Windows Vista Can Outlook 2003 be backed up without exiting?

One of the most irritating aspects of Outlook 2003 is that not only must it be closed before the .pst file can be backed up, but any desktop indexer and MSGTAG (email tracing) programmes must be closed also. Sometimes one even has to close outlook.exe in task manager. Does Vista allow backing up when Outlook is open?

 

That is not correct. All the other programmes I use allow backing up when in use. Some examples are:

Excel, Word, Irfanview, AI Roboform, Firefox (bookmarks), Microsoft Money.

In fact I don't know any, other than Outlook, that prevent it.

It's a real pain to set the auto backup on exiting because on needs to exit the other programmes using Outlook that I mentioned. Anyhow I never close Outlook.

 

Use a backup program that makes use of the Volume Shadow Copy service of Windows XP.

For example, Acronis True Image can do what you are asking.
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/features.html

Free trial available.

 

Thanks. That seems to involve imaging the whole system initially. Does that mean that any ghosting program wil have the same result?

 

I do not understand your question.

The Volume Shadow Service is a given.
Acronis, and other programs, can image as much or as little as you need.

By being VSS-aware, they can do this for open programs and data files.