Outlook 2003 fully functional on 5gig UBB drive

[Guest]

I have Outlook 2003 on my laptop and need to send it in for repairs, I
installed Office 2003 along with Outlook 2003 on my 5gig USB drive. I am
trying to get Outlook and Office to function fully from this drive so I can
use it in my other computers. I want to have all my Outlook saved emails and
folders travel with the 5gig USB drive. How do I configure this? So far, when
I plug in to another machine, the machines version of Outlooks opens, not my
version or settings.

 

[Brian Tillman]

I have Outlook 2003 on my laptop and need to send it in for repairs, I
installed Office 2003 along with Outlook 2003 on my 5gig USB drive. I
am trying to get Outlook and Office to function fully from this drive
so I can use it in my other computers.

Can't be done. At least some of Office must be installed on the boot drive.
Moreover, your mail profile is kept in the Windows registry, not in any
folder. On top of that, it would be a violation of your EULA.

The best you can do (for Outlook) is to keep your PST on the movable drive.

 

[Guest]

I tried to move my pst files to the movable drive and it says it is locked.
if I can move this, what will it accomplish? It sounds like I will be able to
open my email on the remote machine, based on that machines version of
Outlook. If this is the case, that will accomplish what I need.

 

[Brian Tillman]

I tried to move my pst files to the movable drive and it says it is
locked.

Outlook must be closed when you do this.

if I can move this, what will it accomplish?

It will allow you to see your Outlook data on the other machines.

 

[Guest]

My Outlook is closed and still says the file is locked. Once I do move it,
how do I redirect the machine I am on to locate it?

 

[Brian Tillman]

My Outlook is closed and still says the file is locked.

Use Task Manager to make sure there are no other OUTLOOK.EXE processes
present.

Once I do
move it, how do I redirect the machine I am on to locate it?

In Outlook, click File>Open>Outlook Data File, browse to the file, select
it, anc click OK. It will open as another set of folders. If you want to
make it the delivery location, do that at the bottom left of Tools>E-mail
Accounts>Next. You can leave Outlook this way if you don't open Outlook
while the drive is not present.

 

[Guest]

Brian, I cannot thank you enough for all of this help. I do have one last
question. I do not want my emails saved on the other computer and at the same
time I will want any new emails to be saved to my 5gig drive. Is there
anything I need to do in order to accomplish this, or will your previous
answer accomplish this?

 

[Brian Tillman]

Brian, I cannot thank you enough for all of this help. I do have one
last question. I do not want my emails saved on the other computer
and at the same time I will want any new emails to be saved to my
5gig drive. Is there anything I need to do in order to accomplish
this, or will your previous answer accomplish this?

I'm unclear now, after reading back through your messages, whether you want
to still receive mail on the old PC, storing it on the transportable drive
for use on the other PC as well. If so, you can have each machine
configured to specify the PST on the removable drive as the delivery
location, provided you run Outlook only when the drive is mounted on the
specific machine. All items that each receives will be stored in that PST
and be available to the other machine when you move the drive.

If you don't want to receive mail on the old machine, simply don't run
Outlook on it.

 

[Guest]

Here is my situation. I have a laptop and I may need to send it in for repair
and could be without it for a couple of weeks. I travel and want to plug in
my 5gig drive into other PCs and be able to function remotely, from office to
office. This is why I do not want my pst files to remain on the other
computers in my offices as I travel around, but I will want Outlook to remain
current on the 5gig so that when I sync with my laptop, or move to another
office, it will always be current. Does this clarify what I am doing? (I am
sorry I am taking so much of your time. We probably could have had this done
in one phone conversation) Thanks again for your help.

 

[Brian Tillman]

Here is my situation. I have a laptop and I may need to send it in
for repair and could be without it for a couple of weeks. I travel
and want to plug in my 5gig drive into other PCs and be able to
function remotely, from office to office. This is why I do not want
my pst files to remain on the other computers in my offices as I
travel around, but I will want Outlook to remain current on the 5gig
so that when I sync with my laptop, or move to another office, it
will always be current.

Why not just plug your laptop into the companies' networks and use it
exclusively? At any rate, I think what I've described should work. If
you're accessing the same POP accounts from multiple PCs, each PC won't
realize it has downloaded any messages you've left on the server, if you do,
so you may get duplicates. However, if you're using the exact same PST on
all the PCs, there's little reason to leave the messages on the server.

(I am sorry I am taking so much of your time. We probably could have had
this done in one phone conversation)

That's no problem.

 

[Guest]

I know this might not help, this is just my 2 cents ... and maybe someone
from Microsoft picks up on it;

In our company we have quite a few people using USB Flash drives (pen drives
and even iPods), mainly so they can take along the files they work on and
recently because they want to be able to check their email in different
locations (home, other offices, etc) without having to drag a laptop with or
completely (re)configure the host workstation(s) - that last option is hard
in any Internet cafe.

Currently Microsoft Outlook 2003 is the default email application in our
company, but (as most of us already know) Outlook cannot be installed on a
USB/Flash drive as a standalone application.

Thunderbird on the other hand can be installed on such a drive and be taken
along. Plug the USB drive in any Windows based computer and you're good to go!
Sure Outlook 2003 has more to offer, but the convenience factor makes more
and more people in our company switch to Thunderbird ...

Note: Most of them use Calendar (Sunbird) as an extension to deal with the
lacking calendar in Thunderbird. Far from ideal, but maybe this is where a
standalone Outlook 2003, that can run from a flash drive without having to
install Office on that workstation, could help us all and make sure that
Outlook 2003 maintains it's position as one of the best email applications ...