TechTips - Can't Open PST in Outlook 2007 or Outlook 2003

I recently found a new bug with Microsoft Outlook 2007 when I was trying to open a PST file. It wouldn't let me because it was setup to be disabled in the registry by default. Now I don't know if this is a local security policy being pushed from the network I am on or if this is just the default way Outlook 2007 installs. Either way it's a real pain when I try to setup people's outlook and of course they want their PST files opened. Thankfully it's an easy fix that anyone with access to the registry can knock out in about 10 seconds.

So first to know if this problem pertains to you, if you get an error saying "you don't have permission to open this file (PST)" or if you go to File>>Open and you don't have the option to open an Outlook data file, then this problem is affecting you.

So now how do we solve the problem? It is very easy; there is simply a registry key that we need to change the value of so that it allows you to add/open PST files. Now if you have never made changes to the registry let me warn you that it is a powerful tool and if you aren't careful and don't do it right you can break your installation of Windows and might have to restore or reinstall you PC. So make changes carefully and at your own risk.

So let's get started, first you will need to be an admin or have admin rights to the computer for this to work properly so if you aren't an admin or aren't logged in as one make sure you set yourself as admin or logon as admin.

You will first want to Click on Start>>Run (Vista it's the search box with the text Start Search in it) type in regedit and hit enter.

This should bring up your registry, now we will want to modify the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\DisablePST

Expand each selection until you get to the Outlook option, make sure it is highlighted and then in the right window pane you will want to find the option labeled DisablePST, double click it and for the Value Data put a 0(zero) in and click OK. Now close the registry, close Outlook and then re-open Outlook. Now try to open the PST file, you should now have the option to open an Outlook Data File.

This is a relatively simple fix to an annoying problem with Outlook 2007. This also occurs in Outlook 2003 but the registry key you change is slightly different. If you are trying to fix this for Outlook 2003 make the same changes to the following Registry Key

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\DisablePST

Again look for the option labeled DisablePST and change the value from 1 to 0(zero) and this should solve your problem in Outlook 2003 as well. Hope this guide helps users with this problem. If you have any questions or need additional help please leave a comment.