Tips and Tricks to Keep Outlook 2007 PST File Small and Improve Outlook’s Performance

MS Outlook 2007 – an efficient and useful version of MS Outlook email client, often encounters the problem of slow performance. Despite the improved PST file size limit (up to 20GB since Outlook 2003), the users of Outlook 2007 many times complain about its sluggish behavior. Moreover, some users even say that the utility at times works even slower than its predecessor does, i.e. Outlook 2003. Such deterioration in the performance of Outlook is generally seen when the PST file reaches to 2GB or crosses it. We cannot do anything with this as it is because of some loopholes in Outlook program, but we can find out the ways to keep the size of our PST file small so that Outlook does not react in this way.

Tips and Tricks to Keep PST File small:

• Delete Unnecessary Emails: One of the ways to keep the size of PST file small in Outlook 2007 is deletion of unnecessary email items from the mailbox. Moreover, cleaning the ‘Deleted Items’ folder is equally important because the deleted emails generally go there (if not deleted permanently from their original location). However, this improves the working of your Outlook 2007, but does not provide remarkably large free space. This is because deletion creates scattered free space all across the PST file.

• PST Compaction: Deletion improves the performance of Outlook, but does not do any extraordinarily great thing. That means you need another alternative that makes your PST file smaller in size and improves its performance. This can be possible with the help of ‘Compact Now’ utility of Outlook. When your Outlook is free and CPU is not involved in any intense activity, then Outlook itself asks you to compact your PST file. However, most of the times, these conditions are not met and you have to perform manual compaction of your PST file. You can find out the ‘Compact Now’ option under ‘File >> Data File Management’. Next, highlight your PST file; go to ‘Settings’, and then click ‘Compact Now’. However, at times, it is seen that compacting PST file with this method causes data loss.

• Professional PST Compression Software: Since manual compaction causes data loss, it is recommended to compact your PST file with a professional compaction utility. Reliable compact PST software compacts your Outlook PST file without causing any loss of data.

All three methods are useful and efficient, but opting for a professional utility is recommended because it not only keeps the size of your PST file small, but also does not cause data loss.