Read e-mail stored in Windows User account from SuperAdmin account

Question

I have an image of my old PC, containing the Outlook folder where my e-mails are.

Unfortunately, I cannot log on my PC with my former users' password (I even barely remember the Windows username).

But I have the User / Password from the PC's admin.

Is there anyway I could reach again the contents of that Outlook emails folder to recover my emails ?

For those who would be suspicious : this is MY PC and those are MY e-mails, I'm not trying to sneak in anybody's data.

By the way, the OS is Windows XP.

EDIT : Thanks for the comments so far. I'll try the options suggested and keep you posted

Answer 1

As long as your folders are not encrypted, all you need to do is "take ownership" of the folder and files within it, and open the outlook .PST file using the data files section of outlook's account settings page (This is slightly different depending on the version of Outlook)

To take ownership of a file or folder in WINDOWS XP:

1. Open Windows Explorer, and then locate the file or folder you want to take ownership of.
2. Right-click the file or folder, click Properties, and then click the Security tab.
3. Click Advanced, and then click the Owner tab.
4. In the Change owner to box, click the new owner
5. (Optional) To change the owner of all subcontainers and objects within the tree, select the Replace owner on subcontainers and objects check box.

But what if there is no Security tab on folder properties? To see and unhide the Security tab, just use the following steps:

1. Launch Windows Explorer or My Computer.
2. Click on the Tools at the menu bar, then click on Folder Options.
3. Click on View tab.
4. In the Advanced Settings section at the bottom of the list, uncheck and unselect (clear the tick) on the "Use simple file sharing (Recommended)" check box.
5. Click OK.

the Security tab is available only to Administrator or users with administrative rights. So make sure you login as one. And security can only be set in an NTFS partition. If you're still having problem to reveal or display the Security tab on files or folder properties, check out the following registry hack and set the value to 0 or simply delete the key:

Key: Software\Microsoft\windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer Name: Nosecuritytab Type: REG_DWORD Value: 1

If you're using a Windows XP Professional system that is installed in a Workgroup, the Security tab is also hidden by default because in Windows XP Home Edition and Windows XP Professional, guests are forced to log on to a workgroup. Follow the instruction and information on Microsoft Knowledge Base where you need to set the value for ForceGuest registry key.