By default, Outlook will create a Unicode personal store when possible. The exception is when creating PSTs for use with IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) or Hotmail/MSN accounts, as those accounts require ANSI.

Administrators may want to prevent users from adding these accounts types to Outlook by forcing the use of Unicode PSTs only. Other administrators may want to force Outlook 2003 to only create ANSI PSTs to insure backwards compatibility with older versions still in use on the network.

Either is accomplished by setting a registry value for NewPSTFormat. As always, use extreme care when modifying the registry and if you're not sure what you're doing, don't do it!

To force Unicode or ANSI PSTs, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office⏻.0\Outlook.

Add the NewPSTFormat value with one of the following values:

• Prefer Unicode PST: 0 (default)
• Prefer ANSI PST: 1
• Enforce Unicode PST: 2
• Enforce ANSI PST: 3

By using a value of 2 or 3, you can restrict all new .PST files to either the old format or the new format.

Diane Poremsky is the president of CDOLive LLC and a Microsoft Outlook MVP. She's author of Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours (Sam's, 2003) and coauthor of OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide). For questions or suggestions for future columns, write her at outlook@cdolive.com.