Microsoft PST Collection Tool Office 365 Download and its Alternative

Are you looking for a tool that can collect all the PST files from a network? Are you in need of a software that can help you move data from PST files to Office 365? Then keep on reading because here. you will learn about two useful applications that can collect PST files. One of them is PST Collection Tool from Microsoft and another one is called Office365Import tool.

With the growing popularity of Office 365, more and more users are subscribing to it. At the same time, the need to import PST to Office 365 is also increasing. Users often get confused about how to move Outlook desktop data to Office 365. For them, there are options to export their PST files through Microsoft’s own utility, PST Collection Tool or its alternative. We will begin our discussion with the PST Collection Tool.

What is Microsoft PST Collection Tool?

This is a program from Microsoft that succeeded PST Capture tool. With the help of this tool, users can collect as well as export Outlook data file to Office 365. This tool can also restrict the usage of Office 365 PST file.

This tool can efficiently search the complete organizational network and find out all the PST files located in it. It can also copy the files and migrate them to Office 365 Exchange Online. The tool supports importing to the single regular mailbox or archive mailbox.

After the file gets imported, users can also use it to delete the PST file from Network location. It also allows Admins to put a restriction on users to make new PST files and edit existing PST files available on the network. These actions will be helpful for the users who want to work with a fixed set of PST files during Office 365 import and also prevent uncontrolled PST file creation.

Features of PST Collection Tool

Using the Microsoft PST Collection Tool, users can perform these tasks:

• Locating PST File: With PST Collection Tools, users can find all PST files within a network. Users need to determine a location which can be an organizational unit containing Active Directory objects for both the client and server computers. They can also search particular systems or network file shares. The utility uses a Collection Agent to search for PST files on target machines. The installed Collection Agent sends information regarding PST files back to the tool. Log files with PST file information are also created by the tool.
• Restricting PST File Usage: Using this tool, Admins can obstruct users from Creating PST files and modifying the existing PST files. All the admins need to do is to make a Group Policy Object (GPO) using the tool that will be applicable to all the users of this particular domain. The GPO will successfully help to lock down the existing PST file.
• Collect PST Files: In order to migrate Outlook file’s data to Office 365, use this tool to collect all the required PST files in a particular location.
• Move Outlook Data to Office 365: When all the PST files are collected at a location, import them to Office 365 Exchange mailbox using Office 365 Import service.
• Delete Outlook PST File: Once the PST files are migrated successfully to Office 365 mailbox, this tool can delete the PST files from the original location of the network.

PST Collection Tool Alternative

There exists an alternative utility to this tool and that is called Office365Import. This application can collect PST files from a computer or a network and export them to Office 365 Exchange Online. Features like Incremental Import and Excluding Deleted Items folder and Sent Items to make it user-friendly. When this application is used, original metadata is retained and attachments get imported in their original format. Since this tool supports all versions of MS Outlook, users will have no issue while using it.

Must Read: How to Migrate Public Folder to O365 cloud

Summing Up

This write-up discussed how PST Collection Tool can be used to move data from Microsoft Outlook files to Office 365. This Microsoft powered utility can collect all PST files from a network and then migrate them. However, an alternative to PST Collection Tool is available, which is the Office365Import tool. For this reasons, many users choose this software over PST Collection Tool.