Hi Tom,
In the case of IMAP the loss is only the indices and cache for Windows
Desktop Search. In the case of other accounts, the loss can be actual
messages.
That's something new we all have to think about now when it comes to
2007. *sigh*
I guess you could try and figure out whether WDS indices can be on
network shares? Maybe WDS has a way of doing that? Because when I look
into WDS, it simply lists the profiles there. I don't know how it
matches profiles though, so it could be possible that it uses username
and the name of the account, in which case WDS should work on another
computer if the indices are on network share and the account name is the
same. If it stores somewhere internally though a reference to the
machine, then you are out of luck.
In WDS, you can change the location via Control Panel, Indexing Options,
Advanced. I don't know if this can be set via GPL.
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.
But the way it is, being stored in the Local Settings folder, misses the
point of Roaming Profiles... The idea behind Roaming Profiles is that a
user's data and settings persist among different workstations, and the
Local Settings folder inside the user's profile is for settings that are
indeed specific to (user, host) combination, like temporary files,
caches, hardware preferences, etc.
But imagine a 1 GB IMAP PST. Having that in the roaming profile would
require it to be copied up and down every time. Keep in mind that
Windows can't do incremental changes to that file, but always has to
copy the full file.
I can understand therefore why the PST files are always kept local. BTW,
Windows Offline Files excludes PSTs by default as well.
If there is a minor glitch while it is writing to the PST you can get
out scanpst and hope for the best.
Uhmm... That'd be a problem with any other file too. A glitch while
writing my Word document or Access database could also cause corruption.
Yes, that's true, but PSTs are especially fragile. Why? In Word, you hit
save only a few times. In Access, it only goes into the DB when you
change records, add a record, run a query etc.
Outlook however accesses the PST constantly. You switch from one email
to another, there is an access. A reminder pops up, etc. What are the
odds that the network will have a glitch exactly at the point in time
when Word is saving or Access is hitting the DB? Now compare that with
the odds that Outlook is using the PST when there is a network glitch.
As Outlook basically accesses the PST all the time, the odds are much
higher. And the consequences are much more grave. One glitch could
completely ruin a several GB PST file beyond any recovery ability. I
don't know about you, but I wouldn't want to be the IT person who has to
explain to some big whig why all his emails, contacts, appts from the
past 5 years are suddenly gone (assuming you didn't back them up). I'd
much rather explain to the same big whig why the Word document he was
working on for a few hrs is corrupt. Both are painful things to explain,
but the impact of a PST failure can be much worse.
Probably not very likely if you have a good fixed LAN, but if you start
talking about WLAN...
Of course. On the other hand, I suppose that it is due to those WLAN
reliability problems that I've never seen a laptop with WLAN that's a
domain member with roaming profiles enabled at all. It would cause much
more trouble than just for Outlook.
I think the problem is rather that WLAN wasn't considered secure enough
for a very long time, so companies didn't do wide-spread deployments
based on WLAN. It's just a question of time till this will happen and
then you will see computers (desktops & laptops) with roaming profiles
using WLAN.
This has always worked for me in the past with Outlook 2000, XP, and
2003, but in 2007 it just doesn't. Have you tried that procedure on
Outlook 2007? Does it work for you?
When I wrote this, I hadn't. I have since tried it and it doesn't work
You might have to try registry hacks. I'd suggest to look into keeping
the IMAP PSTs local with the WDS indices on a network share instead.
Patrick Schmid [OneNote MVP]
--------------
http://pschmid.net
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