Outlook 2003 & PST Disconnect Delay

[rhfreeman]

Hey All,

Just a quick question:

1. Does anyone know how long it is before Outlook 2003 will release a
lock on a PST file when it is idle?

2. Is the setting
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\PST\PSTDisconnectDelay
a valid method of changing #1? It seems to work, but I cannot be sure
as it is not documented anywhere.

Thanks,

Rich

 

[Roady [MVP]]

1) 30 minutes

2) Yep that is how it used to work indeed. I'm not sure if Outlook 2003
still supports this though. Any specific reason why you need to implement
this? Either way I shouldn't put the value any lower than 100 seconds.

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
Coauthor, Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003


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Hey All,

Just a quick question:

1. Does anyone know how long it is before Outlook 2003 will release a
lock on a PST file when it is idle?

2. Is the setting
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\PST\PSTDisconnectDelay
a valid method of changing #1? It seems to work, but I cannot be sure
as it is not documented anywhere.

Thanks,

Rich

 

[rhfreeman]

I think I pressed the wrong reply button.

2) Yep that is how it used to work indeed. I'm not sure if Outlook 2003
still supports this though. Any specific reason why you need to implement
this? Either way I shouldn't put the value any lower than 100 seconds.

I did see documentation for this key for Outlook 2000 & XP, but nothing
for 2003. I did try it and it does seem to release it a lot quicker
when it is set.

Main reason for setting it low is for better back-ups and potential for
a bit better life if we need to reboot the file server. I wouldn't want
to set it too low due to load on the server, so 5-10 mins would be good
and I think better than 30 minutes.

Thanks,

Rich

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Alright, but note that connecting to pst-files on a networkshare is not
recommended and unsupported by Microsoft. Keep the pst-file locally and use
the Pst Back-up Add-in (free) from Microsoft to write a back-up to the
networkshare.

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
Coauthor, Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003


-----
I think I pressed the wrong reply button.

2) Yep that is how it used to work indeed. I'm not sure if Outlook 2003
still supports this though. Any specific reason why you need to implement
this? Either way I shouldn't put the value any lower than 100 seconds.

I did see documentation for this key for Outlook 2000 & XP, but nothing
for 2003. I did try it and it does seem to release it a lot quicker
when it is set.

Main reason for setting it low is for better back-ups and potential for
a bit better life if we need to reboot the file server. I wouldn't want
to set it too low due to load on the server, so 5-10 mins would be good
and I think better than 30 minutes.

Thanks,

Rich

 

[rhfreeman]

Alright, but note that connecting to pst-files on a networkshare is not
recommended and unsupported by Microsoft. Keep the pst-file locally and use
the Pst Back-up Add-in (free) from Microsoft to write a back-up to the
networkshare.

I can see why Microsoft would say that, but I have to say we've been
running in this configuration for years without issue!

I am interested in the PST back-up - how is it manged? Can it be done
by GP or is something else?

Rich

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Not really but you can deploy it by GP and of course always create your own
ADM-template for it or distribute it with registry settings.

If you're keeping pst-files for archiving purposes you might want to
considere server side archiving. There are many solutions for this for
Exchange. Archiving is then completely transparent to the users and storage
is much more optimized and centralized as well.

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
Coauthor, Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003


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