Outlook and PST files.

[selkov]

I receive a fair amount of personal emails at work. My company is ok with this but I prefer to not have them accesable on my pc.

I was thinking of creatng a Vm hoping to store a PST file on it to link to my Outlook on the host.

I am thinking if the VM is running I would be able to see and move emails to the personal PST on the Vm.

And when the VM is off htey would not be accessable.

Will this work?

Comments - sugestions -ideas?

[WoodyZ]

Microsoft only supports the PST being located on the local Filesystem where Outlook is installed so if you're using Outlook on the Host then the PST file should be on  the Host's Filesystem not the Guest's Filesystem.  That said, not supported and can it be done are two different things and even though it can be done it could in the long run end up being problematic and I'd advise against it.

[newbie93]

I don't have an answer directly for you that addresses your need, but I do run a setup which may help you.

I have a vm that runs all of my company desktop software (Office, Outlook, etc.). The VM itself runs in a truecrypt file container. So everything, in the VM including the pst files are by default encrypted. I also have archived outlook pst files that are located on a shared network drive (shared to the vm - anyways) that are in a different truecrypt volume. Everything works fine - Outlook can mount the archive files (so that I can search and access them) from within the VM. I have archived files for each of the last 4 years mounted this way. I also archive my current year on a quarterly basis the same way. I didn't have to do anything special. - Running Office/Outlook 2007 - I have no idea if Office/Outlook 2010 will allow you to do this.

Another approach might be to just create a truecrypt container on the host that contains the pst files and mount directly from Outlook. This will achieve almost the same thing - when the truecrypt container isn't mounted, files are secure and not visible - although Outlook will bitch that it can't mount the archived files when it starts if they aren't present, but the next time it will try again and if the files ( trucrypt drive) is available, it will work as before.

Good luck.

[0WayneH0]

My set-up is similar to newbie93.

Office VM with Outlook etc; my private e-mail account deliver e-mail to local PST that is located on the VM. My entire host is TrueCrypt encrypted although that is not necessary for the set-up to work. To keep with my company's IT policies if I have any personal data on a work machine I always store it in a TrueCrypt container.

[selkov]

Thanks Guys