Microsoft to open up Outlook data format

Microsoft said on Monday that it will open up the data format behind its Outlook program.

In a blog posting, Microsoft group manager Paul Lorimer said the company is working to publish the specifications behind Outlook's .pst files.

"Data portability has become an increasing need for our customers and partners as more information is stored and shared in digital formats," Lorimer wrote. "One scenario that has come up recently is how to further improve platform-independent access to e-mail, calendar, contacts, and other data generated by Microsoft Outlook."

The move, he said, will "allow developers to read, create, and interoperate with the data in .pst files in server and client scenarios using the programming language and platform of their choice."

Lorimer said the documentation effort is still in its early stages. "We are engaging directly with industry experts and interested customers to gather feedback on the quality of the technical documentation to ensure that it is clear and useful."

Once released, Lorimer said Microsoft will offer it "under our Open Specification Promise, which will allow anyone to implement the .pst file format on any platform and in any tool, without concerns about patents, and without the need to contact Microsoft in any way."

[john55440]

I'm not a fan of the EU's other anti-MS actions, but this one is a Good Thing.

[Random_Walk]

...it's a damned good thing.

Now if only they would make MAPI open enough to write a client that doesn't rely on scraping OWA... nah, that'd never happen. :)

[kojacked]

LOL!

Yep, Microsoft is an old dinosaur with thier proprietary closed systems.... Oh wait...

So Microsoft haters, how does that crow taste?

[odubtaig]

I'm still waiting to see if this follows Microsoft's unique definition of 'open' as with OOXML and Mono. After their recent outing as having only contributed those drivers to the Linux kernel after having been reported for violation of the GPL I won't be holding my breath or eating any avian smaller than a chicken.

Of course, as Random has pointed out, this does sod all for clients wanting to connect to an Exchange server.

[Aaron Kempf]

I disagree, anyone with a clue has been able to do this for the past decade (through Jet).

[Random_Walk]

...just one small problem - the JET DB that stores the mailboxes isn't exactly sturdy enough to go tearing into at will or whim (ask any Exchange admin how much they love using, say, ExMerge to get something done... there's a reason that most of 'em will make a quick mail DB backup beforehand out of reflex).

[chrisfrary]

Too little to late, people are moving away from desktop based mail and outlook is a slow monster when it comes to loading pst files

[rapier1]

Lots of businesses still use outlook. A lot of the online services aren't providing or can't provide the level of fine grained control that corporate wants.

[atriusNY]

Too little too late? Outlook is not even for home users per se, and I don't think businesses are moving away from desktop based mail.

[Vegaman_Dan]

For security risk, online mail is not the way to go for businesses at this time. They need to be able to control the content and storage for both security and legal reasons.

It won't bode well if your company chooses an online provider like- oh, Google, and then find that they accidentally crosslinked email systems so now your company's confidential email is now going to some Gmail user totally unrelated. That's a big security risk right there.

[Nataku4ca]

my two cent, corp users need easy way to move mail from the server to their hdd or vice versa,

their space get jammed way too quickly for web base ones to be convenient

[ikramerica--2008]

Let's all praise MS for "opening up" their non-standard db when there have been standards in place for years (vcard, ical, etc.) hooray for MS. MS could have championed these standards and adopted Outlook to use them fully instead of simply importing/exporting, and not doing that well in many cases, because of how Outlook misplaces special characters that can trip up other programs when importing.

[Nataku4ca]

ur not helping the situation are u =.=

[fgsdfgdsfgdsfg]

As a network admin with 10+ years experience, I can tell you EVERY business I have ever worked for uses outlook/exchange. No other product, not even lotus notes, has the flexibility and feature set.
Most of the trolls here think all outlook does is send/receive email and offers a basic calendar. HOW WRONG THEY ARE!

[Nataku4ca]

i agree with you, outlook is a very very good product, albeit slow... =.=

[rcrusoe]

Re: "No other product, not even lotus notes, has the flexibility and feature set." Apparently you haven't managed many non-Exchange email systems. There are many that can match it.

We abandoned Exchange years ago because it couldn't come close to handling our volume of email. Some of our Windows users still prefer Outlook but we offer them a variety of desktop and web based clients and most choose a non-MS client. And we give them unlimited storage - something we were never able to do when we ran Exchange.

My users don't care what server we run, and I prefer spending weekend with my family rather than a bunch of Exchange servers.

[Ted Miller]

Did anyone think that perhaps Microsoft nolonger needs the PST format? It only has a 2 gigibyte limit (almost) and I have come across many instances of space running out with various people. Even to the point of rending it unusable.

[alegr]

PST doesn't have 2GB limit since like 2003.

[Nataku4ca]

alegr is right if you still have a pst file that has that limit just create a new one and move the mail over to the new one

[MrBoomshadow]

@alegr, @Nataku4ca:

True, but lots of businesses still use older versions of Outlook, and even on 2007, PST files can get a little hinky as they get large. Microsoft should have dumped the format years ago.

[jtjt145]

Now that even the White House concedes that using open source makes it more secure and faster to respond to bugs, Micro$oft's effort is in principle a good deed, but I concur with some of the comments above: Too little to late! The boat has already left.

I get a notion like: The slowest of the crowd, has finally realized that everyone else is using the other door.