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Stellar Outlook Manager
Working in Enterprise IT there are two banes of my life, one being printers and the other PST files, Microsoft's proprietary email archive format. Now these cause me no end of issues such as over-filling, corrupting and generally being a pain in the backside. So someone please invent an all in one tool that stops me pulling my hair out... oh, but wait someone did, Stellar Outlook Manager.
This is any IT techs dream, a suite of apps that cover some of the more common problems you'd experience on a day to day basis. To let you know what it actually does I'll go through them app by app.
Repair PST
One of the major issues with PST files is the fact that they constantly corrupt, this is especially the case when they are stored on network servers opposed to the local machine.
The repair facility in Stellar allows you to load in a PST file and firstly pull data from it right away so if there's a message that you need quickly you can search for it. Then you can go ahead and run the repair. I've run in on some severely broken PST's and it's done a top notch job of getting the data back. It's a godsend.
Split PST
One of the main causes of PST corruption is when they get too big so the best thing to do is to split a large PST into multiple smaller files. I wish I'd known about this in years gone past as I've spent countless hours sitting with my users separating email folders in A-E, F-J, K-O, P-T, U-Z and I tell you right now it isn't fun or you can split them by year.
With the splitting app you can break PST's based on time and by size. Finally I have my life back.
Compact PST
As I mentioned another cause of PST corruption is when they get to big for their boots so the ability to compress them is a saviour. Now you don't just want to make the file smaller you need options and they are here in abundance. Firstly you can compress all of the attachments into a new PST file which is an easy win as email attachments are the main culprit for PST expanding beyond their limits. You can also extract all of the attachments to a folder on your PC which for me is the perfect solution. Finally you can remove all of the offending attachments to a new PST but for me the option of sending them to a folder for future reference is the way to go.
Mail backup
One of the most useful features is that of the mail backup. You can manually backup mail, contacts, calendars etc but the killer is the fact that you can schedule the backups on a regular basis so if you're feeling a little uneasy about your important interactions you can rest easy in the knowledge that it's all being taken care of. You can also mount the backups as an image on your PC for quick reference if you're looking for something you've misplaced.
Password Recovery
Does what it says on the tin. If you've forgotten a set password on a PST it just goes and gets it for you. Job done.
Duplicate Mail Removal
Now I'm sure than none of us keep our mailboxes in remarkable order and duplicates are always going to occur. This app scans the file and allows you to see what's duplicated and what can be removed. Very handy indeed.
The Conclusion
This is a powerful suite of apps. It works well and it's simplicity is its key. If I have a criticism it's that there is not a universal design ethos across all of the apps, each looks different from the next. Also there are a couple of the functions that inject add ins into Outlook directly but at the point that I ran these I was told that they were not compatible with Outlook 2013 which needs addressing which if like me you're going through an Office 365 migration is key.
But on the whole this is a dream for the tech in a dilemma. Email is such a key tool and being able to simplify the process and have the tools to support your users when things go wrong is the icing on the cake.
Also check out their support pages. They are a great help.
Author
Paul Wright