PST Search Tools

Last Updated on 26 May 2022 by Olga Lapshinova

You don’t want to search. You want to find. Trust me on this.

Oct, 24 2020 | Posted by Michael Dango

How to find an email in an old PST archive? If you still have Outlook installed, you can perform the search of a .PST file with the help of Outlook. However, chances are high that you have uninstalled the email application already. Even if you have it still installed, you’d be able to perform the search easily only after you import it into Outlook and wait till it is indexed. Usually, PST files are quite huge in size as they contain all sorts of information, like tasks, attachments, appointments, etc. It may take Outlook quite a while to run through the .pst and get the index ready.

The No-more-outlook Solution

There are much easier and more effective ways of searching pst files without Outlook. Special PST search tools such as Email Detail Search get the job done in a jiffy and usually have a trial period allowing you to learn the product or even do what has to be done if it’s a one-time operation. Is it the best pst search tool available? In most cases, yes. Email Detail Search combines the best – it is cheap and very effective, allowing you not only to search pst files but also to work with MBOX, EML, MSG, etc. One app supports all main email archive formats there are in the market today! With Email Detail Search you can also view the email body, open attachments, save the list of found emails as PDF or EML. It is so good they should have named it Email Detail Finder rather than Email Detail Search.

How To Search PST With Email Detail Search

First thing’s first – download and install the application, and the trial period will begin automatically. After the installation, you will be offered to start a new search case.

Import the PST file and set the search terms. It can be done easily with the intuitive interface of the program. Where – what – when template works well for any situation. The screen below shows that I want to find the email containing phrase “Contract Devsys” in the body of the email that was created between 01 Sep 19 and 06 Dec 19.

  

You can narrow the search by adding more filters.

There is a variety of programs out there that can perform searches, including online services, but their functionality is quite limited. Most of them access just the sender-date-subject fields and can’t find an email with an exact keyword in the body.

Another good thing about Email Detail Search is that the trial is not time-dependent. The trial period includes 10 launches, so if you only have to look for something from time to time, you are not cut off after the first week or two.

There are also pst viewers out there, which are, however, totally useless when you need to search pst files without Outlook. Viewing gives you nothing since it would take you ages to find something in a huge email archive and even if you succeed, you need to print it out or something, and you can’t do it.

Who Needs a PST Search

Normally, businesses, lawyers, or anyone who needs to run through the correspondence and find some important information in old Outlook PST files. A huge quantity of companies and people still use Outlook and are gradually moving to other platforms. People sometimes change jobs and have to archive their correspondence for just-in-case purposes. When someone from the previous job asks you for something, and you have to search your PST file. Quite often you would need to search PST for litigation purposes, and if it is the case, it is better to use Email Detail Litigation, since it has all the specific features like bates numbering, watermarking, and so on.

So you can save time and money by using a good PST search tool which will help you find what is needed hassle-free.