[SmallBizBoss]

Our office manager (Debbie) currently is phasing in her own replacement, who will take over responsibility for her PC as well. The PC runs Outlook 2003 on XP, and email gets downloaded to her Outlook client from our hosted Exchange service. Of course, we can create a new email address for the new office manager (Michelle), but we'll need Michelle to be able to access Debbie's old emails, which are huge in quantity, and are sorted in a large number of subfolder within her Inbox. We want to make sure Michelle has easy and convenient access to all those old emails. What's the smartest way for us to handle this transition?

[noblelord]

You need to edit the permission of the mailbox via the Active Directory account (on your server) and then add the additional mailbox into Outlook.

[SmallBizBoss]

Thanks, Noblelord. (Boy, you really MUST be from the UK!) Your recommendation makes sense, but let me add a wrinkle. We anticipate needing to replace that PC with a new one in the coming months, once Windows 7 is available and proven to be stable. If we must export all the old emails to a new PC, what's the best way to do it -- and would it be possible to export the emails from both users (Debbie and Michelle) to a single email (Michelle)?

[noblelord]

Your exchange server is configured in a way so that all e-mail resides on it - not your local machines. So if you use one mailbox on two copies of Outlook, both will display the identical e-mails and contacts (the 'mailbox'). When you enrol your new Windows 7 machine on your domain, all your new office manager will need to do is log in using her username/password, and her Outlook will find her mailbox and download it to her machine. Then just re-add the ex-employees mailbox to this copy of Outlook. I would recommend keeping the mailboxes of the old and new staff members seperate (both accessible via Outlook, but both in seperate mailboxes) for compliance, regulatory and audit reasons. And yes, is it that obvious I am a Brit?

[SmallBizBoss]

Noblelord, I bow before your wisdom. If we somehow bumble what sounds like pretty straightforward advice, I'll be sure to reach out again. Thanks for your help!

[noblelord]

Pleasure.

[chronk]

SmallBizBoss, noblelord is totally correct in the great information that he has provided.
One thing I can think of - you may want to check the local computer for .pst files - in case the first user (Debbie) has saved any files in a personal file off the server - which may be kept on the local computer and not the Exchange server.

I like to keep a backup of my contacts or perhaps some old E-Mails - and do so in a Personal file folder. This is handy if you do quite a bit of changes in your contacts - or if you choose to open a local contacts file that you do not need all of the time - or if you have a cap on how large your Mailbox file can be on the server.

If you find any personal files with a .pst extension - usually in the profile path as shown below:
Vista / Windows 7 - C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook
or
in XP - C:\Documents and settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\

The file names may be "Personal Folders" by default or if an archive Outlook.pst, Outlook1.pst etc. , or can be customized to - any created name.pst.

username will be the name of the user's account and you can usually find these files by clicking on File / Open / Outlook Data File.
You may opt to do a thorough search of the Hard Drive as .PST files can be saved anywhere on a computer.

You may not have any .pst files and you may not need any of this information - but - just in case.
Also - if (Debbie) put a password on the .pst files - you will not be able to gain access to them without the password - this would be separate from your E-Mail password.
If no password has been created - you can back up the files - save them to a thumb drive - external hard drive etc. and copy them back into the Outlook profile - or where ever you want on the hard drive.

[noblelord]

Also SmallBizBoss, could you mark this thread as solved?

Thanks.