pst file format (2002)

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Hi all,
does anyone know where I can find information (is it even available?) about the format of the pst file used by Outlook? .

Thanks in advance

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I’m not sure if I understand your question, if you are looking for info on .pst files, I have included MS KB Article explaining the usage http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?…kb;en-us;287456%5B/url%5D ; however, if you require more indepth information regarding .psts, could you be more indepth of your question? I have also attached a webpage which discusses many topics with regard to Outlook… http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/%5B/url%5D . Feel free to ask more about .psts… I have vast experience with them.

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What I want to find out is how the file is structured internally, so I can write a program to read it. For various reasons, I don’t want to use any of the messaging APIs to access the messages contained in the pst file. Therefore I need to know the format of the records inside the file.

Thanks

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I believe you’d have to sign a nondisclosure agreement and otherwise cozy up to Microsoft. It’s very unlikely to be public information; as far as I know, none of the Office file formats are public information.

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MSKB article 184266 says the PAB, PST and MSG structures are proprietary and that programmatic access is provided through MAPI, ExtendedMAPI and CDO. Not much help there. MAPI doesn’t expose the deep structure; you need CDO for that.

I haven’t found a single source of info on this and have had to buy several books. There are also CDO based utilities that expose a lot of information. IMHO Outlook Spy is very good (and inexpensive), but I haven’t compared it to the competition.

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