ContextCleaner: see every entry in the Windows 11 right-click menu, and which app added it — on the Microsoft Store.

Last updated:

Guided workflow variation

Open a PST filewithout installing Outlook.

An old .pst from a backup drive or a former colleague does not need a mail profile to be read. PstVault opens it straight from disk, read-only, and lays out every folder with its message count.

Open the .pst in PstVault, browse its folders, read any message, and save what you need, with no Outlook install, no profile, and no upload.

Pay once. Own it forever.

One-time purchase on the Microsoft Store · No subscription · Instant install

Get it from Microsoft

Buy through the Microsoft Store—instant install, automatic updates, and a Microsoft receipt for easy expensing. No account needed on our site, and no subscription on Store purchases.

Full PstVault overview
One-time purchase No telemetry Local-first

windows · no outlook needed · pst never changed · nothing uploads · 15-day free trial

If this sounds like your week

The archive survived. The mail program did not.

PST files outlive the computers that made them. One sits on a backup drive from a laptop retired years ago; another arrives from IT after a colleague leaves; a client sends a third because a dispute needs last year’s correspondence. Each holds real messages, yet the machine in front of you may have no Outlook installed at all.

Where tooling usually breaks

Installing a mail client to read one file is a project.

The traditional route means installing a desktop mail client, creating a profile, attaching the data file, and then working through its folders inside software built for live accounts. That is heavy setup for someone who needs a handful of threads, and attaching an archive to a working mailbox mixes old folders into current mail. Upload services skip the install but hand private correspondence to a stranger’s server.

Where PstVault lands

Read the file where it sits.

PstVault treats the archive as a document to read, not an account to configure. Double-click it in File Explorer or choose Open PST, and the tree appears with counts beside each folder. Pick any item to see who wrote it, who received it, when, where it was filed, its text, and its attachment list, then save an attachment with one click. Opening is read-only, the app makes no network connections, and nothing about the archive changes.

Pay once. Own it forever.

One-time purchase on the Microsoft Store · No subscription · Instant install

Get it from Microsoft

Buy through the Microsoft Store—instant install, automatic updates, and a Microsoft receipt for easy expensing. No account needed on our site, and no subscription on Store purchases.

Learn more about PstVault

windows · no outlook needed · pst never changed · nothing uploads · 15-day free trial

What you get

Feature highlights

Opens a PST without Outlook

reads Outlook data files directly, from Open PST, a double-click in File Explorer, or the Recent list, and shows every folder with its message count.

Finds the mail you need

Sender, Subject, Body, Recipient, From date, and To date filters across one folder and everything beneath it, or All folders, with results listed newest first.

PDF your way

one PDF for the selection with a bookmark per item, or one PDF per item, on Letter or A4, with PDF, PNG, JPEG, and text attachments appended as pages and the originals embedded.

EML and offline HTML

standard .eml files with headers, bodies, and attachments inside, and sanitized HTML reading copies with local pictures that open in any browser.

Contacts and calendars

vCard 4.0 files or one contact table (.csv) for Excel, and calendar events as .ics with recurring series and time zones; Native files picks the format for each item.

A report of everything saved, and the PST untouched

a JSON report lists each item, its format, and the size and SHA-256 hash of every file written; the PST is read-only and nothing uploads.

Especially when

  • Open a PST file from an old backup or a former colleague without installing Outlook or setting up a mail profile
  • Find the handful of messages that matter in a large archive by sender, recipient, subject, body text, and date
  • Hand over selected emails as one bookmarked PDF, standard EML files, or offline HTML, with the attachments kept
  • Keep the archive unchanged and the mail on the PC, with no upload, no account, and a report of every file saved

Who benefits

Real-world scenarios

An archive from a former employee

An office manager receives a PST exported from a departed employee’s mailbox. A supplier dispute needs that employee’s emails from last spring, and nobody in the office runs Outlook.

She double-clicks the file and PstVault opens it read-only, with Inbox, Sent Items, and the employee’s project folders listed with counts. A Sender filter on the supplier’s domain narrows the list, and the relevant threads go out as one bookmarked PDF.

A backup from an old laptop

Clearing out an old backup drive, someone finds an archive.pst from a laptop retired years ago and wants to know what is in it before deciding whether to keep the drive.

PstVault lists every folder with its message count, and the preview shows each message with its attachments. Photos attached to old family emails are saved with the Save link beside each attachment, and the archive itself stays exactly as it was.

A mailbox handed over by a client

A bookkeeper receives a client’s PST so she can find invoices that arrived by email over two years. She does not want to attach someone else’s mailbox to the mail app on her work PC.

She opens the PST in PstVault, sets From date and To date to the two years, types invoice in Subject, and selects all results. Export files with Email (.eml) writes each message, with the attachments saved beside it and a JSON report of every file.

Deep dive

What happens when PstVault opens a PST

Three ways in. Choose Open PST in the title bar, double-click a .pst in File Explorer, where PstVault is registered for Outlook Data File, or pick an archive from Recent, which keeps the last eight files you opened, by name.

Read-only from the start. The file is opened for reading through Windows and is never written, renamed, or moved. Open the same archive once or a hundred times and it stays exactly as it was, ready for whatever else needs it.

Folders with counts. The tree mirrors the archive: Top of Outlook data file, Inbox, Sent Items, Deleted Items, Drafts, and every folder someone created over the years, each with its message count. All folders sits at the top for searches across the whole file.

A preview of every item. Select a message to see From, To, Cc, Bcc, the date, the folder it lives in, its attachments with their sizes and types, and the body as text. Contacts and calendar items show their own fields, such as an organizer and the start and end of a meeting.

Attachments one at a time or all together. Save beside any attachment writes the original file to a folder you pick. For a whole selection, Also save original attachments as files in the Export dialog saves every original, inline pictures included, beside its message.

When you need more than reading. Narrow the list with Sender, Subject, and More filters, select the results, and export them as Email (.eml), PDF reading copy, HTML reading copy, Contacts (.vcf), Calendar (.ics), Contact table (.csv), or Native files. Every export writes a JSON report that lists each item and the SHA-256 hash of each file written.

Private by construction. PstVault runs in the Windows app sandbox with no declared capabilities, no account, no telemetry, and no network connections. Your archive is read on your PC and nowhere else, and it follows your Windows light or dark theme while it does.

Try it on your own file. The Microsoft Store runs a 15-day free trial with every feature, so you can open the archive you have, look through its folders, and export a few messages before you buy.

How it is built

Built to read the archive and leave it exactly as it was.

Read-only by design

The PST is opened read-only and never written. Every export is a set of new files in the folder you choose, written under a temporary name and committed without replacing any existing file.

Nothing leaves your PC

PstVault runs in the Windows app sandbox with no declared capabilities, makes no network connections, and has no account and no telemetry. Its HTML copies load no remote content.

A report for every export

Each export writes a JSON report with the source, the filters behind the selection, every item and the file it became, and the size and SHA-256 hash of each file written.

FAQ

Straight answers—no glossary dump

Can I open a PST file without Outlook installed?

Yes. PstVault reads the PST file directly, so Outlook does not need to be installed, signed in, or set up with a mail profile. Choose Open PST, double-click the file in File Explorer, or reopen it from the Recent list. The folder tree appears with a message count for every folder, and selecting any message shows its headers, text, and attachments.

Which PST files does PstVault open?

PstVault opens Outlook data files with the .pst extension in the Unicode format, which is what Outlook 2003 and every later version create when you export, archive, or back up mail. That covers the archives most people find on old drives and receive from IT. Each file opens on its own, read-only, and the Recent list keeps the last eight you opened.

Can I search the PST once it is open?

Yes. Pick a folder or All folders, then type in Sender or Subject above the list. More filters adds Body, Recipient, From date, and To date, and the filters cover the selected folder and everything beneath it. Results are listed newest first, and a body search shows how many messages it has searched as it goes.

What happens to the PST when PstVault opens it?

Nothing changes. PstVault opens the PST read-only and never writes, moves, or renames it, so the archive is the same after a hundred sessions as it was before the first. Exports are new files in a folder you choose: each one is written under a temporary name and then committed, and a file that already exists there is never replaced. Run another export from the same archive whenever you need a different format or selection.

Where does my mail go when I use PstVault?

Only to the folder you choose. PstVault runs on your PC in the Windows app sandbox with no declared capabilities. It makes no network connections, has no account, and collects no telemetry. The preview shows message text, and the offline HTML copy loads no remote content and runs no scripts, so opening an old message never contacts anyone. Settings and the recent-file list stay in the app’s own local storage.

How do I get PstVault, and can I try it first?

PstVault is a one-time purchase in the Microsoft Store, and the listing shows the current price in your currency. The Store runs a 15-day free trial with every feature, so you can open your own archive, search it, and export a test set before you buy. There is no subscription and nothing to activate in the app. It runs on Windows 10 version 2004 or later and Windows 11, on x64 and ARM64 PCs.

Related pages

A PST viewer that does more than show you the mail. From PST to PDF, with a bookmark for every message. Every message out of the PST as its own .eml file.

The mail is already in the PST.
Get out the messages you need.

PstVault opens an Outlook PST without Outlook, finds mail by sender, recipient, subject, body, and date, and exports it as EML, PDF, offline HTML, vCard, ICS, or CSV with a JSON report of every file. The PST is never changed, nothing uploads, and the Microsoft Store runs a 15-day free trial.

Pay once. Own it forever.

One-time purchase on the Microsoft Store · No subscription · Instant install

Get it from Microsoft

Buy through the Microsoft Store—instant install, automatic updates, and a Microsoft receipt for easy expensing. No account needed on our site, and no subscription on Store purchases.

Open full product page

Microsoft and Outlook are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies. PstVault is not affiliated with or endorsed by Microsoft.

Technical specifications

Technical specifications for procurement

Spec Implementation
Data Sovereignty Reads only the PST you open, read-only, from the Windows file picker or a File Explorer double-click; writes new files and the JSON export report only to the folder you choose, never replacing an existing file; settings and the recent-file list stay in the app’s own local storage
Telemetry Status None; no account, no telemetry, and the app makes no network connections
Core Runtime .NET 10 and WinUI 3 (Windows App SDK), packaged as MSIX; runs in an AppContainer with no declared capabilities; reads the PST with its own managed reader, with no Outlook or MAPI needed
Network Requirements Fully functional offline; the app makes no network connections
Deployment Compatibility Windows 10 version 2004 or later and Windows 11, x64 or ARM64; one-time purchase on the Microsoft Store with a 15-day free trial
Inputs Outlook data files (.pst) in the Unicode format created by Outlook 2003 and later; open from the file picker, a File Explorer double-click, or the Recent list
Search Sender, subject, body, recipient, and a from and to date, across one folder and its subfolders or all folders; results listed newest first
Export formats Email (.eml), PDF reading copy, HTML reading copy, Contacts (.vcf, vCard 4.0), Calendar (.ics), Contact table (.csv), and Native files (EML, VCF, or ICS per item)
PDF options One PDF for the selection with a bookmark per item, or one PDF per item; Letter or A4; PDF, PNG, JPEG, and text attachments appended as pages; original attachments embedded
Attachments Save any attachment from the preview, or save every original, inline pictures included, beside its message on export
Export report JSON report per export: source, folder and filters, each item with its format and output file, and the size and SHA-256 hash of every file written, read back from the destination
System requirements 4 GB of RAM and 300 MB of disk space plus room for exports; 8 GB of RAM recommended for archives above 50,000 messages