Does Microsoft Exchange and Outlook use the same PST file? I tried searching in google but could not find an exact answer. Need your idea guys. Thanks
2 Answers
They are two different things, so the answer is no.
Outlook has a cached version of your mailbox, calendar, contacts, etc, stored in a .OST file. The exchange server uses its own database for storing your mail stores etc.
You CAN also have a PST file open in Outlook at the same time as your Exchange connection, but they are also two seperate files.
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Definitely not.
When Oulook works with local storage, it uses PST files, which are somewhat like Access databases; they are local files opened and managed by Outlook itself.
When Outlook talks to an Exchange server, it acts like a client application accessing data in a database system; the Exchange store behaves very much like a DBMS, and there is a dedicated server process managing data and serving them to clients. The storage engine is completely different, and so is the file format.
You'll find these links quite helpful:
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