Strip attachments from emails to disk but leave a link in the email to the attachment

Question

I want to be able to strip attachments from emails and save them to disk. What I also want to do in addition to this is leave a link within the email to the attachment that was stripped out and saved to disk.

Lots of reasons to do this:

1. Speeding up Outlook by not having so much data in open PST files (including archive folders).
2. Allowing other users quick access to the attachments in structured folders, without having to use Outlook.
3. Also, in an Exchange setup only mailboxes can be shared - not archive pst folders stored locally. (The archive pst files can of course be shared from the computer they are on but not opened by more than one user at the same time.)

An automated solution similar to auto-archiving would be ideal.

Any suggestions?

Operating systems: XP/Vista/Windows 7
Microsoft Office: 2003/2007

Answer 1

A free tool is doing what you want: Outlook Attachement Remover. Use the feature "Replace by link attachement" so a link is added in the email.

They say:

The application should run in any Windows 32-bit operational system (Win9x, WinME, WinNT, Win2000, WinXP). The application should run on Outlook 2000, 2003 and 2007.

No idea about Vista and Windows 7 unfortunately. I only used it on XP.

Answer 2

For stripping attachements from mails in Outlook take a look at this tools:

• Outlook Attachment-Remover (Freeware)
• Outlook Attachement Sniffer (15 USD)

The following two solutions are in german but very powerful:

• SmartTools AutoSave Pro (25 Euro)
• Toolstage.Office Mail.Attachment (20 Euro)

I think that all these tools are meeting your requirements.

Edit: I think I was a little too slow in typing...