Setting Up Retention Settings in Outlook 2003

Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 helps users maintain their mailboxes by providing the AutoArchive feature, which can automatically clean out expired items and archive older items from users mailboxes. If your organization uses AutoArchive, you can also configure Outlook Retention Settings that run as part of AutoArchive. These settings can help users comply with policies your company may have about how long to keep documents and items in user mailboxes.

How AutoArchive works in Outlook

Outlook mailboxes grow as users create and receive items. To keep mailboxes manageable, users need another place to store—or archive—older items that are important but not frequently used. It is typically most convenient to automatically move these older items to the archive folder and to discard items whose content has expired and is no longer valid. AutoArchive manages this process automatically for users.

AutoArchive is on by default and runs automatically at scheduled intervals, removing older and expired items from folders. Older items are those that reach the archiving age a user specifies (the default archiving age varies by the type of Outlook item). Expired items are mail and meeting items whose content is no longer valid after a certain date, such as a mail item set to expire two months ago that still appears in a user’s Inbox. Users can specify an expiration date on items in Outlook at the time they create or send the item or at a later date. When the item expires, it is unavailable and shows in a folder list with a strike-out mark through it.

When AutoArchive runs, it can delete items or move items to an archive folder, depending on the settings you specify.

The archive file is a special type of Outlook data file. The first time AutoArchive runs, Outlook creates the archive file automatically in the following location:

%UserProfile%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\Archive.pst

There are two groups of AutoArchive settings: global settings and per-folder settings. Global settings—or default settings—determine whether AutoArchive runs at all and how it handles the items in any Outlook folder (except Contacts, which is not affected by AutoArchive). Per-folder settings override the default settings so users can AutoArchive individual folders differently. If users do not specify AutoArchive settings for a specific folder, the folder automatically uses the default settings. Default settings and per-folder settings apply to the current mailbox only. Users can also choose to manually archive items.

By using Group Policy with the Outlook policy file (Outlk11.adm), you can lock down AutoArchive settings for users. In Group Policy, AutoArchive policies are located under \User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Microsoft Office Outlook 2003\Tools | Options\Other\AutoArchive. You have a number of options for AutoArchive settings, including how frequently to run AutoArchive and whether to prompt users before running AutoArchive.

Configuring retention policy settings

In addition to the AutoArchive settings, you can also enable retention policy settings for items in users’ mailboxes. Retention policy settings can help users to follow retention policy guidelines that your company establishes for document retention.

Note

Because retention policies settings are part of Outlook’s AutoArchive functionality, Retention Settings only run when AutoArchive is run. Running an archive manually does not trigger Retention Settings enforcement.

Retention policy settings in Outlook can be configured to follow company policies and encourage users to retain documents and items for only a fixed period of time. Retention Settings implementation requires AutoArchive to be enabled, but Retention Settings take precedence over AutoArchive settings.

By using Group Policy with the Outlook .adm file, you can lock down Retention Settings for users. In the Group Policy snap-in, retention setting policies are located under \User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Microsoft Office Outlook 2003\Tools | Options\Other\AutoArchive. To set retention policies, double-click Retention Policies, then click Enabled to enable policies for these settings.

You can disable Retention Settings by clearing the Turn Retention Policies On check box.

The settings you can configure for Retention Settings include:

• Maximum number of days to retain items You can specify a different number of days for items in the user’s Inbox, Calendar, and (as a group) all other folders that are AutoArchived.

• For items not being retained Choose from the drop-down list whether to move to the Deleted Items folder items that are affected by Retention Settings, or to permanently delete the items.

• URL with corporate retention policy information Specify a link to a page providing more information about your organization’s document retention policies.