If you work with Outlook 2010 primarily as a user, understanding
how the program stores data helps you use it effectively to organize
and manage your data on a daily basis, including storing and archiving Outlook 2010 items as needed. If
you're charged with supporting other Outlook 2010 users, understanding
how Outlook 2010 stores data allows you to help others create and
manage their folders and ensure the security and integrity of their
data. Finally, because data storage is the foundation of all the
features of Outlook 2010, understanding where and how the program
stores data is critical if you're creating Outlook 2010–based
applications—for example, a data entry form that uses Outlook 2010 as
the mechanism for posting the data to a public folder.
You're probably familiar with folders (directories) in the file
system. You use these folders to organize applications and documents.
For example, the Program Files folder in the Microsoft Windows
operating system is the default location for most applications that
you install on the system, and the My Documents folder (called
Documents in Windows Vista and Windows 7) serves as the default
location for document files. You create these types of folders in
Windows Explorer.
Outlook 2010 also uses folders to organize data, but these folders are different from your file
system folders. Rather than existing individually on your system's
hard disk, these folders exist within the Outlook 2010 file structure
or within your Exchange Server mailbox. You view and manage these
folders within the Outlook 2010 interface, not in Windows Explorer.
Think of Outlook 2010 folders as windows into your Outlook 2010 data
rather than as individual elements that exist on disk. By default,
Outlook 2010 includes several folders, as shown in Figure 1.
Personal Folders—.pst Files
If your Outlook 2010 folders aren't stored as individual
folders on your system's hard disk, where are they? The answer to
that question depends on how you configure Outlook 2010. As in
earlier versions of Outlook, you can use a set of personal folders
to store your Outlook 2010 data. Outlook 2010 uses the .pst
extension for a set of personal folders, but you specify the file's
name when you configure Outlook 2010. For example, you might use
your name as the file name to help you easily identify the file. The
default .pst file contains your Contacts, Calendar, Tasks, and other
folders.
You can use multiple .pst files, adding additional personal
folders to your Outlook 2010 configuration, as shown in Figure 2. For example,
you might want to create another set of folders to separate your
personal information from work-related data.
Options for Working Offline
If you use Outlook 2010 with Exchange Server and do not use
local .pst files to store your data, you have two options for
working with your mailbox data offline, and these methods differ
only in the way synchronization occurs.
An .ost file allows you to work offline. The .ost file acts as
an offline copy of your data store on the computer running Exchange
Server. When you're working offline, changes that you make to
contacts, messages, and other Outlook 2010 items and folders occur
in the offline store. When you go online again, Outlook 2010
synchronizes the changes between the offline store and your Exchange
Server store when you perform a send/receive for the account. For
example, if you've deleted messages from your offline store, Outlook
2010 deletes those same messages from your online store when you
synchronize the folders. Any new messages in your Inbox on the
server are added to your offline store. Synchronization is a two-way
process, providing the most up-to-date copy of your data in both
locations, ensuring that changes made in each are reflected in the
other.
Outlook 2010 includes a feature called Cached Exchange Mode.
This mode works much the same as offline synchronization with an
.ost file. In fact, Outlook 2010 uses an .ost file for Cached
Exchange Mode. The main difference is that with Cached Exchange
Mode, Outlook 2010 always works from the copy of your mailbox that
is cached locally on your computer. Outlook 2010 then automatically
handles synchronization between your offline cache mailbox and the
mailbox stored on the server. With Cached Exchange Mode, you don't
need to worry about synchronizing the two—Outlook 2010 detects when
the server is available and updates your locally cached copy
automatically.
When you create an Outlook 2010 storage file, Outlook 2010
defaults to a specific location for the file. The default location
is the Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook (Windows
Vista) or AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook (Windows 7) folder of your
user profile.
Tip
INSIDE OUT Find your data store
If you're not sure where your Outlook storage files are,
open Outlook and click File, Account Settings, and Account
Settings, and then click the Data Files tab. This tab lists the
data files associated with your current Outlook profile, as well
as their location on disk.
