When we are not in Outlook, how come we can’t find where our sent e-mails should live using Microsoft Explorer and searching for the file types? We had to reload everything (twice) after that #*%@%*@#@ “Mother’s Day” virus got us. When it came to copying files from our backup discs back to where they should be, I couldn’t discover their hard-drive abode. I sent an experimental e-mail with a unique word in it, and then searched for that word with Explorer in order to find the right place. Found squat. I’m certainly no computer genius, but I thought Explorer could find anything. What gives?
Outlook keeps its all of its information in one big honkin’ file, which has a .PST file extension. My file on my work machine is over 100 MB, and I regularly clean out stuff I don’t need.
I think Outlook Express does the same thing.
By the way, I use a cool backup utility that backs up my files to a central server across the Internet. But even though the single 100 MB file has changed, it might back up only 5 or 10 MB each time, because it only backs up the portion of files that has changed! This still amazes me, and I had to do a restore and compare before I trusted it.
And the address book has a .pab extension.
Humorous twist to the Lovebug thing:
The approved mail client at my work is Exchange, not Outlook. The approved browser is Netscape 4.5, not IE 5.x. The worm/virus could only make use of insecuities in the system created by Outlook and/or IE 5.x.
Therefore, the 21 people who got infected (out of 6000+, BTW; not too bad a ratio) did so because they had installed unapproved software.
Gah. “Insecurities.”
Exchange is a mail server. Outlook is its preferred email client, though it can use others also. The one thing Exchange can NOT be is an email client. I think you mean something else.
The worm exploited weaknesses in Outlook’s default security properties and that spead it the most quickly, but it had other ways of replicating once activated.
Don’t be too confident about your browser/email. This particular script made changes in the IE default page, but a little more thorough coding would have included other browsers. They kept it simple, exploiting what they knew about.
To the OP: I don’t think this is your situation, but if you are an Outlook client to an Exchange server, your email can actually reside on the server and not on the client machine at all. (In something called the Information Store).
all of your outlook express email is stored in one file. the more email you have, the larger the file size is.
here is the path :
c:\windows\application data\identities(computer id number)\microsoft\outlook express\inbox.dbx
inbox.dbx can also be substituted for outbox.dbx, offline.dbx, and sent items.dbx.
Right on, just search for *.dbx with the puter & youll know where it is.
Actually there is a MS Exchange Email client. Obviously not the same application that is installed on the server, but there is a client piece. Just as there was once MS Mail server and MS Mail client.
Also as mentioned previously, your mail can reside either on the server or your PC depending on your company policies.
Jo3sh:
The e-mail propagates itself through Outlook. It can still damage files if you don’t have Outlook. (.jpg is probably the most widely used file type the targeted by the virus) It just can’t spread itself to other machines without Outlook.
Not quite true. Exchange is a server and a client, both. Outlook is just a later version of Exchange.
Or else 6000 people at my place of employ are ALL running mail servers.