In Microsoft Outlook, there are two types of delete actions: hard deletes and soft deletes. A soft delete is when an item is moved to the Deleted Items folder in the Microsoft Outlook mailbox; the deleted item can be recovered any time before the Deleted Items folder is emptied. A hard delete is when an item is deleted without first putting it in the Deleted Items folder. (Pressing Shift + Delete in Microsoft Outlook executes a hard delete.) Hard deletes also take place if the remote server uses IMAP and doesn't have a Deleted Items folder.
After a hard delete, you may still be able to recover mail items from an Exchange mailbox -- it depends on what the Exchange server's delete retention time is set for.
This functionality is typically only enabled for the Deleted Items folder. Items hard-deleted from Sent Items, Drafts, Outbox or Inbox are usually gone for keeps.
If you want to set delete-recovery for those folders, you need to edit the client registry accessing the Exchange server through Outlook:
- Open the registry.
- Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWARE\Microsoft\Exchange\Client\Options.
- Add a DWORD value named DumpsterAlwaysOn and set it to 1.
- Restart Microsoft Outlook to make the change take effect.
This option can also be rolled out as part of a policy change or made permanent through a .REG file.
Note that even with this option activated, Microsoft Outlook 98 will not support deletions from non-mail folders, such as Contacts and Notes. Microsoft Outlook 2000 and 2003, however, will allow non-mail deleted items to be recovered with this option enabled.
About the author: Serdar Yegulalp is the editor of the Windows 2000 Power Users Newsletter and a regular contributor to SearchExchange.com.
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It's great that you tell people that there is a way to turn the dumpst...
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er always on. But it would be a lot more useful if you could explain how to roll out this change through a policy.
—Jason J.
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As far as I know, there's no default policy to do this, but I recently came across a tool that I'll be writing about shortly: RegToAdm version 2.11. It's for any network with Win9x/NT/2k/XP clients. It converts a REG file (exported from Regedit), to a simple custom ADM template, which can be used in Poledit to distribute registry settings on the network or as a custom template for group policy. This tool can be downloaded as part of a bundle of free administrative tools.
—Serdar Yegulalp, tip author
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The tip explains how to turn it on, but how do you recover the hard-deleted items?
—Dan D.
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Microsoft has an article on performing deleted-item recovery.
—Serdar Yegulalp, tip author
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I have done this, but "Recover Deleted Items" is not appearing on my Tools menu -- now what? Will I be able to recover accidentally deleted folders on my computer?
—Steve V.
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The DumpsterAlwaysOn option only works when used in conjunction with an Exchange Server that has also been set to retain deleted items for a time. It doesn't work for local .PST files.
—Serdar Yegulalp, tip author
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