Summary: It's important to close a program before backing up so that its data files can be backed up. You can close a program automatically or on a schedule.
I have Retrospect on my laptop which has a Maxtor One Touch external drive to do backups. The problem is that if I leave Outlook open the scheduled nightly backup erases the duplicated pst file on the external drive as it cannot copy the open file. Is there some way to run a scheduled job prior to my scheduled backup to close Outlook. I could use "kill" but that is a bit brutal if Outlook happens to be running at the time. I may end up with a corrupt pst file.
I had exactly the same problem. I typically leave Outlook and some other programs running. They lock their files while they're running, so those files can't be backed up or copied.
I had a relatively good solution, but in researching this question I found an even better one.
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We're going to need two things: the ability to schedule a program to run at a specific time, and a program that we can run that will close another program.
The first is easy. The "Scheduled Tasks" applet in Control Panel is exactly what we need.
The second took a little hunting, but I found a very useful little freeware utility NirCmd. NirCmd is actually a multi-purpose command line tool ... a Swiss Army Knife of command line tools, as it can do many, many things.
The 'thing' we'll want it to do is close Outlook. After downloading NirCmd, in a Windows command shell, type the following:
nircmd.exe closeprocess outlook.exe
If Outlook was running, it should have been closed. The only exception is if Outlook needed to ask you a question on the way out. For example if you were composing a message, any attempt to close Outlook will result in a message "Do you want to save changes?". Outlook will wait patiently for you to respond, and your backup will once again fail. I'm not aware of a truly safe alternative. NirCmd can, in fact, kill the process instead of just closing it, but as you point out, you run a small risk of PST corruption in that case.
So, to put this all together, we'll use the Scheduled Task Wizard to create the auto-close task.
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In Control Panel, Scheduled Tasks, hit Add Scheduled Task.
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Ignore the list, and click on Browse. Locate, and select, nircmd.exe.
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On the next page of the wizard, give it an appropriate name, and check Daily.
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On the next page, pick an appropriate time - I would suggest maybe 10 minutes before your backup is scheduled to run.
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On the next page enter the appropriate user account and password that this program would be run as - typically for this purpose we'd use the same account that you're logged in as.
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On the last page of the wizard check Open advanced properties for this task..., since we're not quite done.
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Change the Run entry, adding the parameters closeprocess outlook.exe. It should now look something like this:
(Obviously the location of nircmd.exe will be different for you - you'll typically place nircmd in the Windows directory, or some other directory on your system.)
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Click OK, and you're done.
You can actually test this new scheduled job by locating it in Control Panel, Scheduled Tasks, right clicking on it, and selecting Run. If Outlook was running, it should close.
If you're a command-line junkie like I am, NirCmd is worth a look. It appears to have many useful features.
Related:
Article C2688 - June 13, 2006
I think the original question is confused between Outlook Express and Office Outlook.
Outlook Express uses DBX files to store the mail folders - not PST. It comes for free with Internet Explorer 4, and any version of Windows since 98.
Microsoft Office Outlook comes with Microsoft Office which you have to buy. It uses PST files.
Posted by: Eli Coten at June 17, 2006 5:57 PMI wrote a little utility to specifically close Microsoft Outlook so you can back up the PST file. It's freeware and you can download at http://offbe.at/files/default.aspx Note that my utility closes Outlook "nicely" and does not kill the process, so the PST file won't get corrupted.
Posted by: Douglas J. Nakakihara at July 12, 2006 9:23 PMThx so much for this! It helped me out so much! I didn't have trouble with Outlook but with another program, so thx :D
Posted by: Snorri at August 31, 2006 3:12 AMthanks for the info leo, i tried this, cuz i need to close a program during night, but it just kinda block the program, it doesnt close it, i have to close the process manually cuz the program dont respond anymore, do you know any solution to this?
Posted by: linxs at December 31, 2006 6:51 PMI noticed no quotations were put into the command in this example. It did not work for me without quotations. Once I put them in, it ran perfectly. I'm using WXPPro. Other than that, thanks.
Posted by: Lex at April 14, 2007 12:31 PMWhe I saw this article, I thought: great, just what I need. But is doesn't work. I get the following log:
"nircmd.job" (nircmd.exe closeprocess outlook.exe) 20-6-2007 1:12:54 ** ERROR **
Unable to start task.
The specific error is:
0x80070005: Access is denied.
Try using the Task page Browse button to locate the application.
Any idea's? I am Administrator.
Thx
cu, Fr@
Posted by: Fred Polhout at June 19, 2007 4:16 PMHello,
nircmd works perfectly when executed interactively (in batchfile or from commandline) but not when executed in Task Scheduler on my Vista PC
Did I overlook a setting or is Vista a problem ?
Grtz
Posted by: Patrick Versyck at June 21, 2008 6:10 AMAfter I add closeprocess outlook.exe to the run line, save the task and click run, the status column says could not start. What am I doing wrong? I am admin.
Posted by: Mike at October 24, 2008 8:32 AMLeos technique worked flawlessly! T Perfect solution for me.
Posted by: Scott at March 31, 2009 1:36 PMThanks Leo!
I forget to logo off my password protected e-mail program sometimes and then any one can see it, is there a way to have my e-mail program auto close my password when I close my internet explorer page?
Posted by: James Senn at June 11, 2009 9:28 AM