How To Search Your PSTs with Vista's Built-In Search

Do you archive your email to PST files (maybe due to a corporate policy limiting your mailbox size)? If so, you know that even though it's archived, you will still need to access those old emails from time to time. If you don't want to keep all your archives open in your Outlook, there is another way...if you use Windows Vista. With Vista's built-in search option, you can specify that you want PSTs to be indexed (this is not turned on by default). It's pretty easy to set this up, just follow these steps:

1. Go to the Control Panel
2. Choose "Indexing Options"
3. Click on the "Advanced" button
4. Click on the "File Types" tab
5. Check the checkbox next to "PST" to include it in the search
6. Select the bullet next to the option "Index Properties and File Contents"
7. Click OK and OK again on the message that appears.

You're done! Now you can use Vista's built-in search to find that email you need!