Computer help forum: Saving Outlook email to a flash drive

Trying to do this using Outlook or Outlook Express would be an enormous PITA. Maybe not even possible depending on security restrictions some of the systems may have in place.

However, you're in luck with Portable Thunderbird. It's a version of the Mozilla Thunderbird email client designed to run off of a USB flash drive. Meaning all your email messages will be stored on that flash drive along with the program to access them. The fact that Thunderbird has far better provisions for dealing with spam, is less susceptible, to email based worms and viruses, and all the other handy features are just a nice added bonus.

You can also get Portable Firefox, so you can have a consistent set of bookmarks, extensions, cookies, saved logins, etc for all your web browsing needs.

The other viable option would be to get a web based email account, such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc, and divert all your email to it. Then all you need is a web browser to access your email.

And it's existed longer than there's been an Exchange Server. It's just rarely used, because it requires considerably more server resources to simple POP. A single server could handle dozens more clients using POP compared to IMAP.

Microsoft is not a company of original ideas. They either copy and adapt existing ideas, or buy a product and slap their name on it.

I'm just telling you where the idea came from, not necessarily what it is. Web based email systems are all offshoots of ideas pioneered with IMAP.

I've also used the Exchange web email system, and my god is it every horrendously slow. It's like Microsoft tried to build the entire Windows interface out of high resolution graphics, and lots of client side scripting. Even over a 10Mbit LAN connection that thing was a pain to use. You have my deepest sympathies for having to use that godforsaken pile of crap on a regular basis. The fact that you haven't been driven insane yet and gone on a tri-state killing spree is no small wonder.

Hi Friends

for Outlook through Pen Drive or Portability / Mobility tool for Outlook

Visit : www.portableoutlook.com

Enjoy

Vicky

Since many of the computers I find myself using do not have internet access, web based e-mail programs such as yahoo, MSN, or G-mail are not an option. The company insists on using Microsoft Outlook for all e-mail.

it appears now that you don't really plan on accessing email from the computers but simply reading email you have already downloaded at your own computer.

If that is the case all you really need to do is COPY your own Outlook.pst file onto a flash drive. At any other computer that also has Outlook you can open Outlook, click on the File menu then Open and select PST files. Browse to the flash drive and open your own PST file. It will open as Archive Folder and allow you to read the emails.

If you want to access your email from another computer you would have to either set up an identity or simply a new email account on the existing identity. This would download your emails to the computer's inbox and you could then MOVE them to your own PST file (the one you opened that shows as Archive File) and they will be available back on your regular computer through the same open and copy process.

Now, you just have to ask yourself if it is worth it.

This one did the trick.
Thank you all for your help.

Help with the above

In OE, go to Tools>Maintenance and click on Archive folder, than Edit and browse to the folder on the USB-stick that your email archive should be on.

Kees