Most Efficient Way to Open Old .pst Outlook Files?

User Support
1

This is Qubes specific! but only because i am creating different VMs to try to solve this problem

I am trying to open up an old .pst file that was used in Outlook/Office XP.

Windows 11 won’t allow Office XP to be installed because it’s too old and is missing things.

I have tried to put a copy of Office XP in a Stand Alone Qube and it hasn’t been working well. I’ve gotten errors and run into problems.

I am considering trying this with Windows 7 just because of better support with Qubes but could run into the same lack of Office XP support.

Does anyone have suggestions on the most efficient way to approach this?

2

How about just installing old Office in Windows XP VM and open the file there?
Also it’s not a Qubes specific issue.

1 Like
3

I have used readpst in the past to convert to mbox format -
apt install pst-utils in a Debian qube.
readpst -r FILE.PST will then create folders as defined in the pst
file, with the messages in each folder stored in mbox format. You can
then open them in mutt, Thunderbird, or another email client.

I never presume to speak for the Qubes team.
When I comment in the Forum I speak for myself.

1 Like
4

ill try this

5

It didn’t work most likely because the pst is encrypted

It extracted folders with files in them, some of them large, but thunderbird couldn’t import them