Microsoft's claims of security notwithstanding, a quick search on the Internet reveals:

Crak Software (http://www.crak.com) offers a utility called "Outcrak" which "launches Outlook (any version) and allows Outlook to ignore the file password of the Personal Folders store (the PST file). You simply shut down Outlook then start Outcrak which then launches Outlook in a mode that allows it to ignore the PST file password. Once you enter the mail file in this way, you can then easily change the password to anything you desire. You will NOT need to know the old password."

Elcom (http://www.elcomsoft.com) offers "Advanced Outlook Password Recovery" which "can be used to recover passwords to protected Personal Storage Files (*.pst) used by Microsoft Outlook (all versions) to store emails and contacts. The passwords are recovered instantly; multilingual ones are supported. "

Passware (http://www.lostpassword.com) offers "Outlook Key":  "a program to gain access to password protected Personal Storage Files .PST used by MS Outlook and MS Exchange to store e-mail, contacts and other items."

I cannot vouch for the effectiveness of any of these packages, but it looks like if you want to spend some money, you can easily break into Outlook.

Art Frank
Manager of Information Systems
OHSU Foundation
[log in to unmask] 
(503) 220-8320

>>> Denys Beauchemin <[log in to unmask]> 04/16/02 08:11AM >>>
If you mean the .pst file for MS LookOut, you are out of luck.

This is from an MS presentation on LookOut 2000.  You can find the whole
transcript at:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=http://support.microsoft.com/ 
servicedesks/webcasts/wc121900/WCT121900.asp

Next, we will cover password protecting. To prevent others from accessing
your file (Contacts, Calendar, and so forth), you can assign a password to
your personal folders. Of course, you would want to make sure to clear the
Save Password in Password List option so that your password is not cached
and a prompt for the password appears every time you open Outlook. Also,
note that once a password is forgotten or lost, access to that personal
folder file is no longer available and there is no way to break the
password. On a side note, do not password protect an archive personal
folder. This causes the personal folder to be inaccessible to Outlook and
the auto-archive procedure, which runs automatically.


Denys

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