How to open PST files without Outlook?

Read time 6 minutes

Outlook is the standard email client to send and receive emails worldwide. You can easily manage your notes, calendars, appointments, and tasks from anywhere. Outlook stores its data in OST and PST format. OST format saves all data in offline local storage, whereas PST stores your data in online Exchange Server.

You can only access your OST and PST files in Outlook. But what if you need to open your PST file without Outlook? In this article, we will cover primary reasons and legitimate methods to open a PST file without Outlook.

Why open PST without Outlook?

You might wonder why someone would want to open a PST without Outlook. Well, there are many circumstances where users might need to open a PST without Outlook. Some of the common situations are as follows:

• The user doesn’t have access their Outlook.
• The user does not want to install and setup Outlook.
• The subscription has expired, and they do not want to renew it.
• Sharing PST information with someone who does not have Outlook.

In these circumstances, the only way to open that PST is to convert it into an accessible format.

Methods to open a PST file without Outlook?

There are a few manual ways which allow you to open a PST without Outlook. However, some of these methods require converting the PST file formats to another format to access them without the help of Outlook. Let us understand them in detail.

Method 1. Convert emails of PST files to TXT

If you want to send a PST file to someone who does not have Outlook installed on their system, then try converting it to TXT format, and send it to the concerned person. In TXT format, that person can easily access the content inside it. Access the Outlook application and follow the steps below to convert a PST to TXT:

1. Open Outlook and double-click an email you want to convert into TXT format.
2. Click on the File at the top of the screen.
3. Select the Save As option from the menu.
4. Now, select the destination, enter the File name accordingly, choose Text Only (*.txt ) in Save as type, and hit Save.

Method 2. Convert emails of PST files to HTML format

Hypertext Markup Language, known as HTML, is the best format to view your content on any web browser. When you convert your PST file into HTML, you don’t need any Outlook application to view your files. You can easily view your PST content on web browsers like Internet Explorer, Opera Mini, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, etc.

To convert a PST email to an HTML format, follow the below steps:

1. Open Outlook and double-click the desired email.
2. Click on the File option, select Save as, and save the file in HTML format by selecting HTML as the desired format.

Method 3. Migrate PST to Gmail using the GWMMO tool

The next method is to migrate the PST emails to Gmail. Gmail is the most famous email client, which can be accessed easily anywhere. You can download the Google App Migration tool or GWMMO from Google. This tool helps to import PST files to Gmail without any interruption but supports only email migration. It will help you to view your entire mailbox in Gmail without using Outlook.

Method 4. Alternate solution to open PST file without Outlook

If you need a better and easier alternative than the above ones, then you opt for a third-party Kernel Outlook PST Viewer tool that can open a PST file on your system without Outlook. It easily supports viewing healthy and corrupt PST files of any type and size.

Conclusion

Opening a PST file without Outlook isn’t an easy task, but with the above-mentioned methods, you can easily view your PST data. However, manual methods can open your single mail into TXT and HTML format. To view the whole mailbox without Outlook, try the Kernel for Outlook PST Viewer tool. It can easily view bulk PST file content without Outlook. However, if you want to save those PST files into various formats, including DBX, MBOX, MSG, EML, and PDF formats, use the PST Repair tool.

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