Yeah, that's what I meant. I know that in the past (Outlook XP and
maybe also 2003), PST data files for IMAP folders could not be in
Unicode (but PSTs for local folders, POP3 accounts, and Exchange
accounts could be). I don't know if that's because they were in the old
PST format or simply because there was some limitation that forced IMAP
accounts to use ANSI.
It was a limitation that forced ANSI.

It should have asked you though if you wanted to replace it with
a Unicode file.

That would be very nice, and would have saved me deleting and recreating
the account.
That question would have created the file locally as well though.

Why not store it on the local disk?

Well, if the user in question does not work on only one workstation,
he'd want his data files to be with him wherever he works...

In the case of IMAP the data files are not so critical as they're used
only for caching and all data remains on the server. But overall, if
the data files are on the local disk, they don't get backed up (we'd be
crazy to back up the local disks of all workstations - that's why we
have file servers with reliable storage and backups for user's roaming
profiles, home directories, and other shared data).
Gotcha. I haven't tried this, but what happens if you let Outlook create
it locally on one computer and then log in with that user on a different
computer? Does it recreate the data file without complaining?

It is a known complaint of Outlook users in a networked environment with
roaming profiles, that they don't see their mail when logging on to
another workstation. I is not clear to me why such important data is
stored in the Local Settings directory.
Because it would otherwise get copied when you log off and on. With the
huge size of PSTs, as you said, that's a bad idea.

Storing a PST file on a network share is a bad idea in general.

As I said, in IMAP, it's not so important (although now that I'm trying
out Windows Desktop Search, it appears useful to have the PST files
persistent, so that it does not have to re-index all the time).
Good point.

But generally, where you have actual (important) messages and data
stored there, what else do you suggest? Having the user leave his
important data somewhere on the local disk of some workstation, which is
not reliable, not backed up, and accessible only from the same workstation?
No.

It is a recipe for data file corruption and other problems.

Why would it be? If the server is reliable, and file locking works
properly, there should be no corruption...
You forgot the network being reliable. If there is a minor glitch while
it is writing to the PST, you can get out scanpst and hope for the best.
Probably not very likely if you have a good fixed LAN, but if you start
talking about WLAN...

Still, I'd be interested in some solutions on how to move the data files
in Outlook 2007, as I could in Outlook 2003 using the instructions by
Microsoft.
Same story as always. Close Outlook. Move the file using Explorer. Then
go into Control Panel, Mail, Data Files and click on that file. It's
going to complain that it can't find the file and bring up a file open
dialog. Select your file at the new location and you should be good to
go.

Patrick Schmid [OneNote MVP]
--------------
http://pschmid.net
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