Free tool to open and view content of PST files without Ms Outlook
  • Moe 0101Moe 0101 Member Posts: 22 ■□□□□□□□□□
    Kernal data recovery used to have a free trail (30 days) of a .pst viewer. I used it before it got the job done.
  • jibbajabbajibbajabba Member Posts: 4,317 ■■■■■■■■□□
    I can give you temporarily access to a Windows Server with Outlook installed - just upload the pst files and delete when done.

    PM on its way ...
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  • gunbunnysouljagunbunnysoulja Member Posts: 353
    This works for free: PST Viewer - Free tool to open and view content of PST files without Ms Outlook

    Edit: Just realized someone dug this thread up after 4 years so I'm assuming it's no longer needed :)
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  • SyznewskiSyznewski Registered Users Posts: 2 ■□□□□□□□□□
    MS started publishing the PST spec a couple of years ago, until then the full PST file structure was quite a mystery. I use Pst Viewer Pro for opening pst files on machines where Outlook and mapi are not present. The free viewers didn't cut it for me. The free stuff I looked at didn't give access to file attachments, and seem sort of spammy.
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