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 Exc...
To continue reading for free, register below or login
To read more you must become a member of SearchExchange.com
hange 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.
MEMBER FEEDBACK TO THIS TIP
It's great that you tell people that there is a way to turn the dumpster 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.
******************************************
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
******************************************
The tip explains how to turn it on, but how do you recover the hard-deleted items?
—Dan D.
******************************************
Microsoft has an article on performing deleted-item recovery.
—Serdar Yegulalp, tip author
******************************************
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.
******************************************
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
Do you have comments on this tip? Let us know.
Please let others know how useful this tip is via the rating scale at below. Do you have an Exchange Server or Microsoft Outlook tip, timesaver or workaround you'd like to share? Submit it to our tip contest and you could win a prize.
