If you are running Windows Outlook, you might’ve created few PST files (Personal storage files) either to store archived emails, or to archive your contact information. In some case, to keep it secured, you might’ve even assigned a password. But, if you’ve lost the password, all is still not lost. You can try using any one of the following free software, you should help you to recover the outlook PST file password.
1. PstPassword
This is one of the easiest PST password recovery software. It is very straight forward to use, and for most case, this will recover the password. One of the great thing about this utility is that you don’t even need to have Microsoft office installed on your system to recover the password. All you need is, launch this software, and open the pst file, and it will recovery and display the password for you. Keep in mind that it really will not display the exact same password that was assigned to the PST file. But, it will give other password which will also work on the given PST file. This also provides some useful command line options that you can use to script a batch file.
This will generate three different password that you can try to open your PST file. If you try to open a PST file that is not encrypted, the password fields will be empty, and at the same time, the CRC value field will display “0x00000000”.
One thing about password for PST file. If you assign a password to a PST file (for example: mysecretpassword), you can also open the PST file with the 3 different passwords generated by this software. So, it is not exactly the password that you assign is stored in the PST file. Instead, Outlook stores the hash value of the password that you create in the PST file. This is the reason why multiple passwords that has the same hash value as the password that you original created, also will open your PST file.
- Our Rating:
- Download PstPassword
- Home Page
- Pros: It is just an exe file; no software to install. Easy to use
- Cons: Doesn’t support latest Outlook 2013 version
- Outlook: Outlook 97, Outlook 2000, Outlook XP, Outlook 2003, and Outlook 2007
2. Kernel for Outlook Password Recovery
Try this only if the above doesn’t work. This is a simple tool. You just click on the open icon in the tool bar to select the PST file, and click on “Recover” icon in the tool bar to recover the password, which will display a single password that you can use to open the PST file. Once the password is recovered you can click on the “Copy” button, which will copy this password to the clipboard.
- Our Rating:
- Download Kernel for Outlook Password Recovery
- Home Page
- Pros: Easy to use
- Cons: Doesn’t support latest Outlook 2013 version
- Outlook: MS Outlook 2010/2007/2003/XP/2002/2000/97
