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Portable Outlook.?

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by cgriffith318 1 view

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I need to be able to replicate my outlook setttings, folders, messages, contacts, calendar, basically everything in outlook and put it on a portable usb drive. The usb drive is 18G. Basically I am trying to put my work outlook on my home, my laptop, and another work pc that is out of the state. I know that I could do export in outlook and create a pst and then restore it at each one of those locations but then I would have to delete it and then do that all again each time I used the outlook on one of those locations so that it would be up-to-date with my outlook from work. I need to basically keep all of them synchronized.

Is there anyway I could set Outlook to automatically read and write the outlook information to a usb drive?

Also, we have exchange 2000 server at work. I looked into the whole ost file setup that will not exactly work correctly for what I am needing. If I cannot set it up to read/write to a usb drive does anyone know of any really good software that does synchronization between outlooks on different computers or any suggestions as to how to fix my issue?

17 replies

by cgriffith318

Yes I have looked at Outlook Web Access. This is really for my boss and he does not like nor is going to use web access.

Thanks anyways!

by an_it_guy

I guess you can make use of "Offline Folders". On the laptop-which i guess is connected directly to your Exchange- let the configuration remain normal, with a Personal Folder(a .pst file on the laptop).
When u want to use the other pc, copy the .pst onto the USB drive.
On the second pc(out of state as u say), configure the Outlook to use offline folder, where the main location to get online would be the pst from your USB drive. When you connect this drive to it, 'Synchronize' the offline folders, and it should be able to sync all the selected folders with all that your laptop has.
I have never personally tried this, but hope it works.
Best Luck.

by cgriffith318

I believe that this would work, however, I still run into the problem of having to make a new pst file everytime I need to transfer my email to another account. And the pst will take a long time to create.

by johngreer

My phone came with a sync tool, my PDA came with one. Yahoo has one, etc.

Personally I like to ones that use a third party site to store the data. You can consider this a cheap Disaster Recovery option too.

For example, IntelliSync for Yahoo! will sync your Outlook data into your Yahoo account. You can then sync it from Yahoo to another Outlook.

I do this from Outlook-Yahoo all the time. If the other PCs are always on, you can have them receive the updates all the time too. Otherwise you can receive the updates when you first turn them on.

Think of it this way:

Orig Work PC ---> Yahoo
OutOfState PC <-- Yahoo
Home PC <-------- Yahoo

Note: IntelliSync for Yahoo! speaks in term relating to Yahoo. e.g. if you want to sync from Yahoo to Outlook, you would Export.

Note: BE CAREFUL WITH THE SYNC DIRECTIONS. You can get really messed up when keeping 3 copies unless you adhere VERY strictly to some rules.

Think about what would happen if you update a note/contact/file in two PCs. Depending on the timing and order or synchronization, who knows which update will survive.

Also see www.slipstick.com/outlook/sync.htm

We can talk more about sync directions and Gotcha's, if you're interested.

by cgriffith318

From my understanding from Yahoo, I would still have to create a pst file, and send that to Yahoo from every computer. This is a very large mailbox and creating a pst is very very time consuming. My boss is also not very comfortable with putting his emails in a internet email account.

Thanks for the help anyways.

by cgriffith318

This does not sync with Outlook. This is its own program to maintain email. I need to be able to sync multiple outlooks.

by cgriffith318

Does anyone know of a program or a way to synchronize my outlooks on mulitple computers without having to create a pst file everytime. It is a very very large mailbox and takes quite a long time to create a pst file and that would become extremely old everytime he would want to take his outlook home. It has to be something that would allow him to sync back up to outlook, it cannot be another type of email program as he is set on having outlook.

by keycomputing

The Xkey (www.seasidesw.com/products/xkey.htm) doesn't strictly speaking synch with Outlook - it synchs directly with the exchnage server. The outcome is that it has the identical stuff on it as Outlook has, but that it can operate from any machine in the world that has a USB port! It truly is Exchange on a USB key, and it IS always in synch with the desktop Outlook (since both synch with the exchange server)

by wayne.s

I?ve done something similar at my work place with roaming profiles. Where the PST file is stored on one of the File servers along with users account profile. This allows access to there outlook account for any where in the building and though the VPN server.
To do this all I did was to copy the pst file to the location on the server (in your case it will be on the USB device).
then if you open up outlook and go to tools menu then e-mail accounts. You will then need to view and change e-mail accounts, then you need to add a new outlook data file. Select pst as the data storage type. Set the location to the USB device. Select the new pst file in the drop down list box on the accounts page close down outlook and then open it up and it should put all your new e-mails onto the usb device but this only works on the computer that the usb device is pluged into. Let me know if this is any good by way of e-mail.

by curacao_dejavu

why don't you create a vpn tunnel to your network.
You would connect to the lan and be able to access the exchange server and thus bypassing all the trouble of copying files.

Leopold

by paul_miller

I have delt with the same issue. I had to sync Outlook 2003 on two different PCs. Since my Outlook PST File only 1GB in size I used a USB Flash Drive for the task. I tested several applications and the one fitting my needs became Carry It Easy +Plus. I now use the this application every day before going to work and returning home after work. That way all my e-mail and contacts are in sync.

by pitbullthe1st

I do have one idear that you might find usfull.
There is some open sorce software called thunderbird portable it has most of the functions of outlook but you can run it from your memory stick and it will not leave anything on the computer that you use it on. plus you can have a master password for your account that encrips you user name and password so if you loose the stick your mail will be safe. Plus there are a host of outher apps that you can use to like firefox web browser so you can take all your web sites with you take a look. And the best thing is its open sorce so its free here is the address http://portableapps.com/

Stewart Crombie MCITP
Aabbex(c) Computers
0870 803 1720

www.aabbex.com

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