Help, Can't Taskkill Outlook with script for backup.

You should use something like the Personal Folders Backup tool instead of killing Outlook (see http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=8B081F3A-B7D0-4B16-B8AF-5A6322F4FD01). With that tool you can create a online backup of your PST file(s).

I actually have it installed, and have tried to use that an option, but it requires user intervention, and I have to manually close Outlook for it to run.  It won't run if Outlook is open, and I don't think I can set it to automatically run at a specific time?  If I could, then that would be a perfect option!

The Outlook PST backup utility as well is a .dll file installed in the office11 folder, and an error appears when I try to launch from DOS script stating "This program cannot be run in DOS mode".  I don't think this is an option for me.

Regrettably, I had no problems when I used XP.  The backup utility in XP worked perfectly.  With MS backup the shadow copy worked flawlessly, I was able to get my pst file no problems and then get everything else with my .bat file.  I can manage all other files with a DOS bat, just cannot get the pst file.  I don't want to backup my entire OS because it requires too much room, and I have a restore clone of my primary drive with apps on DVD.  Since I "downgraded" to Vista however, the backup utility is just not working for me!  Have been considering trying XP64 bit to resolve my backup issue... but then... might be dealing with other problems.

Hi, thanks so much for this little app.  I think I'm getting somewhere with this.  Where would you suggest I throw the process.exe app?  Into my system32 directory and then can I simply reference the pathway there to access directly from the batch script?

The main reason I keep Outlook running is because I do a fair amount of work in the evening and compose emails then, setting them to be sent automatically the next morning.

When I run your script it gracefully closes Outlook as you mentioned.  Outlook produces a popup indicating there are unsent messages, but it closes after 30 seconds anyways, and your 60 second delay covers that, so perfect... thankyou.

I do receive an error in DOS after the 60 pause, however, which is,

"OUTLOOK.EXE (PID 5344) failed to respond to WM_COSE.  Terminating Now."

Strange, because at that point, Outlook has already closed and shut down.  The script then backs up the pst files without any problem.

Relaunch of Outlook is fine, without any scan from windows of the database.  It does not product the error that Outlook was unexpectedly closed.

The script, however, does hang after Outlook is relaunched, it doesn't get to the final line to complete the script, and doesn't complete the batch file to close the DOS window.  Can't do a ctrl-c either to stop the batch file.  By the way, neither did my original script complete either.

Other than that, this seems to work perfectly!

I did remove the process close for YahooWidgets, and kept the taskkill with switch to force it.

Did you create your tools folder in your program files?  or documents?

Always on the root: c:\uts

As for the script, seems to be working well.  Yahoo Widgets comes up fine.  The DOS window stays open, but that is fine because I can see the processes that ran, and which files were backed up.  How long does the ping wait for, and how would I adjust the length of time?

Regardless, everything works great!  Thank you so much!

Thanks so much!