How to Scan a PST for Viruses?

[TS in FL]

I need to scan a PST file for viruses. How do I do this?

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

TS in FL wrote on Mon, 29 December 2008 20:3

I need to scan a PST file for viruses. How do I do this

you need a virus scanner that supports outlook.

It's better just to avoid opening infected messages - scanning the pst can cause corruption and identifying infected messages is usually very easy.
--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]



Outlook Tips by email:
mailto:[email protected]

EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
mailto:[email protected]

 

[TS in FL]

What you say is true. However, this particular PST file came from someone
else who is unknown to me, and I need to ultimately load it into Outlook or a
DB so I can see what it contains. I first want to scan it for viruses,
though, and wonder if there is software out there that will do this.
Apparently McAfee and NAV don't.

________________________________________

TS in FL wrote on Mon, 29 December 2008 20:32

I need to scan a PST file for viruses. How do I do this?

you need a virus scanner that supports outlook.

It's better just to avoid opening infected messages - scanning the pst can cause corruption and identifying infected messages is usually very easy.
--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]



Outlook Tips by email:
mailto:[email protected]

EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
mailto:[email protected]

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

TS in FL wrote on Mon, 29 December 2008 21:19

What you say is true. However, this particular PST file came from someone
else who is unknown to me, and I need to ultimately load it into Outlook or a
DB so I can see what it contains. I first want to scan it for viruses,
though, and wonder if there is software out there that will do this.
Apparently McAfee and NAV don't.

i believe trend can, or used to. It's possible that the new versions of the scanners don't do pst's because of corruption.

alternately, you could try a tool (or vba) that saves attachments to the hard drive - this will kick in a scan of the attachment and you can get an idea of how many infected attachments it contains. You'll need to identify the infected messages on your own. If you don't need the attachments, you can delete them from the messages.

vba code sample: http://www.outlook-tips.net/code/saveatt2.htm
tools: http://www.slipstick.com/addins/attachments.asp

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]



Outlook Tips by email:
mailto:[email protected]

EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
mailto:[email protected]

 

[dlw]

Just opening the pst in outlook is safe, the viruses will not jump out of it.
Also, opening the messages is safe, supposedly outlook will not execute
scripts in the messages. The problem is with the attachments, as suggested,
just don't open the attachments, save them to disk and they will be scanned
then by your virus checker.